Vegan Vox Reviews...Tall Poppy Foods, Birmingham

*****UPDATE****** Tall Poppy's kiosk is temporary closed but you can still order cakes and food via their website for collection or delivery. They are also found at local farmers' markets and events - details of which can be found on their facebook and twitter pages above.************************

Back in October, I was lucky enough to be invited to visit Tall Poppy Foods in Birmingham, grab a drink and a chat with one of the co-owners and sample some of their amazing home-cooked vegan food!

Tall Poppy Foods is based in Selly Oak, Birmingham and is a take-away vegan food kiosk. Tall Poppy is owned by husband and wife team Erin and Joe, and they run the kiosk with the help of local student staff who are all vegetarian or vegan.

Joe and Erin have been vegan for around eight years and have worked and lived all over the world before settling in Birmingham where they are raising their family. As well as the kiosk, they supply food to events, weddings, birthdays and take mail order and cake orders through their website.

The unique aspect to Tall Poppy Foods, is that they do not have any processed food, all of their products are home-made from the bread and cakes, to the coleslaw, mayo, butters and sauces. They take great pride in their products and are very passionate about where their food comes from and the health benefits of freshly-made organic produce.

Tall Poppy don't just cater for vegans either, they have Paleo options, gluten free options, soy free options, healthy choices and treats.

Some of the products they had for sale when I visited were:

Organic fairtrade coffee

Almond and soy milk options for espresso based drinks

A range of teas

Lemoncurd, Boston Creme and Earl Grey Cupcakes

Muffins

Brownies

Ginger Cake

Sausage rolls with an almond sausage filling

Fajitas

Wraps

Falafel

Paninis

BBQ Jackfruit Burger

Quite a range as you can see! I got to sample the BBQ Jackfruit Burger, which was amazing!! The jackfruit from Thailand is slow cooked all day in a home-made barbecue sauce and served in a home-made bread roll with coleslaw. It was the first time I had tried jackfruit and it was so good, it is worth the journey to Tall Poppy for this alone! Then Joe gave me some of his cakes to taste. They were moist, full of flavour, tasted freshly baked and so moreish.

A couple of weeks after my visit to Tall Poppy Foods, I caught up with them again at the West Midlands Vegan Festival in Wolverhampton, where I purchased a New York Panini, with Fentimans Cherry Tree Cola and Tyrrells Crisps as a meal deal. The panini was so good, me and Mr Vox went back and bought another!

Tally Poppy can be found at 492 Bristol Road, Selly Oak, Birmingham, B29 6BD and if you pop over and say hello, let them know you found out about them from Vegan Vox! They are also found at many of the vegan and veggie festivals around the country.

You can follow them on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram by clicking these links.

Big Vegan Love,

VVx

*****UPDATE****** Tall Poppy's kiosk is temporary closed but you can still order cakes and food via their website for collection or delivery. They are also found at local farmers' markets and events - details of which can be found on their facebook and twitter pages above.************************

Vegan Recipe of the Week - Basil Pesto/Spaghetti with Pesto & Oven Roasted Veg

I posted a few of my basil pesto pictures on my Instagram recently and had a few people ask me for the recipe so here it is complete with a meal idea.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

40g Fresh Basil

35g Pine Nuts

55g Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 clove garlic crushed or 1 tsp Lazy Garlic

2 Tbsp Nutritional Yeast Flakes

2 tsp Lemon Juice

Sea Salt, pinch

Freshly Ground Black Pepper, pinch

Vegan Parmesan (optional)

Method:

Place the pine nuts in the food processor (with an s-blade fitted) first and pulse until coarsely ground, then add the basil leaves and garlic and pulse until combined.

If you don't have a food processor this can just as easily be made using a pestle & mortar.

With the processor running, drizzle in the extra virgin olive oil slowly, then add the lemon juice, nutritional yeast flakes and seasoning and pulse until thoroughly combined. 

If you have any vegan parmesan you can add a tablespoon at this point but it is just as good without. It stores well in the fridge for a few days.

I made my pesto the other day into this meal for me and Mr Vox:

Spaghetti with pesto and oven roasted vegetables, served with cheese and fresh basil.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

100g dried wheat spaghetti

Basil Pesto (made from recipe above)

2 large tomatoes

4 large mushrooms

Olive oil

Italian herbs

A few basil leaves for garnish

Vegan cheese of choice, grated

Salt

Pepper

Method:

Preheat the oven to 220C/200C fan. Wash and chop the tomatoes and mushrooms in half. Place them in a small roasting pan with a little olive oil and Italian herbs and salt and pepper and roast for 20 minutes turning over occasionally.

Bring a pan of salted water to the boil and add the spaghetti, simmer for around 10-12 minutes until the pasta is cooked, then drain.

Pour the pasta back into the pan and add in the pesto and stir through over a low heat. Add the oven roasted veg and the herby oil from the roasting pan and stir these through too. 

Serve in bowls with grated cheese (I used Cheezly Mozzarella Style on mine) and a few basil leaves.

This goes great with fresh crusty bread too or a delicious salad. Eat and Enjoy!

Come back next week for another Vegan Recipe of the Week, also please check out my new Recipes tab at the top of the page for a list of all of my recipes by course type.

Big Vegan Love,

VVx

Vegan Recipe of the Week - Coconut and Oat Biscuits with Chocolate Orange Drizzle and UK Vegan Food Swap pt.1

This month, for the first time, I took part in the UK Vegan Food Swap (#ukveganfoodswap) organised by tohappyvegans.com. If you would like to take part too, you can sign up here.

The way it works is you are assigned a sending partner and a receiving partner. The sending partner sends you your box of vegan goodies of their choice spending a budget of £10 and the receiving partner gets sent a box from you. For my first month, my receiving partner was one of the founders of the scheme - Sasha from tohappyvegans.com. I decided to send her a mixture of sweet and savoury snacks, some cooking sauces, a vegan lip balm, some organic tea and a batch of these fab biscuits with the recipe so she can make her own. I also received my box from the lovely Chrissie which I will blog about next week.

A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about Hill Biscuits and I promised to include a biscuit recipe or two on my blog, so I thought I'd share the recipe with you all as well.

Vegan Vox's Coconut and Oat Biscuits with Chocolate Orange Drizzle.

(Makes 16 Biscuits)

Ingredients:

85g porridge oats

85g desiccated coconut

100g plain flour

100g caster sugar

100g vegan butter/spread

1 tbsp golden syrup/maple syrup

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 tbsp boiling water

1 small packet vegan choc orange buttons

    

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas mark 4

Place the oats, sugar, coconut and sieved flour in a mixing bowl.

Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the golden syrup when melted. 

In a cup mix the boiling water and bicarb of soda together and add to the saucepan.

Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour the melted butter mixture into the dry ingredients. Stir to combine.

Take spoonfuls of the mixture and place on a greased/lined baking tray leaving a gap for them to spread.

Bake in the centre of the oven for 10 minutes until golden and then place on a rack to cool.

Whilst the biscuits are cooling, melt the chocolate buttons over a pan of hot water or in the microwave and stir. 

Drizzle the melted choc orange button mix over the biscuits when they are cool and then place the tray in the fridge to set the chocolate.

                               

Eat and enjoy!

These biscuits will keep in an airtight container for a week and are lovely wrapped in baking paper, tied with ribbon and given to friends as a gift.

If you enjoyed this recipe, please follow my blog, share with friends and follow me on Twitter/Facebook, Pinterest, Google + and Instagram.

Click here for a previous Vegan Recipe of the Week!

Big Vegan Love,

VVx