Vegan and Plant Based Recommendations and Reviews

[SpookyLumberjack]

I thought I'd make a thread to share my favourite plant based products (inspired by @Emmapism). I was vegan for a long time and now I'm vegetarian but mostly plant based.

A few favourites I could start with (I would need some time to make a full list ), starting with a few easy to find supermarket items, as opposed to homemade/from scratch:

Cheese - Violife cheese, seems to be the closest taste to real cheese I've found. The grated version is amazing on pizza too.
Sausages - Richmond 8 Meat Free Sausages, closest to meat I've tried.
Burgers and Sausages - Beyond the Burger products are amazing but ££££.
Marks and Spencer's do a range 'Plant Kitchen' where they have vegan 'Chicken' Kiev, nuggets, 'Duck' spring rolls and a lot of vegetable alternatives (cauliflower florets in batter, wraps and more).
Milk - Koko coconut milk is great in coffee or with cereal, Koko doesn't really have any taste to it so you really can't tell it's coconut.
Milk - Oatly Barista Milk is great in coffee or black tea (shaking it makes it froth like latte milk). They also do an amazing chocolate version.
Yoghurt - Koko again, Beleaf Almond Yogurt, The Coconut Collaborative do amazing yoghurts (chocolate too).
I'd recommend Oatly in general tbh, they do ice cream, custard, various types of milk.
Tofoo Tofu is great, I've used it to make scrambled tofu in place of eggs, you can by it plain or flavoured now.
Ice cream - Magnum, Oatly as mentioned above, Alpro Hazelnut is outstanding.

Off to make a list of more...if there's an alternative you're looking for please comment and maybe someone knows of one!

 

[Lunamoon22]

Bird’s Eye Green Cuisine burgers are the best vegan burgers I’ve had in a long time, and they’re great for Keto dieters as they have a lot of protein and are low carb

 

[Bluelipstick]

Yay! I’ve been vegan 12 years and have tried a lot of Rubbish things over the years. some of my fav things:

naturli butter, the one that finally convinced my husband to give up dairy butter.

Oatly barista, I live soy milk but oatly barista is my fave milk.

Richmond meat free sausages - the most realistic ones I’ve tried.

Naked glory mince, we like that a lot for bolognaise and cottage pie.

Vegenaise - the Mayo that ruined all other uk vegan mayos for me. No one I’ve given it to could tell it wasn’t regular mayo.

This isn’t bacon- we get it delivered by milk and more as we shop in sainsburys where they don’t sell it. But you can get it in waitrose and tesco. It’s so good! Especially if you have an air fryer. And I am someone who HATES most vegan bacon.

M&S nuggets and kievs, they’re my fave chicken style products.

Oh and quorn fishless fingers are good!

 

[Bonnie Bisou]

This melts and was really good on toast.

 

[SpookyLumberjack]

Bird’s Eye Green Cuisine burgers are the best vegan burgers I’ve had in a long time, and they’re great for Keto dieters as they have a lot of protein and are low carb

Yes! Their plant based range is great.

Home Bargains do amazing vegan (coconut) ice cream in a few flavours for about £1.50. I've seen the same brand in Tesco for £4.50 so try HB first!

This goes in my pasta sauces and even when sautéing mushrooms:

This is my all time favourite pizza:

 

[JudyG1809]

Hey there, I have just stumbled across this thread and wow, the ideas are great.
I am a hard core carnivore, I probably eat meat/fish twice daily but have committed to a vegetarian January and my goodness, I can't believe how much I'm enjoying it.
I know i'm barely over a week in but love the M&S plant kitchen popcorn cauliflower, plant kitchen mini Kiev's, Cauldron sausages.

 

[SpiceWeasel]

I love Vivera products too especially the Shawarma kebab, soooo good, and the bacon pieces for when I do carbonara

 

[KawaiiSloth]

If you like ordering your shopping online, I would highly recommend TheVeganKind Supermarket (Not a #Ad ) as they have a vast range of vegan alternatives, snacks, cupboard items and even beauty products too. Everything is vegan so you don't need to keep reading ingredient lists (unless you have an allergy like me ).

The best vegan cheese I have ever tried is the Follow Your Heart Gouda style cheese. Violife is good also, especially the Greek style.
For sausages, I recommend Fry's and Richmond meat free. Linda Mccartney's red pepper 'chorizo' sausages are good as well.
My favourite vegan yogurt is the M&S Plant Kitchen coconut and vanilla yogurt. It is sooo thick and creamy!
Alpro do little long-life dessert pots in different flavours (vanilla, caramel, dark chocolate, milk chocolate and coconut). They taste just like custard and taste great refridgerated or semi-frozen in the freezer!
Ben and Jerry's non-dairy cookie dough icecream is like heaven.

 

[no-no]

View attachment 205563

This melts and was really good on toast.

Whenever I buy applewood I end up eating more by cutting chunks off than in toasties I only like the violife mature, find the original too coconut-y. I’m itching to get this:

Some random standout products for me, there’s too many to choose from but I buy these over and over

 

[HinchythetwattyGrinchy]

Ahhh this is the thread I’ve been waiting for. I’ve been vegetarian for two years now and have dipped in and out of veganism for a LONG time... reason being is cheese. I love it and I’ve not found a good alternative yet. Most of the ones I’ve tried have a awful overpowering taste of coconut oil and it makes me gag!

I am obsessed with the ALDI vegan chicken burgers at the moment. They’re bloody fantastic! I had one last night and chopped them up and put them in a wrap with some peppers, onion and lettuce. Beautiful!

 

[Yel]

Freaks of nature do several hot puddings (lemon, chocolate, Bakewell, sticky toffee) and cool serve moose ones (chocolate). And they're all very good. Sticky toffee is my favourite, they're £2 but on offer at Sainsbury's now for 1.50

 

[Yel]

All of the Taifun stuff is great, especially the Weiner's

The Lidl cauliflower or red pepper sausages are nice, as are the heck green ones

All the rhythm 108 stuff is great but I love the sweet and salty almond malt bars (on offer 3 pack for £3 at Sainsbury's ATM!)

I tried the Birdseye green cuisine meatballs and they tasted nice but we're quite fatty and made me feel unwell

 

[martaS]

I forgot who was asking about spreads/sandwich fillers but this is what I make:

- chickpea mayo (like egg mayo) - cook your own chickpeas or use tinned ones, you don't want to blend them so they're mushy but rather have chunks so it's better to squash them with the back of a fork or potato masher. Add mayonnaise until you reach desired consistency. Season with salt an pepper, can also add a bit turmeric for flavour and deeper yellow colour, paprika/smoked paprika, chopped chives or salad onion (green onion). I like to sprinkle mine with Nigella seeds but I do it when I make the sandwich rather than in advance (I just am not sure how Nigella seeds behave in something like this, I worry they'd overpower it or stain it black), or salad cress (so you have like an egg and cress sandwich).
You can also add a bit of the "black salt". It gives it an eggy taste. I personally cannot stand it but my two vegan besties love it.
- tofu "cottage cheese" - blend one block of plain, "natural", firm tofu with 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, 2 tablespoons of plant milk of choice, 2 tablespoons of mild oil (I like sunflower but a mild olive oil works too), season with salt and pepper. Can also add a spoonful of sauerkraut juice if you ever buy sauerkraut. It just adds extra acidity and takes away the "bean-y" taste tofu sometimes has. Add chopped chives/green onion or favourite herbs. I like dill and parsley, either on their own or mixed. When I say blend, I actually mean pulse - so there is texture in it, like it would be in a cottage cheese. You might also want to press the tofu before blending/pulsing. The one I buy, doesn't really require that step but it's worth noting that some of them do.
- smoked tofu spread - it's honestly like a smoked fish pate. 1x block of smoked tofu, blend with 1-2 tablespoons of mayo, couple of teaspoons of mild oil, a teaspoon of lemon juice or apple vinegar, a teaspoon of mustard (Dijon is nice here but anything aside from wholegrain will do), a teaspoon of soy sauce. You can add a sheet of nori seaweed for extra sea/"fishy" flavour. Season with salt and pepper.
This one is lovely on a crusty baguette or fresh bread. It's good to keep this one in the fridge overnight for the flavours can combine.
The same recipe works for flavoured tofus - I buy a lot of the Taifun Tofu and there is a basil one, there are those wild garlic "filets", there is a Mediterranean one called "Rosso" with tomatoes and olives, and they all work in the above recipe. You might want to add onions if you use a flavoured tofu instead of smoked. Chop very finely 1 shallot of half a small onion. You might want to marinate the chopped onions in a little lemon juice or apple cider vinegar to take the edge off (so it doesn't taste like a completely raw onion, if that makes sense).

I know these are a bit extra but I just love cooking and cook from scratch a lot and love adding lots of interesting toppings to my food. Feel free to ask questions. Also you don't have to be super precise as to how much lemon juice/mayo/soy sauce etc to use - just add a little at a time, mix it in, taste, and add more if needed.

 

[whybrows]

Just popping in to ask a question because I'm curious

What do vegans/vegetarians have for their christmas dinner?

My Mum makes me an AMAZING 'wellington' at Christmas. She uses ready made pastry sheets, then spreads over a mushroom duxelle, then tops this with mashed Linda McCartney sossies and then uses this layered pastry to wrap around a Linda McCartney Vegan 'Roast', a vegan protein meat replacement. It's bloody lovely!

Lucky me!

 

[GiniCinnamon]

Just made my first vegan stir fry using this...it was absolutely lovely! Even my daughter ate it all and she's usually quite fussy. £2 a pack @ tesco if you have a clubcard until 16th Nov

 

[Somethingnew]

fry’s chicken style nuggets are by far the best nuggets (other than quorn but they’re not vegan ) I literally couldn’t tell the difference! £2 a box in Tesco too!

 

[Bluelipstick]

Oh my God I haven’t been to M&S in months and had no idea such wonderful things existed!

 

[lilamay]

Wicked Kitchen now do Nooch! I've tried the Garlic & Herb one and it was 10/10.

 

[What's the craic Jack]

All I want in life is a vegan halloumi alternative and life is complete

Not sure if this was mentioned already but Tesco do a free from halloumi. It's not the same as actual halloumi and there's no squeak but if you griddle it it's really nice. It's more like a breaded cheese without the bread if that makes any sense! It's very nice with salad, falafel, pitta and houmous!

 

[StrattyNeet]

Back as promised with my review of the M&S Salt No Beef Pretzel Deli Bun... Delicious... I like most vegans have had our fair share of sloppy vegan sandwiches and more often than not wraps....But this bun was delicious... 10/10... the combination of slaw pickle cheese and salt ‘beef’ was superb.. I have eaten the real Mc coy in the past and this subtler... but I am always happy with a close approximation to non vegan food at best....it was simply a trip to ‘flavour town.’ It’s not cheap at nearly £4 ... however I would happily pay that again.