Apologies for our long silence. With T working on his thesis to meet his PhD deadline, and J putting in 12 hour days at school, we've rather neglected this little corner of the internet.
What we haven't neglected, though, is some ace vegan food. Even when work shows no sign of letting up, going out to eat - or cooking at home - remain priorities. And so we were chuffed to bits to learn from Fat Gay Vegan that Pizza Express now offer a vegan, cheese-less, pizza. And, even better, if you take your own vegan cheese, their chefs will top your pizza with it. How ace is that?!
Of course, on discovering this we were straight down to our local branch for a date, and very impressed we were too.
Despite being a bit nervous that our proffered bag of cheese might be looked at askance, the staff were brilliant and knew exactly what we were talking about, which was impressive: too often, a company's website will say one thing but they won't have bothered communicating it to staff on the ground.
T went for the the dough balls as a starter, with a dipping sauce of olive oil and balsamic vinegar (rather than the standard, non-vegan garlic butter) and then tried the Pianta - the new cheese-free vegan pizza, which features spinach, mushrooms, pine nuts and artichoke on a spicy arrabbiata sauce - topped with the vegan cheese we'd brought. He was very impressed with the pizza - loaded with vegetables and topped with rocket leaves, it was tasty and filling. So, if you're looking for a quick and easy vegan option on the high street, you could do worse than try Pizza Express.
What 'cheese' do you use? I have yet to find something palatable. Granted, I haven't tried many but the last time I sampled previously, I was left less than impressed and with a horrid aftertaste in my mouth...
ReplyDeleteI really don't like vegan cheese because my taste buds are too attuned to dairy cheese (which I still eat although T, of course, doesn't). But he recommends Veganic Pizza Cheese and also Violife cheeses. The Pizza Express chef put the cheese under the toppings, which meant it melted better and sort of combined the flavours. Otherwise I find it can be a little solid and waxy even when it's melted.
DeleteThanks for the suggestions :) I'm with you - I think I would find it hard to be without dairy cheese. I tend to prefer to have vegan meals that wouldn't usually have cheese rather than substitute or feel it's missing something. I've heard that Tesco does own brand soy cheese and that it's decent, though I have yet to try it...
DeleteRecently, I went to handmade burger co. (http://handmadeburger.co.uk/) and they had 6 veggie burgers, 4 of which were vegan. I was quite impressed - and they were tasty, too. The chips there are also delicious, would recommend!
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