I found that Sainsbury's in Pinner was amazingly good, compared to the average supermarket in Brisbane.

When were you in Pinner? I lived there for a month in 1990 with a homestay family when I was an exchange student.

Sainsburys in my opinion is the best supermarket, closely followed by waitrose and tesco. Sainsburys; mark a lot of suitable vegan items as 'suitable for vegans' and they also do their own free from range that does have a fair few vegan items in it. They even provide soya milk in their cafes for tea and coffee.

Waitrose is great but way more expensive, but they do carry things in their free from section that others don't, such as dairy free fudge and they also stock some taifun products.

Tescos is also pretty good, most of their larger stores have big free from sections and stock a lot of stuff others don't i also noticed that they now have 'world food' sections which contain some interesting asian ingredients.

Warning - Some Yanks get quite upset at being called Yanks, as I discovered when I visited a Yank friend in California last year. :yes: :D

And even more get upset by being called 'septics' especially when they learn how Cockney Rhyming slang works :D

OK just a random question... which supermarket is best for veg*n food?

I find supermarkets to be not good for vegan food at all so I therefore avoid them. I go to Holland and Barrett and local health food stores and goodnessdirect.co.uk to buy specialist vegan foods and then buy veg at local fruit and veg shops.

Do any of y'all use vegetable box schemes? I'm able to get reasonable good/fresh produce from Waitrose, but a lot of it comes wrapped in plastic, especially if it's organic. It's insane to me that all of the bananas are wrapped in plastic bags. Geezus, nature gave bananas their own protective covering.

Anyway, if we could find a good place to get veggies without the excess packaging, I'd be delighted. Also, it would probably cut out the mainstream grocery store for us, except for "emergency" runs to the Budgens down the street. Everything except produce, I think we can get at our local HFS.

Organic box schemes are the business. You need to do a little shopping around to find one that has a delivery schedule that works for you and has the things you want. One service I used in London years ago not only did the veggie box scheme but you could go online and top up your weekly delivery with extra things like soy milk, pasta and all sorts of stuff. It was almost like having your weekly groceries delivered to you.

And its great to eat foods that are grown locally and currently in season from a carbon footprint standpoint. My favourite part was when I'd be given vegetables I wouldn't normally buy that I would have to find a way to cook and eat. I found some new great recipes that way.

Abel and Cole has something like what you described above, but they got a bad review from some of our acquaintances. (I may try them anyway).

I do think the "new vegetables" thing would be good for us (well, me), too.

One of the other A/C things I liked was that you could customize which veggies/fruits came. So, we could get tons of peppers (which we eat every day) and skip the mushrooms (aka "vile nasty fungus").

I think I'm going to just have to plunge in and try it. I never had so much trouble with the plastic packaging in the States as I do here. Also, sadly, the farmer's markets were better. So, this delivery thing is a radical idea to me. :p

In London, I used this service http://www.organicdelivery.co.uk/shopfront/shopfront.php and it was great getting a few vegan beers delivered in the box scheme :D They gave excellent service (but it was a few years ago). Sadly, they only seem to do London still.

Jen--we do Able and Cole and really like it. Especially the bit where you can customise. We get the box that costs £14.80 a week and you get 3 kinds of fruit, 6 kinds of veg and potatoes. It doesn't do all our produce but a good start to it. We sometimes don't get everything eaten all up(last week we had a HUGE lettuce and HUGE spinach and we ate about half of both) It comes mostly unwrapped and the things that do coem wrapped have biodegradeable bags/plastic containers (like for strawberries)

We got our box today and got more spinach and lettuce (sigh...must work on eating more salad) but also fennel and a green bell pepper as big as a baby's head and carrots and onions and potatoes and apples, plums and fairtrade bananas. Tonight I'll make fennel and potato soup with carrot and a bit of spinach. And a salad.

I have also added items to be delivered with good success.

Warning - Some Yanks get quite upset at being called Yanks, as I discovered when I visited a Yank friend in California last year. :yes: :DReally? I had no idea! :dunce:

Do any of y'all use vegetable box schemes? I'm able to get reasonable good/fresh produce from Waitrose, but a lot of it comes wrapped in plastic, especially if it's organic. It's insane to me that all of the bananas are wrapped in plastic bags. Geezus, nature gave bananas their own protective covering.

Anyway, if we could find a good place to get veggies without the excess packaging, I'd be delighted. Also, it would probably cut out the mainstream grocery store for us, except for "emergency" runs to the Budgens down the street. Everything except produce, I think we can get at our local HFS.

We use this firm: http://www.goodbehere.co.uk/ They're fairly near to us. We've tried out a couple of other companies but this was the best one.

Bananas... :lick:

Hi There all,

Eventually found my way to the UK thread! :up:

Anyhoo, I wondered if you guys know of a vegan fortified breakfast cereal (preferrably with B12).

Thanks!
Cyr.

Welcome! Glad to see you wandered over. :)

As for the cereal, we're going to order some "Optimum Power" (I swear, that's what it's called) from our local HFS. It's made by Nature's Path, and is fortified with B12. Some of there other ones are fortified too: http://www.naturespath.com/products/cold_cereals

I think the B12 added ones are all in the same row, but I'm not sure.

I've seen Nature's Path at Waitrose, but not this particular variety.

Thanks for that, I actually saw those in Asda last night but didn't realise they were vegan! :)

Cyr.

I swear like, every cereal in existence is B12 fortified. as far as i know most uk brands (kelloggs etc) b12 is vegan. i dont get why loads of cereal has dried milk in though... err you add milk yourself!

i dont get why loads of cereal has dried milk in though... err you add milk yourself!

makes the milk you add creamier. really winds me up... its even in soddin muesli!

That's what I've been noticing lately - a lot either have dried milk or whey in them. However, Sainsbury's are particularly good at labelling their own brands, and they do a selection of vegan 'wheats' - like bitesize shredded wheat - that are filled with apricots, blueberries or cranberries. The only thing with those is that if you're weight watching, a 40g bowl is next to nothing. Apart from 'Optimum Health', all of the other vegan cereals I've found haven't been fortified with B12.

Ho hum, you can't go far wrong if you stick with good old fashioned shredded wheat, weetabix or porridge! :lick:

Cyr.

forgot to add wrt Nature's Path...some of their products have honey (can't remember which), so be sure to check the label.

Hi everyone,

Does anyone know off hand where in the UK I can get Seitan (WheatPro)?

I've tried Tesco, Holland and Barrett and Rosemary's, but none of them seem to stock it!

Thanks

Just did a quick search on the Asda's and Sainsbury's online shopping pages and it doesn't appear that they stock it either. However, I could've sworn that I saw it in my local Sainsbury's. I'm in South Wales, and it's not my shopping day until Friday, but if I find anything I will let you know.

If you find it in the mean-time, let us know as I would love to try it. :)

Cyr.

Hi everyone,

Does anyone know off hand where in the UK I can get Seitan (WheatPro)?

I've tried Tesco, Holland and Barrett and Rosemary's, but none of them seem to stock it!

Thanks

MrsFalafel used to work in health food stores and she's never heard of WheatPro. Are you looking for this specific brand or are you just interested in buying seitan itself? I've seen seitan sold in the refridgerated section of certain Fresh and Wild health food shops in London and in the 8th day in Manchester as well as Nature's Gate in E'burgh.

You can also find cans of seitan (mock Duck, braised, etc) in Chinese markets.

I prefer to make my own using gluten powder I buy online and an easy recipe. Its far cheaper (and better tasting) than the store bought kinds I've tried.

There's a wheat based product that Redwood sells (that I just ate for lunch today!) It's "chicken pieces", and is delicious. They have it at Waitrose around these parts, but it's only recently that it's appeared on their shelves. I've seen it at H&B too.

I baught some pasta by Linda McCartney the other day which had fake soya chicken pieces in it and it was lush!
I'm actually trying to find good places to buy vegan food, because I want to go vegan some day soon, but so far in the supermarket I can afford to go to (Morissons) they sell sodd all it's rediculous.. I thought the UK was supposed to be the best place to be a vegan, but all I've been able to find there is one flavour (plain) of soya milk by two brands (Alpro Soya and So Good (which is nicer btw)) and one kind of vegan icecream (I've forgot the name).
When I went back to Holland to visit my family they had one side of an aisle full of just all kinds of Alpro Soya products.. everything you can think of! Maybe it's just the town I live in or maybe it's Morrisons, but it's really not nice to not be able to find anything anywhere... and I really can't afford to go to CO-Op or ASDA with their prices and our Aldi is milesssss away :( sorry just had to rant :(

I baught some pasta by Linda McCartney the other day which had fake soya chicken pieces in it and it was lush!
I'm actually trying to find good places to buy vegan food, because I want to go vegan some day soon, but so far in the supermarket I can afford to go to (Morissons) they sell sodd all it's rediculous.. I thought the UK was supposed to be the best place to be a vegan, but all I've been able to find there is one flavour (plain) of soya milk by two brands (Alpro Soya and So Good (which is nicer btw)) and one kind of vegan icecream (I've forgot the name).
When I went back to Holland to visit my family they had one side of an aisle full of just all kinds of Alpro Soya products.. everything you can think of! Maybe it's just the town I live in or maybe it's Morrisons, but it's really not nice to not be able to find anything anywhere... and I really can't afford to go to CO-Op or ASDA with their prices and our Aldi is milesssss away :( sorry just had to rant :(

The UK is the best place to be vegan. All you have to do is avoid supermarkets and shop where vegan food is sold. :D

knittedpainting, you should go back to morrisons, with a list of things you'd like them to stock, and tell them what you want. be really persistant, put loads of customer comments in their customer comments book, and if they do decide to stock it, buy loads of it for a while, so they keep it on as a line! if they already have some of the alpro soya milk on the shelves, they can get other flavours and the yogurts for you- perhaps they don't think the customer base is there to support the products- tell them otherwise.

is there a holland and barrett in your town? they might be worth a try. and if all else fails, you can do your regular shop in morrisons, and once a month go on a vegan trek to an out of town store to stock up on yummy things (thats what i have to do). i'm suprised that asda got expensive- but maybe you can stop by there once in a blue moon just for the vegan stuff!

the uk IS the best place to be vegan. i really miss the choices since i've relocated- and where i am now its actually pretty good- but they don't have any alpro soy here (just some horrid sour slime that pretends to be soya yogurt)!