Saf, Kensington

It was vegan Emma's Birthday a few weeks ago, which is always great because it means I get to go and play with Vegan Emma for a while and it almost always involves good vegan food (like most of our play dates). This year we met up after my training day in London, then went to Saf in Kensington. Emma had a voucher so we could only choose a few things on the menu, but I found it hard to chose out of 3 items, so would have definitely struggled with the full menu. The restaurant is based in Kensington above a Wholefoods (I could spend days in this shop), we rushed there after both being stuck on the same train in different carriages! 

I chose the starter before I went otherwise we would have been there all day! Emma already knew which one I was going to go for, but really, how could I resist raw vegan cheese. The dish sounded amazing, Pesto au Poivre: basil pesto between layers of cashew cheese with a pink peppercorn crust, served with rocket salad, dehydrated raw flax seed crackers and drizzled with a balsamic glaze. It was one of those dishes that tasted as good as it sounded, lovely crunchy flax crackers, with salty cheese and a thick layer of pesto. This was definitely the best cheese substitute I've ever tried and to be honest I would rather eat it over dairy. 

Emma had Dolmades: vine leaves filled with cauliflower rice, pine nuts, cumin, lemon juice and dill served with a vegan yoghurt and cucumber dip. I'm a bit afraid of vine leaves, but tried one anyway for the sake of my blog (and because I couldn't resist). I can confirm that they were also delicious. 

For the main I went for the Asparagus Farinata: slow-roasted asparagus tips in a chickpea farinata crêpe served with lemon- tarragon aioli and house salad. I feel a bit sad with myself for choosing this one because although it was really yummy, Emma and I made something similar not too long ago and I feel like I should have ventured out and had the raw pad thai. This can only be a good thing though, as it means that I will have to go back to try it :)

I loved trying the raw dish at Saf and I'd definitely recommend it for a filling, nutritious meal, you can check out the website here. I had a lovely vegan Emma's birthday (I hope she did too) and we finished the evening off by visiting the roof top film club in Hoxton and watching the Big Lebowski :) 

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Pulled 'Pork' Flatbread

I don't quite know where September went this year, but it seems to be over and that means that Vegan Mofo has started! I not only wanted to blog about vegan food, but also wanted to try to be vegan for the month. I'm sad to tell you that I have already failed. There's a lady (we call her biscuit lady) who always leaves us a packet of biscuits after she shops in Lush. Well, today she came in and left us chocolate biscuits and without even thinking I ate two. I am rubbish. So I decided I should make up for it by making an awesome vegan meal. 

I'd seen vegan pulled pork online and was intrigued by how realistic it looked and how good it sounded. So I popped to my local asian supermarket and brought some jackfruit, it then sat in my cupboard for well over a month until I decided to finally use it. It looks a bit weird, but after you've chopped the solid insidey bit off, it leaves you with a non flavoured stringy 'meat' which you can turn in to pulled pork! I chose the lazy mans route and used ready made BBQ marinade and seasoning, because I feel like being lazy today. It still turned out great, full of flavour and melt in the mouth. Both of my brothers even wanted to eat it which is saying something because they are both massive meat eaters.

Serves 2:

A glug of olive oil
1 small red onion chopped
1 clove garlic minced
1 tsp BBQ seasoning
Around 500g canned jackfruit in water
250g vegan BBQ marinade
150ml water
2 flatbreads

1. Start by preparing the jackfruit, remove from the can and cut the hard bits off from the inside of the chunks and discard. Then rinse the jackfruit in a sieve under some water and pull the chunks apart with your hands, drain well and leave to one side. 
2. Heat the oil in a sauce pan, then add the onion and fry for around 10 minutes.
3. Add the garlic and fry for a further minute, then tip in the jackfruit and the BBQ seasoning in and fry for another 5 minutes. 
4. Add the BBQ marinade and water and simmer for around 30 minutes stirring occasionally until the jackfruit is lovely and soft. 
5. When it's done, transfer the 'pork' on to your flatbread and fold up, serve it with wedges and vegan slaw (I wanted to make some but Morrisons had run out of carrots!) and enjoy!! 

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