Jane's blog

A delicous lunch or light supper using curry leftovers! I made a batch of Viva!'s simple pancake recipe and steamed some shredded spring greens. Once the pancakes were cooked I filled them with reheated curry and served them with the greens and a dollop of plain vegan yoghurt on the side. Very good...

Lots of vegan brands are getting into supermarkets (mainly Waitrose so far) including Taifun Tofu and Organica's vegan chocolate range. Things are looking up.

We love Kino and not just because it's a vegan cafe and our local. Helen and I went there the other day for an early supper before helping with a Viva! event in Kino's basement. Any excuse for a slap-up feed!  The cook on that day made the most yummy red dahl - the colour came from added beetroot, which might sound weird but worked really well in both appearance and taste.

The Viva! team spent a fantastic weekend at Brighton's VegFest. Huge thanks to Tim and the team, who as ever, made it a really successful event.  Campaign stalls and talks provided focus and inspiration while merchandise and foodie heaven fed the senses! There seemed to be even more vegan food companies and stalls - we feasted our way through cupcakes, vegan kebabs, cheeze, ice cream, kale chips, organic juices and plenty more.

We've been adding a few more recipes to our special catering section - Tofu Burgers, amongst other things. Some are new recipes, others are larger batches of old favourites, like this one!

The Co-op Chocolate Cake mix in a packet is vegan, hooray for  them - and us.

But instead of de-veganising it by adding an egg as they suggest, try  this. Follow the instructions on the back of the packet then add to the dry mixture:

1 med-large banana, well-mashed
1/2 tsp baking powder
90-100ml soya or other dairy-free milk.
 

Viva! was delighted to hear that Quorn produced a vegan burger for the US market last year, working closely with Compassion Over Killing. Media coverage praised Quorn’s compassionate and ‘socially responsible’ move.

The Bristol Evening Post did a reallly lovely upbeat feature on my vegan Christmas, mentioned Viva! and the VVF and gave a link to one of our Christmas recipes! A big thanks to Suzanne Savill and the rest of the BEP team for such an even-handed article.

Helen Rossiter and I have been working hard to upgrade all the Christmas recipes into a dedicated section so they are easy to find:

www.vegetarianrecipeclub.org.uk/christmas

The result is that we have around 50 lovely dishes, ranging from party nibbles through to starters, main courses, sides and desserts. Whether you want traditional roasts and mince pies or something more contemporary, it's all here.

My very special birthday present was amazing!