Harvest Box snack packs

I do enjoy poking around supermarkets, looking for new vegan appropriate products. My partner spotted these by Harvest Box, in amongst the other dried fruit and nut packs. They are handy to throw into your bag just in case you get an attack of the munchies while you are out of the house.

There are two varieties that are suitable for vegans.

The Raw Mix is a nice though I am not a fan of peanuts, so there is a bit of wastage with this one for me. This mix as a 'tart' quality to it, due to the dried apple and cranberries.


My partner prefers the Go Bananas mix, as it is sweeter with the dark chocolate bits and the dried banana.

Both varieties are gluten free.

The Bar Counter

I recently stumbled across these at my local Coles supermarket. There were a whole heap of varieties and as I fossicked through them, I was starting to lose hope that any would be vegan. My perseverance paid off, however, as I found their Raw Blueberry and Vanilla bar which is clearly labelled as being vegan on the front. (I LOVE that kinda of labeling. Makes shopping so much easier for us.) It contained dates, blueberry, almond, fig, vanilla and raw rice protein. I was a bit skeptical. I have tried these date based type of bars before and have always found them to be too sickly sweet. I need not have worried, as this bar was delicious. Sweet, but not overly, with a lovely vanilla flavour and a hint of blueberry and fig. I also loved the texture the almond supplied. Oh, and this bar is also gluten free!

The Bar Counter also make another vegan bar - the Raw Chocolate,Coconut and Lacuma bar, which is also gluten free. I will have to try this one next!

Tyrrell's English Chips

One of the most frustrating things about shopping as a vegan, is the way so many snack products have animal ingredients in them. And I am not talking about the obvious things, like cheese flavoured crackers or  whatever, but rather things like salt and vinegar chips that contain dairy! What the hell?
Before going vegan, S&V potato chips were my fave. But after going vegan, I was surprised and then pissed right off to see that they contained milk products. Since then, I have been on the look out for a vegan S&V chip.

One day, I was scanning the snack shelves of Coles and noticed a new brand. This one was called Tyrrell's and was from England. I  spotted their Sea Salt and Cider Vinegar variety, and picked it up, turned it over and read the ingredients list, fully expecting it to list 'milk solids' or some such useless crap. But no! Eyes dilated, hands trembling, I turned to my partner (who has a habit of exclaiming very loudly in supermarkets "Why does this have milk in it!?") and said "This looks like it is vegan!".
In disbelief, he snatched the bag out of my hands and had a look. Yep, vegan! Even says so on the pack! No palm oil either, and gluten free, to boot.

Well, once I got home and opened the pack up (yes, I waited that long), I stuck my nose into the bag and inhaled. Oh that vinegary aroma! The first chip - wow! Bursting with flavour but not overly done. I remember in the bad old days with the non-vegan potato chips, you eat a few and your tongue goes numb. Not with these ones! I savoured each and every chip in that pack and they have since become my firm favourite.

Since that first foray, I have also tried their other vegan varieties, such as the Lightly Sea Salted (nice), Sweet Chili and Red Pepper (tasted a bit too much like tomato to me), and the Sea Salt and Cracked Black Pepper (yummy - not too peppery).
There are other varieties, but they are not vegan, so give them a miss.

Portuguese Arroz

This is a herb filled and tomatoey rice dish that has just a bit of a spicy kick to it. It is super simple to make and has become one of my favourite ways to eat brown rice. I found it via the recipes page on the Dr. McDougall site. There is a plethora of low fat, easy to make recipes on that site, so do check it out. And yes, they are all vegan!


What you will need:

1 ½ cups yellow onion, finely chopped (optional)
4 teaspoons garlic, minced (optional)
½ - 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper chili flakes
1 bay leaf
1 ½ cups tomatoes, chopped 
2-¼ cups water
1-cup vegetable broth ( I use either bouillon powder or cubes by Marigold or Massel )
3 tablespoons fresh Italian parsley leaves, chopped
3 tablespoons fresh cilantro leaves, chopped
1 ½ cups long grain brown rice, uncooked ( I used a mix of short and long grain and it worked out fine.)

Method:

In a large non-stick pan, sauté the onions with ¼ cup water and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft, about 7 minutes.  Add the garlic, crushed red pepper chili flakes and bay leaf and cook for 1 minute, stirring well. 

Add the tomatoes, mix well, and cook until they begin to soften, about 2 minutes.  

Add the remaining water, vegetable broth, parsley and cilantro and stir.  Increase the heat to high and bring to a boil.  Add rice and stir well.  

When the liquid returns to a boil, stir again and cover the pot with a lid and reduce heat to low.  Cook the rice undisturbed for 35 minutes.  

Mix the rice well and continue to cook for another 10 minutes, or until the rice is tender.  Let the rice stand for 5 minutes.  Remove the bay leaf and fluff the rice with a fork.  Serve with fresh ground black pepper and salt to taste, if desired.

Alpine Coconut Yoghurt

Well, here it is. A non-dairy, vegan yoghurt that you can buy in one of the biggest supermarket chains in Australia –namely Woolworths. And it is so smooth and creamy too. Granted, it is made from coconut and so has a coconut flavour to it but I find this product to be less coconut in taste than CoYo and much, much smoother – less of a ‘bite’. This product is cultured so does have a tang, but it is not overly sharp. And while it is still a bit pricey, it does cost less than CoYo.

Because of its richness, I tend to only eat, at most, 2 tablespoons at a time. There is suppose to be two varieties available – ‘Natural’ and ‘Passionfruit’ but I have only seen the former in Woolworths so far.

Maybe one day we will have a commercial non-coconut tasting vegan yoghurt available in Australia. Until then, I am happy to indulge in some of this product, from time to time.

Potato and Fennel Soup

This is a simple recipe that I found and adapted from the book “Party Vegan” by Robin Robertson.  If you are not overly keen on fennel or new to it, you will be pleased to know that the taste of it is not too overpowering in this soup.

What you will need:

1 large shallot, coarsely chopped (optional)

4 cups vegetable broth ( I use either Massel stock cubes or Marigold Bouillon powder. Both are vegan and the former is available in supermarkets, whilst the latter is a health food/organics shop item)

Approx.. 400g potatoes, cut into 2cm cubes

1 large fennel bulb, chopped

½ cup rice/soy milk (I use Bonsoy, as it does not have sweet flavour)

Dried or fresh tarragon

Method:

If using, cook shallot over medium heat, in half a cup of water until soft.

Add broth, potatoes and fennel and bring to boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, until potatoes are soft – about 20 minutes.

Puree until smooth. Mix in the rice/soy milk and sprinkle tarragon over the top. 

Beanfields Bean and Rice Chips

I found these savoury snacks in the health foods section of Woolworths. They are clearly marked as ‘Vegan’ on the front of the pack and after peering at the ingredients list, I found that they were, indeed, vegan.

So far, I have seen three of the varieties in Woolworths – Salsa, Sea salt, and Nacho. The Nacho is my favourite. Very tasty, very cheesy in its flavour. The Salsa has a smoky sort of flavour to it.

There are also 2 other varieties that I have yet to see them in the shops here in Perth. One is Salt N’ Pepper and the other Unsalted.

And new to the range is Barbecue and Ranch. My partner managed to find small packets of these two in the Loving Hut café in Victoria Park.  The Ranch variety tastes a lot like sour cream and chives to me.

All of these products are gluten free, veganand non-GMO. Hopefully, the other varieties will eventually be available in Woolworths. I have noticed that the current ones sell very well at my local supermarket.