Giveaway! Freedom vegan marshmallows

vegetarian-marshmallows

It’s been a long, long time since I had marshmallows. In fact, I can’t remember when I might last have had them. Over 21 years ago, anyway.

Freedom Mallows are delicious, light, bouncy, fluffy, gooey and marshmallowey and I’ve just nearly scoffed the whole packet in one go, oops. They’re also suitable for vegans and vegetarians but the best bit is I’ve got three packets to give away!

All you need to do to be in with a chance of winning a pack is leave a comment below and I’ll pick three winners at random after the closing date.

Terms and conditions
Three winners will be chosen at random to win one packet each.
Closing date is Midnight, Friday 12 July 2013.
UK residents only.

For more information on the marshmallows, visit the Freedom Mallows website.

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New Covent Garden Soup of the Month: Halloween theme

halloween

NCG-Soup-low-res-(2)I love soup, I love monthly themes and I love gruesomeness, so The New Covent Garden Soup Co’s Halloween theme is right up my street. They want us to submit our spooky soup recipes and, if we’re lucky, it’ll be picked to be sold during October. Recipes submitted so far include ‘Perilous Pumpkin & Lemongrass’, ‘Gruesome  Gargantuan gruel’ and ‘Ectoplasm – green Thai soup’, for more entries visit their website.

We need to submit our spooky soups by 10 May 2012, so get gruesome now!

For more information and the link to send your entries to, go to the New Covent Garden Soup of the Month Blog.

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Giveaway: Riverford Farm Cook Book

riverford‘This is a super book’ says Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall on the front cover. And indeed it is. At 422 pages long, the Riverford Farm Cook Book tells you all you need to know about getting the best from your veg box.

It includes recipes such as:

crushed roast carrots with cumin and goat’s cheese
linguine with chilli, parsley and garlic
spring greens with garlic and soy sauce
caramel apple pavlova
rhubarb and strawberry crumble

and contains tips on seasonality, storage, preparation and what to do with the leftover odds and ends in your veg box.

Not all of the recipes are vegetarian, although 80% of them are, and if you’d like a copy, I have one to give away. All you need to do is leave a comment below, telling me what one of your favourite vegetables is, and the name of a dish you’d have it in (e.g. mushrooms in spinach and mushroom lasagne).

Terms
UK entries only
Competition closes at midnight Friday 30 March 2012
The winner will be chosen by an internet random number generator
Please remember the cookbook also includes recipes containing meat (although not many)

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Review: Veatable Savoury Snack Bar

Veatable Savoury Snack Bars are a new chewy, savoury snack from Crendon Foods that you keep in the fridge, unlike most crunchy, sweet snack bars that you keep in the cupboard. They’re one of your 5-a-day, only 99 calories per bar, high in fibre, suitable for vegetarians (obviously, otherwise they wouldn’t be on this blog), gluten and wheat free, and free from artificial flavourings, colourings and preservatives.

That’s where the good bit ends.

I got sent all three flavours to try: Tomato Pizza, Thai Sweetcorn, and Sweet Roast Vegetable. Being a complete pizza lover, I eagerly ripped off the wrapper from the Tomato Pizza variety and thought, ugh.

Not very appetising is it? Still, who cares what it looks like, it’s going to taste of pizza, yay.

Did it heck. It tasted like, oh, I don’t know what. It was flipping horrible though. So horrible I couldn’t get further than one bite. One bite that was full of grit. The rest went immediately into the bin.

I was too scared to try the other ones for a few weeks, but then I decided to be brave (OK, I admit it, I was out of crisps). Not being a huge fan of sweetcorn in stuff, I gave the Sweet Roast Vegetable flavour a try. This time I didn’t even get as far as one bite. Well, I did, but it didn’t get swallowed as I spat it out into the bin.

Inedible.

If this hasn’t put you off, I’ve still got the Thai Sweetcorn one left, if anyone’s brave enough to try it. If so, just leave me a comment and I’ll post it off to you.

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Giveaway: Vegan Cookbook – The Essential Guide

 

Vegan Cookbook - The Essential Guide

Vegan Cookbook – The Essential Guide by Isabel Hood is a new addition to the Need2Know range of books.

Comprising seven chapters, the first two chapters cover an overview and background of veganism, along with a checklist of ingredients every well-stocked vegan store-cupboard should contain and a list of essential equipment.

The next five chapters contain the recipes under headings of:

Fruit and vegetables
Pulses and grains
Nuts, seeds and oils
Fresh herbs
Chilli and spice

I haven’t tried any of the recipes myself yet, but a few that caught my eye as I went through the book are:

Middle Eastern Pitta Bread Casserole (this sounds fantastic – like a lasagne, but with toasted pitta bread layered with spicy, tomatoey chickpeas)
Turkish Stuffed Artichokes
Beaumes de Venise Jelly with Grape and Banana Salad
Butter Bean Ramen
Polenta with Sweetcorn, Roasted Tomatoes, Olives and Capers
Recipe for basic nut cheese or mayonnaise
Pasta with Spiced Cashew Sauce
Walnut and Olive Pâté with Fresh Fig Chutney
Spring Vegetable Laksa
Baked Mushrooms Florentine
Sicilian Aubergine Rolls
Roasted Aubergine with Satay Sauce
Sweetcorn in Chilli and Chocolate Sauce
Wild Mushrooms Tacos
Chili Bean and Potato Turnovers

There are many, many more recipes in this book and I’m looking forward to trying them. All the recipes use fresh ingredients and don’t rely on meat substitutes. Measurements are UK friendly (in grams, tsps and mls, etc.) and, as far as I can see, all the ingredients are widely available, although there are plenty of tips and guidance for ingredients you may not be so familiar with (i.e. Vege-Gel).

The giveaway

I’ve got one copy of Vegan Cookbook – The Essential Guide to give away. All you need to do is leave me a comment and I’ll (well, an internet random number generator will, anyway) randomly choose one lucky winner.

Terms
Competition ends 9 September 2011
UK entries only

Good luck!

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Innocent Veg Pot Competition Winner Announced

Well done to Jamie for winning the limerick competition. I chose Jamie’s entry for

a) the effort he put in;

b) the lines

He once threw a quiche
(just missing his niece)
;

and c) for using the word ‘agrarian’, that I had to go and look up in the dictionary.

Here’s Jamie’s winning limerick(s).

There once was an angry vegetarian
Who had liked his meals meticulously prepared for him
He once threw a quiche
(just missing his niece)
As the presentation, he declared, was agrarian.

Accidentally a stereotypical Bavarian,
Went into a cafe that only served vegetarian.
‘Vat? No Meat?’
He said, jumping to his feet,
And vowed he’d never go in there again.

Jamie, email me your address and I’ll get the voucher off to you.

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Competition: Win an Innocent Veg Pot

I’ve got a voucher worth £3.49 that can be exchanged for an Innocent Veg Pot of your choice in any supermarket.

All you have to do to win is post a limerick below and I’ll send the voucher to the composer of my favourite one.

To start you off, here’s the first line (or you can choose your own):

There once was a veggie called Kate

Good luck!

Terms
UK residents only
Competition closes at midnight on Monday 18 July 2011

 

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Linda McCartney’s Weekly Favourites

A few days ago I posted about Linda McCartney’s competition to find the UK’s tastiest meat-free dish. As most of the dishes on here are from recipes found either on websites or in my collection of vegetarian cookbooks, I didn’t think I had anything to enter. But going back through my posts, I found my recipes for meatfree balls in a spicy tomato and spinach sauce and aubergine melt and duly submitted them.

Each week, ten recipes are chosen as that week’s favourites and this week both of my recipes were chosen! I thought that maybe they didn’t get many entries but I was assured on Twitter (@MeatFreeTweets) by the organisers that they get lots of entries, but not all of them make it on to the weekly favourites.

You can see my dishes, along with the other favourites, here.

Please vote for me!

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