Veganuary at All Bar One

I've really noticed that this year Veganuary has become a lot prevalent across mainstream shops. Whereas last year, I only really noticed specialist health food places like Holland and Barrett talking about it, there are even burger chains like Gourmet Burger co offering a Vegan January special.

All Bar One have a specialist vegan menu this month and are also doing a set menu deal where you can get 2 courses for £10 or 3 courses for £13. So not only good for your health and the planet but your pocket too, There were loads of nice looking things on there but I settled on the patatas bravas for starter and the miso rice bowl as I'm obsessed with Japanese style food.

The patatas bravas made a great starter. Nice and light but also perfect for grazing and picking at. The fried cubes of potato were cooked to perfect with a really, nice crunchy outer and were soft in the middle with the perfect texture contrast of fluffy and crunch. I also tried some of my companion's avocado and tomato bruschetta which was tasty and fresh. You can never go wrong with avocado on bread!

The miso rice bowl I had for main was the star of the meal. It's so easy to make plant based choices when they taste this good. There was so much going on with this, it's hard to know where to begin. The rice itself was cooked to perfect, really sticky and fragrant. I could quite easily have devoured a bowl of this just by itself.

As a vegan choice, obviously it was packed full of veg with broccoli, mange tout, soft jucy strips of pepper and pak choi that was wilted and fresh tasting.This was all covered in a lovely Japanese style sauce with sriracha and soy providing the dish with bags of flavour - lots of heat and punch from the sriracha with a good umami savoury flavour. It worked wonderfully with the vibrancy of the veg and made the delicious sticky rice even better.

It was all topped with a lovely fresh salad of on trend spiralised carrot and peashoots and coated in sesame seeds for a bit of crunch. Adding a cool, fresh, crisp salad on top of the warm comforting main dish creates a lovely taste and texture sensation in the mouth.

Unfortunately I was too full for dessert but the coconut vanilla rice pudding and the chill and cardomom chocolate cake both sounded wonderful and just the type of dessert I love. All Bar One have done a fantastic job of creating a mainstream and accessible vegan menu and at this price I would definitely recommend checking it out!

Banana, Kale, Lemongrass and Mango Protein Smoothie - Aldi Banana, Kale, Mango, Lemongrass Frozen Smoothie Mix Review

One thing I was maybe a bit concerned about when I first went plant based is getting enough protein and refuelling after the gym as I work out around 4 times a week and would usually have a post workout shake. However, it's more than easy to get a good refuelling drink and making something yourself is a lot more fun and really requires very little effort especially if you buy ingredients and products to make your life easier.

The protein source I used this morning is pea protein. I bought the Pulsin and initially you might think 'Peas? Protein?' but actually the product is a whopping 82% protein and a 10g serving gives you over 8g protein, which is about the same as an egg! It's a fine powder which mixes easily with a nutribullet or blender. It does have quite  a strong taste but is easily masked with other ingredients.

I simply blended it with almond milk, PPB's peanut butter powder sweetened with stevia (another easy source of protein at over 5g plant protein per serve) and a big helping of a frozen smoothie mix I got from Aldi of all places! Plant based definitely doesn't have to be expensive. It's a mix of banana, mango, kale and lemongrass that you can just blend from frozen. I also added a little vanilla extract and this along with lemongrass and the sweetness of banana covers any taste of the pea protein and the kale.

Because the fruit is frozen when blended it makes the smoothie super cold and refreshing but also adds real creaminess and thickness along with the almond milk for something that tastes really luxurious.

It tastes fantastic and it's great to see Aldi offering this type of product to make healthy and plant based eating so easy and also so affordable. It's not only cheaper than other supermarkets' frozen smoothie mixes but also a bigger bag at 600g so handy for stashing in the freezer and making sure you always have something nutritious to hand.

Banana, Kale, Mango, Lemongrass Protein Smoothie - Serves 1

100g of Aldi frozen banana, kale, mango, lemongrass frozen smoothie mix
100ml of almond milk
250ml water
2 heaped tablespoons of pea protein
1 heaped teaspoon of PPB peanut butter powder (or 1 tablespoon of normal peanut butter)
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Put all the ingredients in a nutribullet or blender and blitz until all ingredients are blended and you have a thick, creamy smoothie texture.