Let's talk about Beer, Vegan Beer

So I see a lot of people worried about alcohol that is suitable for vegans (SFV). I get this feeling that a lot of vegans won't drink certain beers (or wine) if they do not have the VEGAN label on them.

So let's get this topic clear: beer (and wine) are naturally vegan products, it's like saying "vegan bread" or "vegan orange juice".
Beer is usually just water, malt, yeast and hops, so please stop calling it vegan beer! It's beer.

What happens is that some beers are filtered using fish bladder (isinglass), this usually only happens in mass production beers (read more here). Isinglass is used to quicken a natural process, so that the beer is ready quicker and therefore out in the pubs faster to make money asap. This is not something that is required, or that you need to veganise or find a better alternative.
So if you look at craft beers; beer brewed in small batches, people who brew beer in the traditional way, with no short cuts and no chemicals you will see that the ingredients usually list only water,malt, hops and yeast.
Of course craft beer makers are very creative and nowadays you have different flavored beers such as: oyster beers where they place around 5 oysters at the bottom of the cask to give it flavor; or chocolate milk stout which usually contains lactose because lactose does not get fermented by most yeasts during brewing, so this can be used to sweeten stout beer types resulting in a milk stout or a cream stout... but really other than this beer usually is vegan.

However going back to known beer brands:
please check out this site whenever in doubt www.barnivore.com

and give Craft Beers a try; your taste buds will thank you and you will taste so many different kinds of hops that you will never want a mass production beer again !

Where do you draw your line?

www.veganbillboard.com

Recipe #122 Soya 'meatballs' in Tomato Sauce

All you need is:

• 2/3 cup of dry soya mince (70gr)
• 1/4 cup soya sauce
• 2/3 cup water
• salt
• black pepper
• hot paprika
• cumin
• garlic powder
• 5 full tablespoons of gram flour (100gr)*

Place the mince in a small bowl and add seasoning: dash of salt, 1 teaspoon of black pepper, dash of cumin, 1 teaspoon of garlic powder and 1 teaspoon of hot paprika. Mix everything with a fork.
Boil water in the kettle. Pour the soy sauce over the mince followed by the water and mix everything again well with your fork. Let it stand for around 15 min so it's cool enough to shape with your hands.

Now add the gram flour and mix again with your fork until it's a paste. Shape this with your hands into small balls.

Fry these in a bit of olive oil and 1/2 chopped onion.
When the balls are golden brown, add a jar of tomato sauce ready made (or blend a can of tomatoes with spices).

Serve with pasta such as penne, fusilli or spaghetti (here I used giant Fusilli pasta)

* you can use any type of flour, but gram flour will be tastier and higher in protein than regular flours.

Nutritional info per meatball: 3,8gr of protein.

My vegan Cork addiction

 

And a men's wallet:

Lovely naturally resistant cork is beautiful and a great alternative to leather.

Recipe #121 Soya Mince Burger

Sometimes it's hard to find an easy recipe for just one person/ one portion. No need for food processors or fancy kitchen equipment for this one.

All you need is:

• 1/3 cup of dry soya mince (35gr)
• 1/8 cup soya sauce
• 1/3 cup water
• salt
• black pepper
• hot paprika
• cumin
• garlic powder
• 2 full tablespoons of gram flour (40gr)*

Place the mince in a small bowl and add seasoning: dash of salt, 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper, dash of cumin, 1.2 teaspoon of garlic powder and 1/2 teaspoon of hot paprika. Mix everything with a fork.
Boil water in the kettle. Pour the soy sauce over the mince followed by the water and mix everything again well with your fork. Let it stand for around 15min so it's cool enough to shape with your hands.

Now add the gram flour and mix again with your fork until it's a paste. Shape this with your hands into a burger. Fry this for around 2-3 minutes on each side in 3 tablespoons of sunflower or olive oil.

* you can use any type of flour, but gram flour will be tastier and higher in protein than regular flours.

Nutritional info per burger: 225 calories and 26gr of protein.

Recipe #120 Easy Tomato Soup

Very easy and cheap tomato soup, dress up your canned tomatoes.
Estimated cost: 1,50 euros for 5 portions. 

You'll need:

• 2 cans of canned tomatoes
• 1 can of sliced carrots
• 1 medium onion
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 teaspoon of sugar
• 200 ml water
• 1 vegetable stock
• 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• Dash of sea sal, black pepper and hot paprika
• 2 teaspoons of dry basil (or fresh basil pref.)

Chop the onion and garlic cloves into a big saucepan and add the olive oil. Let them fry until golden. Now add the carrots, tomatoes, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, paprika, water (you can use an empty can of tomatoes and measure 1/2 can of water), vegetable stock, basil and sugar.

Let it cook for around 15 minutes on medium heat. Using a hand blender, or transfer this into a blender jug, pure the soup until its smooth and then serve.

This will make for a thick soup if you like it thinner add another 200ml of water.

Vegan 1.0: a day in Galway (Ireland)

Suggestion guide for a vegan visiting Galway: where to eat, how to find vegan friendly places in a town with no 100% veg restaurant. Suggestions:

Breakfast

Have a traditional Irish breakfast at Finnegans but ask for a veggie one with only mushrooms, hashbrown, tomato, beans and orange juice (tea or coffee is served too). It is a very traditional place to eat irish breakfast and the decoration is pretty unique too.

Lunch

Conveniently located on the main street, shop street, have lunch at High Cafe. Several options are available on request such as calzone without cheese and veggie couscous.

If this is a saturday go to the market around the church and find the falafel stand, cheap, vegan and delicious.

Tea Time

Have a coffee or a tea with a wonderful raw cheesecake at PureRaw Cafe.

Dinner

For a fancy dinner with a view book a table at Raw Sushi in the sky and go for one of their veggie sushi rolls (only 5 euros!)
or if you would like to have dinner in town try some indian food at the Kashmir fine Indian Cuisine (let them know you don't eat dairy and they will show you several options available)

Go out "for one" drink

To end the day like a true Galwegian to need to go out for "one drink", even if it's more than one drink...! Go over the bridge and find a place in the traditional Salthouse pub. They have several craft beers, most of them naturally vegan, locally brewed and also several guest beers from around the world. Pick and choose.

Galway (Ireland): Oslo (pub), review

Oslo is quietly located in front of the Salthill beach, 15 min walking distance from the city center. It's one of the few places that sell the locally brewed craft beer Galway Bay Brewery.

You can also have food here, vegan options include

- falafel burger with salad and home-cut chips

- Lentil Dhal

- hummus Salad (main course) 

- pita bread and hummus

- olives 

The falafel burger is delicious and highly recommendable.

Their craft beer range is naturally vegan except for the Buried at Sea beer which contains lactose (milk chocolate stout). 

You can have Full Sail (IPA), Bay Ale (Red Ale), Of Foam and Fury (double IPA) or Dortmunder Lager; or try one of their many guest beers from around the world (tap or bottle). You'll never have to repeat a beer here !

Actually finding vegan beer is very easy, most craft beers are vegan, forget the industrialized beer and go for small batches of craft beer; unless it's a stout (may get filtered through fish bladder) or have some milk or oyster flavor you should be fine. The usual ingredients in a beer are malt, yeast, water and hops and you can even find gluten free beer nowadays.

Happy days, beer and burger what else do you want by the beach? :)

Galway (Ireland): Pure Raw Cafe, review

 

Two words: Raw Cheesecake (vegan ofc!). No refined sugar too! Cashew, cocoa, agave, walnuts and coconut oil.

It's delicious and highly recommended with their espresso. It's hard to find a good espresso in Ireland, short, packed with flavour and topped with foam.