Tag Archives: HotforFood

3 Easy Vegan Summer Dips

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This article was written 22.03.02, please excuse any reference/joke to COVID pre-cautions that’s no longer accurate.


Summer is the perfect time to have get-togethers and BBQ’s with friends and family. The one usual annoying thing about this, is you’re asked to bring ‘something’.

Now sure, it’s to lessen the burden on the hosts, and what kind of guest doesn’t feel a little guilty when they don’t bring at least something to a get together?

But, what if it’s too hot to turn the stove on? Are you expected to sweat your ass off before going to socialize? Or, what if you’re not a great – or even okay – cook? Should your friends and family suffer through whatever failed attempt at food you bring? How is that fair?

Well, not to worry! I’m here to show you 3 very simple, yet delicious dips you can bring. This will eliminate any sweating, as none of the below require cooking, and the only ‘cooking’ skills you need, is being able to throw everything together in a container.

  1. Ranch

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A classic dip, which is perfect for any occasion, but especially shines during the summer, this ranch is the perfect, easy dip to prepare.

This is a bastardized version of HotforFood’s Ranch dip from Vegan Comfort Classics, so if you’d rather make the original, you can go ahead and do so.

This version is kind of the ‘lazy’ version of Lauren’s – it’s less ingredients, but still has the taste you want when making a ranch dip.

Ingredients:

  • 1 Tbsp Vegan Mayo (I use Hellmann’s Carefully Crafted Dressing and Sandwich Spread, which is pretty much vegan Miracle Whip)
  • 1tsp of Dill
  • 1 tsp Garlic Powder
  • 1 tsp vinegar

 

Directions:

  1. Scoop everything into a suitable sized container. Stir to combine.

That’s it!

It’s super simple, yet has amazing flavour! And, the best part, is you can even reduce this recipe down to just the mayo and dill and it will still pretty much taste the same as the more complicated version.

It was in making Lauren’s recipe I discovered that dill is the seasoning that gives dishes that classic ‘summer’ taste, so that’s basically all you need to transform the mayo into a suitable summer dip.

You can also obviously increase the measurements if you’re going to be bringing this dip to a get together. The above recipe makes a very small amount of dip – I’d say… maybe around half a cups worth, or less.

I usually don’t make this dip in big quantities, because I’m not very good at meal planning, so I usually decide to make it after I finish making whatever else I was doing and then realize, ‘crap, I forgot to make a dip’.

 

2. French Onion Dip

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Excuse the messiness, I mixed it right in the container.

I’m gonna be honest, I actually have no idea what the difference between ‘onion dip’ and ‘French onion dip’ is, because from what I could tell, all the recipes I found online seemed the same. So technically, this could just be ‘onion dip’, but I think it sounds fancier this way. (Maybe that’s the difference?)

Regardless of what you choose to name it, one thing I’m sure you’ll call it, is ‘tasty’.

Ingredients:

  • 2 Tbsp Sour Cream
  • 2 tsp Onion Flakes
  • 1 tsp Garlic Powder
  • 1 tsp Black Pepper
  • 1 tsp Salt

Directions:

1. Mix all ingredients together in whatever bowl/container you’d like. Whatever you choose, make sure it is safe to go in the fridge.

2. Once combine, place in fridge for minimum of 2 hours. (This will help enhance the flavour, and allow the sour cream to get re-firmed, if mixing turned it too runny)

Once it’s been cooled to perfection, you can go ahead and enjoy this bad boy using almost anything: veggies, chips, even just straight up bread would taste great dipped in this stuff!

Just be sure to brush your teeth after eating. Unless you want to use it as a deterrent for avoiding certain family members. In which case, dip away! 😉

 

3. Paprika Mayo

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This one, I’ve actually only used as a spread on various sandwiches (a TLT [tempeh, lettuce, tomato], avocado toast, salad wraps, etc.) but I think it would be good as a dip, as well. I’m also not sure if Paprika Mayo is a thing other people have heard of/made, or something my brother made up, but it’s definitely delicious, and, super simple to make!

Ingredients:

  • 1 Tbsp Vegan Mayo
  • 1 tsp Paprika
  • 1 tsp Lemon Juice
  • 1 tsp Garlic Powder (optional)

 

Directions:

  1. Add all ingredients to a container and stir until combined.

 

And that’s it!

Now you can impress at any summer get-togethers you may have, while keeping your house cool as a cucumber. Not to mention, because these are so fast to whip up, you’ll also have plenty of time to enjoy these few good weather months before winter returns. Get out of your kitchen and soak up that sun while you can!

Also, as you might have noticed, these recipes are for very minimal amounts of these dips. This is because contrary to the point of this post, I actually tend to make these dips when I want them, not for get togethers. (Also, since COVID broke the world, get-togethers have been back burned indefinitely) And since I try to vary what I eat on a daily basis, I tend to only make them in small batches, so I can finish them off within 1 to 2 days.

Don’t worry, though. The ratios are the same whether you’re making them for just you, or to feed a whole family. There are plenty of measurement converters you can find online to help you out making bigger batches.

I’m also not too sure how long exactly these dips would last in the fridge, since I tend to finish them within 2 days. If I had to guess though, I’d say to eat them within 1 week, just to be on the safe side.

Do you have any favourite simple homemade dips? Let me know in the comments below!


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Vegan Meat Alternatives

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This article was written 20.11.12, when COVID was still running rampant/wasn’t under control. (At least in Toronto) Please excuse any reference/joke that’s no longer applicable.


Disclaimer: This article contains links to graphic videos of animal slaughter. If you have issues with watching, I recommend not clicking the video links, but I implore you to ask yourself: if you can’t watch, should you really continue to fund it?


I’m gonna be honest, when I started doing this series, I didn’t really have a plan other than making pretty-ish collages of vegan alternatives. However, after giving it some thought, I realized that I should be taking this time to educate the non-vegan, and new vegans, to show them what options there are, so they don’t have to freak out and go through that ‘wait… what am I gonna eat?’ phase.

Hopefully if you’ve stumbled upon this article on the vegan section of a website, you already know what’s wrong with eating meat, but just in case, here’s a quick refresher:

  1. As you hopefully already know, you have to kill an animal to be able to eat it’s dead body. Sooo, not to be ‘that’ vegan, but yes meat is murder! (There’s a reason why it’s a popular chant!) And, as we (hopefully) all know, murder is wrong.

Slaughterhouses are giant murder factories. Animals go in alive, and come out chopped into pieces wrapped in plastic. As if murdering them wasn’t enough, the animals are also often traumatized, by either being abused, or by hearing their friends and family (yes, animals have friends and family!) being killed in the next room, or both. ‘Oh, Ater’ you say, ‘but animals don’t know what’s happening! They’re not that self-aware.

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Well, how about you look at this picture, and I mean really look at it. Are you still gonna try to tell me that’s not fear and sadness in that animal’s eyes? Does that expression look like the expression of someone who doesn’t know what’s going on? What if I told you this is a picture from a video that was shot in 2015, and this animal has been dead for 5 years. Now do you care? What if this was a picture of a dog, instead of a pig – would you care then? Why?

If you believe dogs have souls and deserve to live, so should other animals. Not all animals are as smart as dogs, but does that mean they deserve to die? What if we did that with people? Dogs on average are about as smart as 2 year olds, so what if we just killed everyone not as smart as that. Does that sound even remotely like an okay thing to do?

And, while we’re on the subject of intelligence, pigs have actually been shown to be more intelligent than dogs. So… why is it okay to eat one, but not the other? Tell me, truly, what’s the difference?

 

2. Humans as a whole are so overly murdering animals, it’s crazy. Seriously, the shear number of animals that are being killed every minute is insane to think about. In fact, why don’t you check out this site, and watch the numbers go up. That is a lot of lives that are being lost. On average, humans kill 3 billion animals every day. Yes, you read that correctly 3 billion animals die every day!

To put this into perspective, on 9/11, roughly 2,900 people died. That was enough to change basically the world as a whole, and there were many changes enacted to make sure something like that never happened again.

That is only 0.0000966% of 3 billion. But for animals, nobody cares? What if we killed that many people everyday? At the time of writing this article (20.11.12), there are 7.8 billion humans on Earth. If we were to kill humans at the same rate we killed animals, the human race would be extinct in 17 days.

17 days!

And this isn’t even mentioning all the terrible environmental factors that slaughterhouses, and needless breeding of animals has on the planet.

But, in the interest of keeping this short, let’s move on.

So, now you know meat is terrible, and you’ve agreed to stop funding murder – awesome! But, now you may be wondering, what else is there to eat?

Well, thankfully, there have been amazing strides in the vegan movement in the past couple of years, and it’s easier than ever to stop eating meat!

AterImber.com - The Veg Life - Vegan Tips - Vegan Meat Alternatives - vegan meat, meat substitutes, Beyond Meat, Gardein, Tofurky, Yves, vegan food, food blogger, what's wrong with meat, meat is murder, vegan blogger

Starting from the top left corner, going clockwise:

  • Beyond Meat Beyond Burgers
  • Gardein Beefless Strips
  • Gardein Beefless Ground
  • Gardein Chick’N Patties
  • Gardein Chick’N Scallopini
  • Gardein Turk’y Cutlets
  • Gardein Stuffed Turk’y
  • Tofurky Veggie Roast
  • Gardein Porkless Bites
  • Beyond Meat Beyond Sausage
  • Tofurky Italian Sausage
  • Yves Veggie Dogs
  • Yves Veggie Ham
  • Yves Veggie Bologna
  • Gardein Fishless Filets
  • Gardein Crabless Cakes
  • Seitan

This collage show only a small sample of all the different vegan friendly ‘replacement’ meats currently available. Basically any meat you want to eat has a substitute. And, these are just some of the convenience foods available. There’s also tofu, tempeh, or heck, even vegetables, such as mushrooms or jackfruit can be used as a meat substitute. (Depending on the dish, of course)

All it takes is a little know-how to make kick-ass faux meat dishes. Or, instead of trying to replace meat directly with substitutes, you could also try making different dishes. Expand your meals from being meat-centric, to include ones that put veggies in the spotlight.

Instead of trying to replicate steak and potatoes, why don’t you try making stuffed bell peppers? You can replace the ground beef or chicken (or whatever meat you’d usually put in the rice) with lentils, or mushrooms. Add in some of the usual suspects (corn, broccoli, carrot, etc.) and BAM! You’ll have one seriously hearty dish on your hands. I guarantee you that you won’t even notice the lack of meat in the dish.

There are tons of veg-centric meals just waiting for you to try them. So why not give it a whirl? And if you need some help? No worries! There are tons of vegan cookbooks, blogs, Youtube channels and even Instagram accounts out there for you to draw inspiration from. One of my all time favourite Youtube channels is HotforFood. Lauren is a master in the kitchen, and makes all kinds of breaking-vegan-stereotype dishes. She has recipes for burgers, mac n cheese, gravy, and even a vegan ranch dip! In a lot of her videos, she also explains why she uses certain ingredients, instead of keeping you guessing.

When I first went vegan, I watched a lot of her videos, and learned a lot from her videos about combining certain ingredients to get certain flavours. So go ahead and give it a try! There’s never been a better time to test out new recipes. (Not like you’re leaving the house, anyway)


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Sources:

Extinct in 17 Days

Scared Pig Picture (still from video)

3 Billion Animals Killed Per Day

Que Pasa Nacho Chips Review

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I first discovered these chips in April last year, thanks to Eamon and Bec and HotforFoods’ Youtube channels. (I recommend checking out these guys, btw, they’re both awesome!) They each had videos that were only a few days apart featuring this snack, so I took it as a sign that I should try them.

And boy, am I glad that I did. They are awesome!

AterImber.com - The Veg Life - Product Reviews - Que Pasa Nacho Chips - vegan food, vegan snacks, vegan food reviewer, food reviewer

They’re like vegan nacho Doritos. Or at least, they’re what I imagine nacho Doritos taste like, as I’ve never had them myself. The only kinds of Doritos I’ve had are the Sweet Chili Heat and Ketchup ones. Those two are great flavours as well, but I’m always down for discovering a new vegan snack.

They’re smaller in size to Doritos, though they’re still the classic tortilla chip shape. They’re pretty cheese-y as well, and not in a nooch-y way. I’m not sure what they use for the vegan nacho flavour, but it’s really good. It actually tastes a bit similar to the Skinny Pop White Cheddar popcorn. (Which I also recommend)

Now, these chips do have a bit of a kick to them, so if you’re sensitive to spicy food, or can’t handle spicy food, I recommend not eating the whole bag at once. (Trust me, it does not make for a happy stomach) The fact that they’re spicy is one of the only bad things about them. If they were not spicy cheese-y chips I’d definitely get them more often.

Another bad thing about them? I can barely find them anywhere!

I was able to find them at No Frills when I posted the pic to Instagram, but since then? I haven’t been able to find them.

Seriously, I don’t know if they’re getting discontinued, or if other vegans are just beating me to the punch, but I haven’t been able to get my hands on them since.

The size of the bag is another thing I don’t really like. They are similar in size to Vegan Rob’s Cheddar Puffs. That kind of bigger-than-single-size-but-not-big-enough-for-family-size bag that I hate. Either make them small enough for one person, or as big as regular chip bags! (Preferably the latter)

It sucks that they’re so hard to find though, because they’re one of the best vegan snacks I’ve tried.

…. Maybe they’re just hating on Canadians?

I don’t know, but one thing is for sure: You find them in a store? You buy 3 bags.

Do you know of a store that has a secret stash of these chips? Let me know in the comments below!


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Daiya Supreme Pizza Review

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Ah, pizza. One of my favourite foods on the planet. It’s hard to go wrong when you’re giving me pizza. Perfectly acceptable to eat for every meal – it has all the food groups, y’know.

AterImber.com - The Veg Life - Product Review - Daiya Supreme Pizza - vegan food, food review, vegan pizza

Frozen pizza is good, but it’s more of what you settle for when you can’t get to the real thing. It usually does the job and fills/satisfies, but is nothing compared to it’s freshly prepared counterpart.

Or at least, that’s what I hear non-vegans describe it as. I don’t know if maybe it’s the novelty of being able to buy a frozen pizza instead of making my own at home (which I still do) or perhaps Daiya just has a stronger frozen pizza game, but I’ve never had that ‘this is gross’ feeling when eating a frozen pizza. All the frozen pizzas (which, to be fair isn’t that many) I’ve tried have been pretty good. This one is my favourite that Daiya makes.

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It was also the first way I tried Beyond Meat and I gotta say, even frozen and mixed with other toppings, I loved it. Since tasting it at A&W in burger form, I’m definitely a fan. While I don’t want to say the Beyond Sausage is the one reason it’s my favourite Daiya pizza, I’m not gonna lie – it definitely helped.

The pizza minus the Beyond Sausage is pretty uneventful – it’s Daiya cheese with veggies. If you like Daiya cheese and veggies, you’ll like it. Although, for some odd reason many vegans don’t like Daiya cheese, so I guess don’t buy their pizzas then?

I would personally like there to be more crust, but even still, it’s one of my favourite thin crust pizzas. It’s not so thin where it flops under the weight of the toppings and doesn’t even rip when you bite it (looking at you Pizza Nova), but it’s definitely not a thick crust.

Another thing I would say they could improve on, is that the toppings go all the way to the edges of the pizza – there’s no crust handle! How am I supposed to hold the thing? Underneath like a madman? No. Give us that edge to hold onto – it would definitely make dipping it in say, HotforFoods’ Ranch dip easier.

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(This picture isn’t the supreme pizza)

All in all, this pizza is pretty good, not overly floppy, has a decent amount of toppings and it’s a good size for being a ‘one person’ pizza. I usually cut it into 8 slices and eat half now and save half for later. (Or sometimes I just eat it all) It’s definitely my favourite out of the pizzas I’ve tried from Daiya. I would recommend you try it if you haven’t already.


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3 Year Veganversary

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I can’t believe it’s already been another full year! It feels like just yesterday I was writing my 2nd Year Veganversary article – and now I’m already writing the next one? It’s crazy!

Again, it’s hard to know what to say in these posts – do I encourage you to go vegan with me? Do I talk about some of the hardships of going vegan?

Wait, I know. How about a quick food montage? Back before I was vegan, I basically ate the same three things over and over. But since I’ve been vegan? I’ve tried so many different kinds of foods, and even discovered some foods that I didn’t know existed before! (Like Nooch, seitan, oyster mushrooms and black salt)

I not only have expanded my taste buds by trying premade vegan products (like Daiya, Gardein and Tofurky), I also learned how to cook, and I’ve gotta say, I can make some pretty kick-ass things in the kitchen now, compared to the not knowing how to boil hot-dogs before.

Check out all the cool, new shit I learned how to make:

AterImber.com - The Veg Life - PETA SolFood Vegan's Spicy Fried Chicken Burger - seitan, vegan food, cooking adventures

AterImber.com - The Veg Life - Seitan Bites - vegan food, cooking adventures

This is literally wheat gluten, water (or vegetable broth) and spices. It’s magic! And tastes awesome. I love getting to spice the food right from it’s conception – it gives it so much more flavour, instead of starting with a whole, plain slab of meat and then only putting the seasoning on the outside.

Also, you can turn this into any meat you want – the way you spice it gives it it’s flavour. And, because you’re hand shaping, you can also make it look like whatever you want.

Need some chick’n ‘breasts’? No problem.

AterImber.com - Seitan Chick'N Vegan Recipe

Sausages? Sure thing!

AterImber.com - The Veg Life - Spicy Seitan Sausages - vegan food, cooking adventures

Need some wings? Got that too.

AterImber.com - The Veg Life - Buffalo Seitan Wings - vegan food, cooking adventures

What about burgers?

AterImber.com - The Veg Life - PETAs SolFood Vegans Spicy Fried Chicken - seitan, vegan food, cooking adventures

Yep! Still not a problem. These were actually the first time I made seitan, and was taken from PETA’s SolFood Vegan’s Spicy Fried Chicken recipe.

You could even just leave it together and make a roast out of it, if you really wanted.

The possibilities with seitan are damn near endless.

And it’s got 62g of protein/1C. So, y’know you don’t have to worry about dying from protein deficiency.

AterImber.com - The Veg Life - Meatball-less Sub w/ Taquitos - Vegan food, cooking adventures

Taquitos? I didn’t even know these were a thing before I discovered them at Good Rebel, and then learned how to make a homemade version.

Side note, if you live in Toronto, you should definitely check Good Rebel out. They’re small, but it’s like a vegan wonderland in there, they have so many products! Also, their egg and sausage breakfast sandwich is amazing.

AterImber.com - The Veg Life - The Vegan Zombie Mozzeralla Cheese Sticks - vegan food, cooking adventures

Mozzarella sticks is something I never had before going vegan, let alone know how to make. This recipe I actually got from The Vegan Zombie.

There are a lot of different foods I never tried until I went vegan. Not even just ‘typical’ vegan foods – like seitan, or durian (which admittedly I still haven’t had) – but ‘normal’ foods, like garlic bread, poutine, milkshakes – pretty much anything that had milk in it, I never tried.

AterImber.com - The Veg Life - Vegan Cooking Adventures - Sushi - vegan food

Uhm, hand-rolling sushi with no fish? Oh yeah, I did that, too. It was fun! And apparently because of my small hands, I was naturally good at rolling them.

AterImber.com - The Veg Life - HotforFood - HotforFood's Cookbook: 101 Recipes to Feed Your Face - Cauliflower Wings and Ranch dip - vegan food

These I made from my favourite vegan Youtuber, HotforFood. Lauren makes amazing vegan food videos, and makes a lot of ‘regular’ foods (ie burgers, wings, etc.) and not just salads. I highly, highly recommend you check out her channel, and that you buy her cookbook 101 Recipes to Feed Your Face. I was lucky enough to get her to sign it at this past years’ Vegandale festival and have made only a few things out of the book, (one of my favs is her Ranch dip) but am very excited to continue trying out more of her recipes.

AterImber.com - The Veg Life - Chocolate Cupcakes with Marshmellows and Chocolate Drizzle - vegan food, vegan cupcakes, vegan desserts

I learned how to make chocolate cupcakes from scratch, and was pleasantly surprised that my vegan egg substitute of applesauce for eggs worked! The last time I had tried this switch, I was making brownies, and it didn’t exactly work out.

AterImber.com - The Veg Life - Vanilla Cherry Pie Cupcakes - Vegan Food - vegan desserts

AterImber.com - The Veg Life - Chocolate Cherry Pie Cupcakes - Vegan Food - vegan desserts

I also invented my own Cherry-Pie Cupcakes after learning how to make the cupcakes above. I’ve made these the past 2 years for my dads’ birthday and he absolutely loves them. (These pictures are a bit ‘foggy’ because I had icing on the camera)

It’s not even just the foods I’ve learned how to make, there’s also a whole world of restaurants and pre-made foods I never would’ve discovered had I not got into veganism!

Pochiche Poutine - AterImber.com - The Veg Life - Vegandale Festival 2018

Poutine! It’s always a win. Look at that deliciousness!

Globally Local Crispy Chickn Burger - AterImber.com - The Veg Life - Vegandale Festival 2018

Globally Local I’m a fan of – and they’re not even available in Toronto yet! I had the great fortune of trying them at the festival both years, and neither was disappointing. (With the exception that they aren’t in Toronto!)

AterImber - The Veg Life - Hogtown Vegan - Unchick'N Ceasar Wrap - Vegan food

Hogtown Vegan is in Toronto, and this thing is amazing, too. It’s giant, delicious, and was actually the first time I ever tried seitan – and that was even before I went vegan! It’s since become my ‘regular’ order when I go there. Some of my other favourites of theirs is their poutine, mac n cheese and chick’n burger. I highly recommend you check them out as well, if you’re ever in the neighbourhood.

These guys I only tried once, but again, was blown away. The sandwich was awesome, and it saddens me that they’re all the way in Texas. Also, those were oyster mushrooms? Whaaat?

Kellys Bakeshop Salted Caramel Cupcake - AterImber.com - The Veg Life - Vegandale Festival 2018

Salted Caramel cupcakes are a must! I loved these so much and was very upset I was only able to buy one.

I won’t give you the total play-by-play, I’ll leave my food adventures on my Instagram. Also, if you want to check out the reviews I did of the above restaurant foods, you can find them here.

With all the awesome vegan restaurants opening, and all the new products that are becoming available, it’s becoming so easy to go vegan.

Also, if the food wasn’t enough to convince you, maybe this will:

AterImber.com - The Veg Life - 3 Year Veganversary - Vegan Calculations: animals, water, and forest saved

Whether you’re thinking about going vegan for the animals, your health, or the environment, you can’t argue with numbers like these. 1,000+ animals saved in the 3 years I’ve been vegan by doing nothing else but changing my diet? Can I get a hell yeah?

Being vegan is one of the most passive ways to help save the planet and animals that I can think of. You don’t have to go out and protest, you don’t have to talk about it. You can be a quiet activist and vote with your dollar.

With so many great options available, and so many stats outlining the dangers of not going vegan, I’m truly baffled that some people haven’t gotten on board yet. I mean, I haven’t been vegan forever, but I don’t think I ever tried debating that animal agriculture was good for the environment, or that murdering innocent beings was right.

Seriously, how are there still people who think veganism isn’t the answer?


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Vegandale Festival Review 2018

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Vegandale Sign - AterImber.com - The Veg Life - Vegandale Festival 2018

I’m so excited I get to review this festival again. I’m hoping I’m able to go each year it’s on because I loved it even more then last year.

This year, the festival was both Saturday and Sunday, instead of just one day. A whole weekend of vegan food bliss – what could be better?

Vegandale Scenery Liza Simpson - AterImber.com - The Veg Life - Vegandale Festival 2018

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I went in this year with a game plan: bought my tickets in March, went right when it started at 11am, mapped out the best course based on the vendor map they gave us, and brought containers so I could bring the food home. I wanted to have a fool-proof plan of attack so I could try as many different things as possible. I was able to try 17 things this year, and – when compared to the 9 I tried last year – I’d say I definitely got a lot out of the festival. I was happily surprised when I was overly prepared – I went through four vendors in the span of a few minutes – I had to remind myself I had two entire days to try everything and to slow down and enjoy it. I was also happy that I brought too many containers this year, instead of last year when I wished I’d brought more.

I was also over-the-moon happy that some of my friends wanted to go this year, and one of my best friends said they’d happily come back next year with me! I’m so glad they had fun as well.

Vegandale Humour Sign - AterImber.com - The Veg Life - Vegandale Festival 2018

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The worst things about this year’s festival was the fact I got a bit sunburned (despite slathering myself in sunscreen every two hours) and the fact the festival grounds felt a lot smaller this year. I’m not sure if it’s because there were less vendors, or because it seemed bigger the first time with all the excitement of it being my first festival, but that was a bit sad to me.

Alright, that’s enough of a prelude, time to get to the food!

(Unlike last year, these are listed in order of what I tried first)

Southern Fried Vegan – Soul Bowl

Southern Fried Vegan Soul Bowl - AterImber.com - The Veg Life - Vegandale Festival 2018

Mac n’ cheese, corn and a big ol’ hunk of chick’n on top – what more could you want?

I have to say, I was a little bit hesitant about the corn in the mac n cheese (seriously, is that a thing?) but it turned out to be pretty good. The mac n cheese had a bit of a kick to it, and was creamy and cheesy. It wasn’t super stretchy cheese or anything, but was definitely a good sauce.

The chick’n was good too – it wasn’t chewy or squishy either. I’m not sure if it was seitan or not, but it had a good bite to it – wasn’t too hard, and definitely didn’t over-shadow the rest of the dish.

All in all, I’d definitely get this dish again if it was available. Wasn’t the best thing I had, but it definitely wasn’t bad either.

 

Island Noodles – Soba Noodles

Island Noodles Soba Noodles - AterImber.com - The Veg Life - Vegandale Festival 2018

 

 

 

 

 

 

I must admit, I’m a sucker for noodle dishes (one of my fav things ever is lo mein), so there was no way I was passing on these guys. Also, they came all the way up from friggin’ Hawaii.

Soba noodles are made from mostly buckwheat (I asked the vendor) and they closer to egg noodles then rice noodles or spaghetti. They were pretty good.

This dish was basically a vegan lo mien and I a million percent was fine with that. I like trying things that aren’t always weird/new, sometimes an old fav hits the spot the same way exotic foods never could. They also gave me the most giant-est piece of broccoli ever, which just made it even better.

If vegan restaurants here started offering this, or they came to Toronto, I would definitely grab this. If you’re ever in Hawaii, I recommend checking out this dish.

 

Compton Vegan – BBQ Jackfruit Ribz

Compton Vegan BBQ Jackfruit Ribz - AterImber.com - The Veg Life - Vegandale Festival 2018

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve never had jackfruit before, so I knew this was something I definitely had to try, but wasn’t too sure what to expect.

The ‘ribz’ were soft-chewy. Y’know if you eat a soup with meat in it, (like chicken noodle) and the meat is really soft/falls apart as soon as you put it in your mouth? It was that soft, but you had to work to rip the piece off from the rest of it, and chew it for a bit after. It was an odd texture to me. Again though, I’d never had jackfruit so I’m not sure if that’s just the texture it is, or if they maybe overcooked it?

I have to admit, this was probably one of my least favourite things at the festival. That said, I don’t like BBQ sauce (or chips) so my opinion might be a bit biased. But based on the texture alone, I don’t think I’d get this again.

 

Pochiche – Poutine w/ Chicken

Pochiche Poutine - AterImber.com - The Veg Life - Vegandale Festival 2018

Fries + gravy + cheese = heaven

As you may or may not know, I have a dairy allergy, so I had my first poutine I believe two years ago now. This is a dish I loved as soon as I tasted it, and in my eyes it’s hard to screw up/make a bad version.

Needless to say, I liked this one. The chicken on top, I can’t remember what the lady at the booth said it was made of, but it had a bit of an off consistency. Not sure if it was because of the extreme heat or what, but it had a bit of an odd mouth feel.

It didn’t exactly add to the dish, but it didn’t really take away either. It was just a bit distracting from the cheesy, gravy-ness of the rest of it.

Lightlife – Smart Dog

Lightlife Hot Dog - AterImber.com - The Veg Life - Vegandale Festival 2018

This was nothing special, it tasted like a hot-dog. It didn’t have that distinctive ‘this taste like plants’ taste that the Yves ones do (not to throw them under the bus, I love their pepperonis and bologne deli slices!), but I mean, it’s a hot-dog. There’s not really anything exciting about it to say.

I feel bad about that though, the fact I don’t have much to say – I don’t want that to come off as me not liking the product. It’s good for what it is, definitely better tasting then the Yves not-dog I tried.

I’d buy this, and I’d recommend you buy/try them too.

 

Nanashake – Loaded Nana Pop

Nanashake Loaded Pop - AterImber.com - The Veg Life - Vegandale Festival 2018

This f*cking thing is probably the fanciest ice-cream I’ve ever had.

It was a chocolate peanut butter ice-cream bar that had coconut whip, caramel drizzle and almond and chocolate biscotti on top. It was awesome. I loved the chocolate and peanut butter, and the caramel swirls running through the middle of it. All that awesome-ness plus the cold-ness was definitely welcomed after walking around in the heat.

They’re in North York and it’s sad yet good that they’re so far away from me because if they were closer I would go there literally all the time. I still plan on going there, just less so then if they were say, five minutes away.

If you live in Toronto or are planning a trip down, I highly recommend you stop by and get this.

 

Ben and Jerry – Almond Chocolate Chunk Ice-cream

Ben and Jerrys Almond Chocolate Chunk Icecream - AterImber.com - The Veg Life - Vegandale Festival 2018

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ah, yes, Ben and Jerry’s… while they don’t have too many vegan flavours, the ones they do offer are pretty awesome. This was a pretty simple one – plain vanilla with chocolate chunks mixed in. Not better then their PB and Cookie one, but still good. The chocolate chunks are pretty hard (assuming because they’re frozen) so be careful when biting into them.

I have to hand it to B&J’s, they definitely know what they’re doing when it comes to making ice-cream. Especially now that they’ve jumped on the dairy-free band-wagon.

If you haven’t tried their non-dairy flavours yet, what have you even been doing?

 

Fairly Frosted – Chocolate Brownie Ice-cream

Fairly Frosted Chocolate Icecream - AterImber.com - The Veg Life - Vegandale Festival 2018

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another treat great at cooling you off on a hot summer’s day.

This chocolate brownie ice-cream is just about as great as chocolate ice-cream can get. Again, this is one of those things that’s hard to get wrong.

The worst thing about this was they only gave out two scoops.

Globally Local – Crispy Chick’N Burger

Globally Local Crispy Chickn Burger - AterImber.com - The Veg Life - Vegandale Festival 2018

If you read my review of last year’s festival, you’ll know how much I loved their Famous Burger.

While I was excited to get my hands back on their Famous Burger, since I learned how to make Mac Sauce at home, I decided I should try something else on their menu. Lucky for me, they made the choice easy by only having the Famous Burger or this one.

I have to say, a breaded chicken burger with Miracle Whip and lettuce is one of those things you don’t realize you missed until you eat it again. And boy did I miss eating them! I’ve always liked them better then regular beef burgers, and it saddens me that there don’t really seem to be any vegan breaded chick’n burger options out there.

The worst thing about this burger was they put what tasted like Veganaise on it (or their home-made equivalent). I still bought one both days and got them to cut it in half so I could take half home.

When are these guys coming to Toronto???

While all the food at the festival this year was pretty close in terms of me liking it, this was still my favourite of the ‘real food’ things.

 

Mythology Diner – Funnel Cake Bites

Mythology Diner Funnel Cake Bites - AterImber.com - The Veg Life - Vegandale Festival 2018

This was by far the most disappointing dish I tried at the festival.

I’ve never had funnel cake before, so I was super hyped to try these, and when I did, well… They tasted like a soggy Tim Bit. When I bit into one, it just squished oil out into my mouth. Not very tasty. Also the strawberry sauce they put on top of them was a bit odd, I think because they were hot? Hot strawberries is taste I don’t like, apparently. I was definitely sad these sucked, probably because before my non-vegan friend had hyped up how great funnel cakes were before going, so I was that much more excited to try them.

I haven’t written funnel cakes off totally though, I’d still be willing to try them if there’s a vegan version somewhere else.

The powdered sugar was good though.

 

While Gold Sweets – Veg Puff

White Gold Sweets Veg Puff - AterImber.com - The Veg Life - Vegandale Festival 2018

Pastry was super flaky, I think it might of been layers of phyllo pastry. The vegetables inside had that spice that I can’t name but is similar in taste to samosas or Indian stews.

It also had a bit of a spicy kick to it. It was good, my only criticism would be either more of the vegetable stuffing, or less of the pastry. There were a few bites were all I had was the dry pastry in my mouth.

 

Sorelle – Chocolate Mocha Cupcake

Sorelle Mocha Cupcake - AterImber.com - The Veg Life - Vegandale Festival 2018

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chocolate and mocha, what more could you want? It was as good as I assumed it’d be – the chocolate cupcake tasted like a chocolate cupcake, it was really soft and didn’t dry out even after I brought it home. The only thing I didn’t like about this was that there were these little silver balls sprinkled on top of the icing. They were very hard to bite through, like a rocket. Not that they were bad, they pretty much just tasted like sugar, but the rest of the cupcake was so soft, I think they took more away from the soft chocolaty cupcake then added, with the exception of making it look prettier. Especially since the cupcake got smushed in my bag, so it wasn’t like I could see where they were, either. I had to be careful when I was eating it.

 

Sorelle –  Chocolate Doughtnut

Sorelle Chocolate Doughnut - AterImber.com - The Veg Life - Vegandale Festival 2018

This doughnut, while it didn’t have a hole, it did have a small chocolate cookie held on top by a small (but delicious!) squoosh of vanilla icing. It was soft and moist, and super chocolaty, even one day after I bought it. The vanilla icing was awesome too. Maybe I haven’t had ‘real’ icing in a while, but it reminds me of the vanilla icing that’s used at Sobey’s. It’s hard to describe, but it wasn’t ‘light’ like the Betty Crocker Whipped Vanilla icing (yep, that’s vegan!) is, it was more ‘heavy’ but not in an unsettling way. It was good, that’s all you need to really know.

The cookie on top was hard on the outside but nice and soft on the inside. Everything a good chocolate cookie should be. And, it also wasn’t very ‘dark’ tasting, which was nice, since it wasn’t very bitter.

Sorelle has a location in Toronto, and I highly recommend you check them out. (As I know I will be)

Glory Hole – Chocolate Peanut Butter Crunch Doughnut

Gloryhole Chocolate Peanut Butter Crunch Doughnut - AterImber.com - The Veg Life - Vegandale Festival 2018

…. Sensing a theme? I subconsciously tried pretty much everything with chocolate in it I could get my hands on.

This tasted like the Nana Pop – chocolaty, peanut buttery and all full of goodness. It did get a little melty in the sun, but I was more then happy to lick the chocolate off my fingers.

These guys are in Toronto too, so I’ll definitely be stopping by to try some of their other creations. Keep an eye on my Instagram to keep up with my food trying adventures!

 

Kelly’s Bakeshop – Salted Caramel Cupcake

Kellys Bakeshop Salted Caramel Cupcake - AterImber.com - The Veg Life - Vegandale Festival 2018

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hands down my favourite dessert. Which is saying something because all the desserts I tried were pretty bomb. (With the exception of the funnel cake bites) I knew as soon as I saw it this was gonna be my favourite one. I love caramel and chocolate, if you couldn’t tell.

Although the icing got smushed in my bag (I tried to be careful too!), it was the same kind of ‘heavy’ as the Mocha cupcake icing. I’d use the word ‘deep’ to describe it, but that’s not the right word. It was just good, even licking it off the plastic container didn’t dampen the flavour.

I highly, highly recommend you try this cupcake because it’s so delicious.

The display they had of their other treats looked awesome too, like their Chocolate Coconut cupcake. I unfortunately got to their booth on the second day when my money was running low, otherwise I definitely would’ve got another cupcake.

I’m so happy these guys deliver to Toronto because I am definitely ordering these again. (I may even get them for the upcoming holidays)

If you’re able to, you definitely have to try these – they’re amazing. Definitely my new favourite cupcake flavour.

 

Julie’s Joyful Kitchen – Chocolate Cookie

Julia's Joyful Kitchen Chocolate Cookie - AterImber.com - The Veg Life - Vegandale Festival 2018

 

 

 

 

 

 

My all time favourite types of cookies are the soft/melt in your mouth ones, and this cookie was one of them.

I ate this the Monday after the festival, and it was still super soft, you couldn’t even tell it was one day old. Soft and chocolaty is personally a weakness of mine. It was a bit bitter, but other then that, it was a chocolate cookie – pretty hard to not nail.

 

Yves – Spicy Italian Sausage

(I didn’t get a picture of this, because it was the last thing I tried before leaving, and it wasn’t really much of a picture – it was a piece of the dog in a little paper cup with a toothpick in the top.)

It tasted like a hot-dog, with a bit of a kick. It wasn’t anything special, like the Lightlife dog – they’re hard to review because it’s a spicy hot-dog. Not too much can be said.

I will say though, that I didn’t know they had these, or that they were vegan, so I’ll definitely be adding them to my shopping list. I like that I discovered these and the Lightlife dogs, it’ll be nice to switch it up from the Tofurky sausages.

Vegandale Scenery - AterImber.com - The Veg Life - Vegandale Festival 2018

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All in all, I had a lot of fun at the festival, not only trying all the amazing food, but I was also lucky enough to meet Lauren Toyota from HotforFood. She was there signing cookbooks, so of course I had to get one.

HotforFood Cookbook - Lauren Toyota Youtuber - AterImber.com - The Veg Life - Vegandale Festival 2018

 

 

HotforFood Cookbook - Lauren Toyota Youtuber - AterImber.com - The Veg Life - Vegandale Festival 2018

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(I also got a free water bottle with the purchase of the cookbook, but for some reason every time I tried inserting the picture of it it kept crashing the web-page.)

She’s my favourite vegan Youtuber, and it was amazing to get to see her in person. She was so kind, and seemed genuinely interested in the small convo we had, instead of other famous people who you can tell don’t really want to be there. I’m so grateful I didn’t miss her like I did last year.

This festival so far has gotten better with age, and I can’t wait for next year’s!


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