Hi everybody! How are you? Here it’s all good and am enjoying the best winter weather: sunny and cold, perfect for walking! With so much talk of Veganuary, there is also talk of what are the best cheese and meat alternatives. And boy, there are many! But if you are following this blog, you might have noticed that I am not too keen on those plant-based brands that are owned by multinational corporations that are known for mainly dealing with non-vegan food and products. However, there are so many brands that were born as vegan and have been bought by such multinationals, making it difficult for people to navigate the variety of such products.

Don’t despair! In this post, I’ll try my best to help you with identifying such brands, making it a bit easier for you to avoid involuntarily buying from these corporations.

But before I proceed, I would like to say that this issue seems to annoy a lot some vegans because they raise the argument that: “It doesn’t matter buying from these multinationals because the main aim for vegans should be to have as many people as possible going vegan. We should actually be happy that vegan products are becoming more and more popular, as this will make it easier for people to go vegan”. I am going to make it clear where I stand: I don’t agree with this (next: the “plant-based options of McDonald’s, Burger King and KFC”…).

Corporations like Coca Cola, Pepsi, Unilever, Nestle, etc. are all very well known for exploiting animals, people and the environment: buying their products means financing them and helping them exploit more animals, people and the environment. Involuntarily buying from them happens: it has happened to me and it will happen again for a very simple reason, as they keep buying smaller, emerging, independent, vegan brands that are successful, so everybody will end up giving them some money. But then you learn, and if you know which are the brands, you’ll avoid them. But giving money voluntarily to Coca Cola, Pepsi and the likes, refusing to acknowledge the facts in the name of promoting veganism popularity, doesn’t help anyone, except such multinationals. It doesn’t help the animals that are being tortured and killed for the making of their non-plant-based products; it doesn’t help the people that are being exploited, especially in the developing countries; it doesn’t help the environment, which is being polluted and destroyed to make space for more intensive farming.

Obviously, there are also people that might not know about this issue, and well, we really can’t do much about that.

Remember that knowledge is power, information is power, knowing things is empowering and after a bit, you will be able to easily recognise which companies are owned by non-vegan multinationals.

Now, without further ado, here is a list of which plant-based brands are owned by the likes of Coca Cola, Unilever, Pepsi Co., etc.

• Cauldron – tofu, soya-based products, falafel (Middle Eastern, Moroccan, frozen), Korean bites, Tandoori bites, sausages (Lincolnshire, Cumberland) (Monde Nissin);
• Linda McCartney – vegan sausages, vegan sausage rolls (Hain Celestial);
• Richmond – meat-free sausages/mince/burgers/bacon/meatballs (Kerry Group);
• Naked Glory – no-chicken/no-beef/no-ham deli slices, quarter pounders, sausages, tenderstrips (roast, smoky BBQ, Tikka), no-beef strips, no-meat balls, chick’n burgers (Kerry Group);
• Vegetarian Butcher – what the cluck, the great escalope, magic mince, little peckers, good karma shawarma, (Unilever);
• Vitalite – dairy-free spread, dairy-free block/grated/slices (Saputo Dairy);
• Sheese – creamy, blocks, grated, slices, (KKR);
• Mozzarisella (Frescolat);
• The Green Butcher – vegan slices (JSB);
• Heck – vegan breakfast sausages, meat-free chipolatas, italia chipolatas, italia burgers (Heck)

These are some of the most common brands of plant-based foods in the U.K. that you can find in supermarkets.

Also, consider that there are famous plant-based brands that are not vegan (see Impossible Meat, you can also read some more here).

So now you will probably ask yourself, what will you be able to eat since these are very popular brands, so easy to find. It seems like this stuff is becoming more and more difficult!

But don’t worry, your TVCL is here!

Who is not owned by the big corps:

CHEESE ALTERNATIVES

• Tyne Chease
• I AM NUT OK
• Palace Culture
• Kinda co
• Green Vie
• Vegusto
• Pimp My Salad
• Honestly Tasty
• La Fauxmagerie
• Willicroft
• Schlagfix
• Plantasy Foods
• Nush
• Pangea Foods
• Good Carma
• Left Coast Culture
• Mouse’s Favourite
• No Whey!
• Origin Kitchen

MEAT/FISH ALTERNATIVES

• Love Seitan
• VBites
• Biona
• Sgaia
• Terra Vegane
• Tofurky
• Tofoo/Clearspot
• Vegusto
• Veganly Deli
• Meatless Farm
• Clearspring
• Heura
• Plant Power
• Artisan Grains
• Jack&Bry
• Marigold
• Sunflower Family
• Vegalish
• Calabizo
• Impulse Foods
• The Curators
• Vegan Cartel

There are some more, but I hope this gives you the idea of how many creative people are out there, making new vegan products that you can buy without feeding the massive corporations. There is always an alternative, and your choice is important!

You can also find some more information here and here.

If you find it useful, let me know. Also, if there is any mistake, get in touch and I will rectify it 🙂

Love,

TVCL xx

Happy Sunday! It is the end of the weekend, we’re getting ready to enter the new week (can you believe we’re already halfway through January?!) and I have the perfect pick-me-up for tonight’s dinner: vegan rösti.

These are delicious and deceptively easy patties of grated potato and kale or cavolo nero. I make them anytime I don’t know what to eat, want something easy to make, fairly healthy but with a little bit of a kick.

There are a couple of different ways to make them: either slightly boil the potatoes and then use a potato ricer or grate raw potatoes. As I don’t have a potato ricer and don’t want to cram my small kitchen with single-use utensils, I go for the second version, grating the potatoes raw. However, you could also boil the potatoes and grate them, but I find that some potato varieties don’t come out great and are just too smushed making it difficult to then get the classic Rösti’s appearance (unless you make the recipe for Smashed Potato and Sage Rösti by The Vegan Larder 😍).

One very easy recipe is the one from the Vegan Society.

There are also different versions of this recipe, using other veggies instead of the kale/cavolo nero, like in this recipe for Potato and Pumpkin Rösti by ElephantasticVegan.

My version is very basic:

Ingredients:

• 2 potatoes;
• a bunch of kale (leaves only, no stems) or chopped leaves of cavolo nero;
• pinch of salt and black pepper;
• oil to grease the pan

Process:

1. Peel the potatoes and grate them (similarly to julienne);
2. Press the grated potatoes to drain excess liquid (otherwise they will stick to the pan and likely get burnt);
3. Put drained potatoes in bowl with kale/cavolo nero and salt and pepper, mix well;
4. Heat a bit of oil in a pan;
5. Make patties (Rösti) of the potato and kale mix;
6. Fry patties (Rösti);
7. Serve hot.

I hope you’ll make this recipe and enjoy them as much as I do!

Let me know what you think.

Happy Sunday!

Love,

TVCL xx