Vegan Basics

My Favourite Vegan Food Products

Today’s post will be a little different. Instead of a new recipe I want to talk about my favourite vegan food products. I use them regularly in my recipes and I think they stand out from other vegan products. They help my recipes taste as good as they do or they’re an amazing snack on their own. I hope I’ll get to know new great products in the future and that this list will grow. In the meantime if there’s a product that you swear by, please let me know. I would love to try it.

Lotus Biscoff spread. If you are familiar with my recipes you’ve probably encountered this product at least once. It’s a really amazing spread derived from Biscoff cookies and has grown on me even more than vegan Nutella or peanut butter.

Some of the delicious recipes that use this product:

Meridian Richer Roast peanut butter. My husband and I were on a road trip in England when we found ourselves in a Holland & Barrett store. The name “rich roast” (as it was called at first, now rebranded “richer roast”) convinced me to buy the product. When I tried it I was in heaven. It’s incredible! There really is no other brand of peanut butter like that. The difference is as the name implies that peanuts are deeply roasted before transformed into peanut butter.

Some of the delicious recipes that use this product:

Lindt 70 % chocolate. While experimenting with recipes I noticed quite quickly that this chocolate stands out from others and from then on it’s the only chocolate I use. The quality of this chocolate is the best. In recent months I’ve discovered that 60 % chocolate from Lindt is also amazing for particular recipes where you don’t want the chocolate to overpower other flavours.

Some of the delicious recipes that use this product:

Nairns Gluten Free Scottish Porridge Oats. Before I found them I never liked eating porridge. Now porridge and overnight oats are one of my favourite breakfasts. I like them because of their softness which is why lengthy cooking or soaking is not needed.

Some of the delicious recipes that use this product:

Natural soy yoghurt from Alpro. This is my favourite yoghurt to eat when I just want a quick snack.

Naturli Vegan Spreadable. My favourite vegan butter / spreadable to use. It starts to melt very fast which is very convenient if you don’t want to wait for the vegan butter to soften before you can spread it on bread. Because of the amazing taste I always use it in cookie crust for cheesecakes and other desserts.

Some of the delicious recipes that use this product:

Valsoia products: vegan chocolate hazelnut spread, cones ice cream, tiramisu ice cream, vegan cream cheese, soy cooking cream, soy mayonnaise. Valsoia has many amazing products that really deliver in flavour. It has become a brand that I often look for when grocery shopping. Theirs cones ice cream is an exact replica of the ice cream I often ate as a young girl (which was not vegan). Their chocolate hazelnut spread is the best imitation of real Nutella I’ve tried so far.

Violife vegan cheeses: Creamy Cheddar Flavour, Epic Mature Cheddar Flavour Block, Original Flavour Slices, Creamy Original Flavour. Violife has some amazing cheeses that I enjoy very much, as a spread on a piece of bread (Creamy Cheddar Flavour is great for that), in a grilled cheese sandwich (the combination of Epic Mature Cheddar Flavour Block and Original Flavour Slices is perfect for that), in pumpkin mac and cheese (I use Epic Mature Cheddar Flavour Block) or for making creamy vegan cheesecakes (I use Creamy original Flavour).

Some of the delicious recipes that use these products:

Sayve Goudi All Pure vegan cheese. This is my favourite vegan cheese to snack on with a baguette and cherry tomatoes. The taste is just amazing.
Strawberry jam from To Filema Tis Lelas. I found this jam in Cyprus where I live. There is just something special about it that makes it better than other strawberry jams.

Tahini from Shahin. In Cyprus there is among many options available one tahini that is just dreamy.

Some of the delicious recipes that use this product:

Natural Greek Style Soya Yoghurt from Sojade. I really enjoy the taste of this yoghurt and since there aren’t a lot of other options for greek yoghurt substitute where I live, I’m glad this one exists.

Some of the delicious recipes that use this product:

Crunchy Peanut Butter Clif Bar. This bar is a frequent companion on trips or hikes that my husband and I go on. We never get tired of it.
Oatly Barista. This plant based milk is one of the best ones for cappuccino. Whenever I’m drinking cappuccino in cafes, this milk has proven to be the most delicious one. At home I’m using a mixture of three plant based milks: Oatly Barista oat milk, Alpro soy milk and Koko coconut milk.

McVitie’s Digestives. My favourite vegan cookies to snack on their own or to use them for a cookie crust in pies and cheesecakes.

Billy’s Farm macadamia chocolate cookies, spelt fruit cookies and spelt speculoos cookies. I love snacking on these cookies.
Plain firm tofu from Mediterranea BioVeg. I love this tofu so much I can eat it plain from the fridge without doing anything additional to it. Which is not how I can eat other plain tofus. That’s why if I can I always use this brand.

Some of the delicious recipes that use this product:

Engevita nutritional yeast with B12. I didn’t know how good this product is until I was stuck in another country with other brands and no Engevita around. I love also that it has B12 in it.

Some of the delicious recipes that use this product:

Blue Dragon extra-firm silken tofu. Another product that I didn’t realised how good it is until I was somewhere where it wasn’t available. Wherever in my recipes it says silken tofu, I mean this one.

Some of the delicious recipes that use this product:

Nature’s Charm sweetened condensed coconut milk and evaporated coconut milk. These two products are of really good quality and lately I’m starting to use them more and more. I’m still exploring options on how and where to use them and I’m really excited about that. I love making vegan Dulce de Leche with sweetened condensed coconut milk.
Schlagfix ready to spray whipping cream. This whipping cream has a great taste and it makes life easier since I don’t have to whip my own plant based cream.
Lay’s oven baked chips. I can eat a whole bag of these.
Smoked buckwheat roll Buck from Grashka. This is a product from a Slovenian company and I love the taste of it. It goes really well with stews as a meat substitute.

Tesco Plant Chef peanut burger. One day I saw it in the store and decided to try it. It was perfect, not only the burger but also how I put it together in a bun the first time. The recipe was immediately a keeper. I will probably share the recipe sometime in the future. Since this burger is not widely available I’m not sure how desired it is that I do share it. Let me know how you feel about me sharing this recipe.
Blackcurrant and banana bar from Make it Raw. When my husband and I were traveling across New Zealand, we explored excitedly not only the beautiful nature but also the products that we haven’t encountered anywhere else. We were on a road trip for a long time far away from the cities so we stocked up different snacks for the days ahead before we left the last big city on our route. Among these snacks was also blackcurrant and banana bar from Make It Raw which both of us liked very much.

I wish you all a wonderful new year!