In my kitchen - June 2018

I am linking this into the monthly In My Kitchen round-up, hosted by Sherry of Sherry's Pickings.

We are half way through 2018 and summer is in the air. I have had lunches that mix warm soup with fresh summer produce (above) and my first green smoothie for the year (below). I also seem to have purchased an enormous number of new vegan-friendly products this month, so this will be a very full IMK post!

In my kitchen have been various new desserts. I am very taken with the Perfect World ice cream range (I got mine through Ocado), which is lower in sugar than most ice creams. I loved the pistachio flavour I tried and look forward to getting my hands on a mint chocolate chip one in due course.

Another new lighter dessert are the 'skinny' lemon and yuzu pudding tubs by Pudology. I am a big fan of the original Pudology desserts but they are definitely not light (think decadent chocolate orange mousse). These are very lemony but nicely suited to summer.

I was less fond of the Food Heaven heavenly pots of almond vanilla custard. I had envisaged an almond flavour but didn't pick much up. It was just custard - nice, but not exciting.

Sticking with sweet items, I bought this piece of vegan Jamacian sweet potato 'pudding' (I'd call it cake) from the Greenwich markets when we visited last weekend. It was unusual (semi-sweet, fudgy in texture, with ginger in the flavour mix) but nice.

I first spotted these Rhythym 108 chocolate snack bars in Planet Organic in London but they are now available in our local Sainsbury's too. They come in various flavours and this 'sweet and salty almond' bar is a nice vegan alternative to peanut or almond butter cups. It's less sweet, and tastes healthier, but it's still pretty tasty.

Less tasty, sadly, were these accidentally vegan versions of Ferrero Rocher balls. They are available in Pound Stretcher stores but excited as I was to see them, I can't really recommend them. They are dry and the 'chocolate' clearly features cheap ingredients.

They may not sound exciting but the Kallo protein packed lentil cakes were a bigger success than the fake Ferrero Rocher. They are crispy, more flavourful than rice cakes, and a great snack plain or with toppings.

Also well suited to snack time, or breakfast time, are these flavoured Beanies coffee sachets that I found in the random aisle of Lidl (the aisle with rotating produce). I've had the Beanies flavoured coffee jars before, but never seen all of these flavours. The chocolate orange is my favourite so far.

Moving on to meals, there are multiple new vegan pizzas on the market. I recently tried two, including the cauliflower base vegan margherita by the No Dough Pizza Co. 

I was really impressed with this and found the base crispy and tasty. Whilst I'm not usually a fan of vegan (or regular) cheese, I didn't mind the cheese here and found it worked well on top of the lighter base

Mr Bite and I also tried the Valsoia pizza which has a smaller amount of soy-based cheese and lots of grilled vegetables. The base of this is thicker and doughier, and the mix was tasty.

Asda have introduced a few new vegan-friendly frozen products, including these beetroot and spinach burgers. They are good but not vastly different to other veggie burgers I've had before - although the beetroot colour is a bonus.

One of my favourite recent discoveries is the filled pasta by Ugo Thrive, found again in Sainsbury's. Featuring pumpkin, sage and a soy-based cheese inside raviolini, the pasta takes only a minute or so to cook and is utterly delicious. Mini Bite enjoyed it too. I've served it simply with some chopped tomatoes, fresh tomatoes and spinach instead of a more complex sauce.

Last but not least, and to show I am cooking real dishes and not just opening packets!, my spiraliser has emerged with the warmer weather and I recently enjoyed this lentil-based bolognese over spiralised courgette.

What is happening in your kitchen this month?

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