Vegan pizza hits the high street

Pizza chain Zizzi is the first UK restaurant chain to offer a vegan cheese substitute on its pizzas.

Last year Pizza Express released the very tasty cheese-less Pianta but now Zizzi has gone one step further with its mozzarella alternative which is vegan and gluten free.

Welcome to the family, vegan pizza! Find out more - https://t.co/4T5qnl8vbH #ColourMeZizzi #Vegan #Pizza pic.twitter.com/Bo9CqX9gbI

— Zizzi Ristorante (@WeAreZizzi) March 15, 2016

According to Zizzi's blog, the dairy free Mozzarisella is 100% vegan, 100% organic and made entirely from germinated, Italian whole rice.

 For those keeping preservatives to the minimum or with other intolerances to worry about, you'll be happy to know this new menu option is also free from soya, gluten, lactose, food colouring and preservatives!

Zizzi, we salute you and can't wait to check out the new big cheese in town!

More info on this and the other new additions to Zizzi's Italian inspired menu can be found here.

My favourite place

One of my favourite things about my blog is sharing my favourite veggie places! The Alley Cafe in Nottingham has to be top of my list. Their food is fab, the atmosphere is really relaxed and the staff are all friendly. Most importantly there's plenty of vegan options.

When I lived in Nottingham I was a regular but sadly now I live on the south coast I don't get to visit as much. One year I went there for my birthday meal and got a sparkler in my dessert, ace. Plus their chocolate biscuit cake is to die for! Needless to say when I do get back to Notts I always try and engineer a visit!

Easter weekend I was teaching back in my favourite city so managed to combine dinner with some good friends, with a visit to the Alley!

As well as a brilliant menu covering sharers, mains, light bites and sandwiches there's, always a specials board and a choice of vegan desserts which includes a 'cheesecake'.

While I was waiting for my friend I ordered a refreshing juice. The Alley offers a huge menu of fresh juices and smoothies. My favourite is the banana and chocolate smoothie if I'm in the mood for something sweet, in fact this could be a dessert in itself! This time however I went for a refreshing orange, carrot and ginger. I've always been afraid of trying carrot juice before but it was really refreshing and tasty - I felt much more awake afterwards! 

I went for something light and simple for my main - baked Alley nachos with soy cheese. Just what I fancied and it left plenty of room for dessert. Different to normal nachos these are an Alley special and are brill if you don't fancy a huge rich meal.

For dessert I chose vanilla and rhubarb cheesecake which was a wonderful sweet ending. In the past I've tried mint choc chip, Baileys, and various fruity ones, they really are yummy!

So if you're ever in Nottingham the Alley cafe is definitely worth a visit. It's quite small inside so can get pretty busy,  and there's can a bit of a wait for food, but it's well worth the wait! If you're going for a special occasion it's worth booking a table just to be safe. If you're heading out in the evening then make sure you check out their cocktail menu and look out for special events like Jumpers for Goalposts which are held regularly.

Check out their website for more info www.alleycafe.co.uk

Valentine's Vegan

Valentine's Day just happens to be my boyfriend and I's anniversary, this year we decided to treat ourselves and booked into Brighton's top notch veggie restaurant Terre a Terre. Well I say treat ourselves, we had vouchers so it wouldn't cost us anything - talk about a win win situation! :)

The Valentine's menu was very tempting with lots of mouthwatering dishes, all with cute Valentine's inspired names! Both the starter and dessert dishes were sharers, leaving us only one difficult decision - the main! I chose 'Kelp, I Need Somebody'!

Getting started

But first our starter of 'Slap and Pickle'...

This contested of 'Brûlée Vous' - which was Jerusalem artichokes served with bay cream, pickled Jerusalem artichokes, deep fried with Poire William and raisin relish.

And.. Arepas Chilli Candy - which was deep fried corn cakes rolled on spice dust served with chilli chelly jelly, avocado hash, oregano and lime mojo and a candied chilli. Phew.

Plus there was a mini Truffle Porcini and Chestnut soup with fennel seed tempura mushrooms.

I don't think I could have picked a favourite out of all these but the tempura mushrooms were to die for! 

Kelp I Need Somebody

Slow soft sake baked aubergine sizzled with tahini, sesame and white miso finish served with edamame wasabi and yuzo pesto, sesame ginger dressed Arame Wakame vegetable thread salad and a hibiscus, amchur, nori salt dusted puffed rice seaweed cracker.

Wow! Notice how the cracker looks like a shark fin hee hee! I have to admit this was really rich, so I did start to struggle towards the end, particularly with the aubergine, but worry not, my other half polished up the last of it. I love wakame salad and the cracker was really tasty, with a wonderful texture.

Sweet endings

Dessert! Orgy Porgy Pudding and Pie sharing platter - I thought I was full but apparently not - I still made an excellent dent in this little lot!

Spice up your life - Coconut milk, saffron rice pudding.

Miss Marble - Snappy pistachio wafers served with snow balls. Kalamansi clementine spiced ice, almond amaretto freeze, coconut rum balls and sparkles. 

Armagnac Tartine - Rich prune and chocolate almond Tartine served with cream finished with apple and pear syrup, prune purée, apple snaps and pumpkin seed praline.

The Miss Marble was really exciting. I know that popping candy is all the rage in gourmet deserts but I'd yet to try it and this was a wonderful surprise! So fun to eat! I also adored the Tartine. I literally couldn't eat another bite after this and almost had to be airlifted home.

Well done Terre a Terre for another amazing food experience!

If you've not been before then check out their website for their regular menu

www.terreaterre.co.uk