Plenty of activity in the past month, some good, some bad. Variety and texture remain problematic but overall, sticking to veggie and fairly vegan for the past few weeks.

Some product updates to share. First, the good ones:

• Sojade – A bifidus soya yoghurt-alternative. This is a shocker. Smells and pretty much tastes like natural yoghurt. Has that lactic tang which is so missing in most soy products. Used it in a curry instead of yoghurt and could not tell the difference. Pretty sure you could add pureed fruit to it to make normal yoghurts and not be able to tell it lacks dairy. Got it and several other recent products in Quay Co-Op in Ballincollig. It’s not as big as the Cork one but handier for me to get to.
• Silken Tofu – Found this shelf-stable stuff in Scally’s in Clon. Total disaster when I tried to fry it and use in curry. It just melted. However it makes a brilliant dairy alternative for many recipes where smoothness and creaminess required. I used it in a pea puree recipe instead of cream and it worked a treat in the food processor. I’ll post that recipe soon, it was a big success.
• Quorn Mince – Yesterday I made traditional spag bol for the kids but used Quorn instead of minced beef. All of the kids loved it and rated it delicious. I told none of them what they were actually eating. Proves, yet again, my point about a lot of foods being easily replaceable with plants, if you can get the texture right.
• Dal – After reading most of an Indian Vegetarian cookbook, I finally did one of the recipes yesterday (minus the relentless Usli Ghee on every page). This was a spicy dal with 6 chillis and red lentils. Utterly gorgeous. Had more of it today and will have more again tomorrow. Total win, full of protein.
• Darina Allen’s Cucumber Pickle Recipe – if you loved the jars and miss them, her recipe is identical and only takes a few mins with a mandolin to do. Apparently they cancelled the supermarket product as the stuff was fermenting and blowing the lids. You can still get it fresh in Midleton Farmer’s Market. I’ll post the recipe here soon with full attribution.

Now for the failures:

• Quorn Smoky Bacon Slices – Horrible. Imagine a plate of BBQ-flavoured Rancheros with the rest of your food. Nothing is right about this product from taste to smell to texture
• Quorn Chicken Pieces – I’ve gone completely off this. Texture is just so wrong.
• Some veggie sausages with leeks – You can’t just mush spuds and leeks together into a tube and call it a sausage. It’s a bloody croquette. Nothing wrong with the taste, it’s just false advertising.

Apart from that, still doing some Oatly but finding it too much in every cup of tea. Tea is really my downfall for the vegan bit. Still doing low-fat milk there and in the morning porridge. A bit of goat’s cheese in the two-weekly homemade pizza too. That’s about it for dairy.

More stuff on recipes in the coming weeks. But in the meantime, seek out that Sojade, you won’t believe how good it is!

Overall, it’s still entirely vegetarian except for the Friday chicken curry and I’m be strongly tempted to replace that with something veggie soon due to a great Indian Veggie book my sister got me. Apart from milk in my tea and porridge and the odd bit of cheese on a homemade pizza, I’m still also pretty close to vegan. Those fake cheese really did turn out to be disgusting and were binned. Oh I nearly forgot, I also still love mayo which has eggs. Those vegan alternatives were like cheap own-brand salad cream. Texture people, texture!

One big problem is that I’ve been totally unable to find an acceptable milk substitute. Soy Milk is the work of the devil and Rice Milk is the work of his assistant. Try either in tea and you will pour them down the sink immediately. A Chai Tea Latte in Heuston Station was one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever put in my mouth and I’ve eaten pigs brains.

But a few weeks ago I bought something called Oatly and I just tried it in a cuppa and wow wow wow, it works! No nasty aftertaste, no horrible texture, just a nice creamy addition to my tea with a not off-putting different shade to the usual milk one. I’m thrilled and will buy lots more the next time I’m in Quay Co-Op.

The Oatly stuff is really interesting on several levels. It’s made from oats, water and oil using a process from the University of Lund in Sweden. I love the idea of using products that are grown locally in a country to try and find new uses for them. As we all know, oats are very good for you too. So this is a win, win, win for me I think. Tomorrow I will try on my porridge which is amusing I guess, since they are both made from the same thing.

Week to week I am sticking with the tempeh, smoked tofu, lots of veg, lots of fruit, hummus, falafel, ramen, curries, miso soup and a jam-packed morning porridge with goji berries, chia seeds and honey. Those Chia seeds are mad and I’m a fan. If you’ve read Born to Run, you’ll already know all about them. A guy in Waterford is selling them branded Chia Bia which is a nice touch so I’ve bought those.

I continue to buy Dee’s Burgers but we have failed to spot her new ready meals in the usual West Cork haunts and I really want to try them. Maybe in Scally’s today?

The main thing lacking right now is variety and that’s down to time. I need to dig deeper into the Veganomicon for fast recipes. I had a real win last week after watching an episode of River Cottage Veg Every Day where Hugh FW and the guys had a veggie sambo competition. I would never have thought of putting orange or carrot in a sandwich but they were gorgeous. However both myself and my bro-in-law Phil would lay claim to having invented the beetroot sandwich many years ago, so hands off!

What else? Oh yeah, I tried some of the Quorn fake sliced meats (turkey and ham). Nah sorry, completely the wrong texture and too dry. I’ve been banging on about the texture problem since the start so I was thrilled to see this NY Times video posted on Facebook by my old collegemate Bernard who has been a vegan for decades and is currently trying out the raw food approach. If this product hits the shelves I’ll be a very happy bunny:

More updates when I’ve tried a few curries and sandwiches.

I’m still picking at the odd bit of ham/turkey and I’m still doing the Friday Chicken Curry but apart from that, it is all veggie. If I removed the milk from my tea I’d basically be vegan. But that ain’t happening.

Foods I continue to love on this diet:

• Hummus
• Falafel
• Asparagus
• Broccoli
• Avocado
• Portobello mushrooms
• Beetroot
• Tomatoes
• Salad leaves
• Pomegranate seeds
• Porridge with linseed and goji berries/prunes
• Ryvita
• Brown Rice (surprisingly)
• Dee’s Burgers
• Linda’s Sausages
• Home made pizza (one reason for needing fake cheese)
• A wide range of relishes, chutneys and pickles
• Lemon, Balsamic and Soy sauce for sparkle

Things I found a bit meh:

1. German Tofu with Kombucha
2. Quorn sausages
3. Quorn chicken pieces

Today I did a run to the famous Quay Co-Op in Cork to get some other things I wanted to try plus some staples. I’ll do an update after I try the new things but purchases included:

1. Sheese fake cheddar
2. Cheezly fake mozzarella
3. Quinoa
4. Chia Seeds (I literally just read about these in Born To Run last night. Some miracle seeds apparently. Or so the Beanstalk boy said.)
5. Tempeh
6. Udon Noodles
7. Miso Soup
8. Oatly oat-based milk substitute
9. Stevia sweetener
10. Sauerkraut
11. Prunes
12. Puy Lentils
13. Smoked Tofu
14. Apple puree
15. Ramen
16. More porridge flakes, brown rice etc
17. Agave sweetener

I have a blogpost forming in my head about how the veggie-world needs a giant processed food corporation (Kraft, Nestle, etc) to throw all the knowledge of their food scientists at making better substitute products. I’m convinced something far superior to all this extruded mushy stuff can be created. The fatal flaw in most of the products I have tried remains texture. The sponginess of the tofu, even fried, was particularly horrible. Looking forward to seeing if Tempeh is better.

Also, given how far removed a chicken nugget is from actual chicken, I am 100% sure McDonalds could do a Vegan McNugget that was indistinguishable in taste and texture to a “chicken” one.

So onwards we go. I need to expand the range of things so I don’t get bored. Time to dig into the Veganomicon more.

UPDATE 1: Just made a Sheese toastie. Not the worst thing I’ve ever tasted. The Sheese out of the packet smells rank and tastes like standard processed cheese. It doesn’t melt brilliantly but when paired with a decent mustard, I scoffed the lot. Needed a slice of ham or something tho!

UPDATE 2: Tried the Agave sweetener in my tea. Perfectly tasty but then it is mainly just fructose. It says low GI but really, I have to wonder. The Stevia thing is interesting tho. From the makers of Canderel. Very new product. No calories but lots of lactose. If it lacks the after-taste of Saccharin, Aspartame and Sucralose, I’ll be happy.

UPDATE 3: The Cheezly smells as rank as the Sheese but melts ok and tastes fine when melted. The third type of veggie sausage was nasty and dry. The ramen were lovely. And the real winner was the Tempeh. Nutty, solid, fries well, great texture. Gonna use a few different ways this week.

As I have been officially obese for the past few years, I was in my regular new year weight loss mode and wanted to do it in a healthy way. The book sounded like an intriguing approach so I bought it on Kindle.

Unlike the relentless quackery that surrounds diet and diets, this was written by a man who worked his entire career as a doctor and researcher. His credits include the NIH and the Cleveland Clinic. I have to say, he makes a very strong case. If you can’t face the very very long book, grab a copy of the Forks Over Knives documentary which summarises his and other doctors’ thinking.

The core argument is that the gigantic increase in meat and dairy consumption is to blame for many of our ailments and these problems can be stopped and even reversed by switching to a much more veg-based diet. Basically like we used to eat in every society before we became rich.

So for kicks and giggles I have decided to try a mainly plant-based diet for the next “while” (duration TBD). I haven’t given up meat and dairy completely but I have cut down hugely.

In the past two weeks I have had no red meat, no eggs, cheese once, some weekend rashers/sausages and a smattering of turkey/chicken. The only dairy I get is a splash of milk in my tea. I tried both rice milk and soy milk and they are gross. A soy latte is an abomination.

On the veggie side, I have had lots of veg (duh), lots of fruit, seeds, wholemeal breads, porridge, hummus, salad and pickled veg. On the pure veggie side I have had Dee’s Spicy Bean Burger (not bad), Linda McCartney’s veggie sausages (surprisingly spot-on both for texture and taste), Brendan’s Vegetarian Burritos (nice taste but pure slop) and fried tofu with a ras el hangout coating (texture is too squishy).

Things I cannot stand about most veggie food in cafes etc are the ubiquitous bell peppers, aubergines and courgettes. Everything tastes the bloody same.

Tomorrow I’ll do a middle-eastern type thingy with falafel which I have become addicted to.

On the recommendation of several veggies I got the Veganomicon cookbook which I have just started and is a good fun read.

Plan for next week is more beans, more texture and less chicken/turkey. The only thing I’m not giving up is the Friday chicken curry. I did a butternut squash curry last week and I’m sorry, but no.

Texture remains an issue with all the non-meat proteins. I’m going to take trip into Quay Co-Op on Saturday to see what else they have. Seitan maybe? I’ll also see what else Tobairin in Bandon has (they do the burritos and the tofu).

Funnily enough I’m doing more a vegan thing than a vegetarian thing. Who would have thunk? Let’s see how long I last.

Another update in a few weeks.

I’m really really getting sick and tired of this bullshit. It’s a miracle that you can still buy unpasteurised cheese in this country with these drones in charge. If I want to drink raw milk I damn well will and I won’t have some paper-shuffler using “safety” as a code-word for control, telling me otherwise.

The last time I had raw milk I was about 6 years old. It was straight from the cow in my Grand-aunt’s house. I didn’t really like it. But I’m bloody going out this week to see if I can buy some more.

Slow Food Ireland has a petition to try and stop these muppets having their way. I strongly recommend that you sign it before all of your rights to buy and eat what you like are taken away from you.

We really seem to be heading towards a world of zero responsibility and zero consequences with faceless bureaucrats deciding everything. The ongoing collapse of the European project shows exactly where that leads.

Future bonanzas will include €1 coffee days, Free Urru Cotton Shopping Bags , Massive Savings on Wines, Cookery Books, Farmhouse Cheeses, Easter Eggs, Lucky Dips and more.

Mmmm, latte.

I love seeing Urru making a mockery of the long-held belief that you can’t do gourmet in Bandon. Now we just need a few more really good restaurants.

I’m pretty stunned that the first issue was all put together by one guy, Mikey Maguire. It’s a really impressive piece of work and makes a mockery of much of the so-called professional rubbish you see on newsagents shelves.

Well worth a read.

It’s on in the Clarion Hotel in Cork from 3pm – 8pm on Friday and 11am – 4pm on Saturday and only costs €15. For that you’ll have over 100 international wines to taste and buy, delicious foods and gourmet treats on offer and prize draws for wine cases and food hampers.

This isn’t a show for wine gurus at all. If you like a nice glass of NZ Sauvignon Blanc every once in a while, you’ll enjoy it just as much as those who know the difference between a 1947 and 1948 Margaux.

You can buy tickets online right now or in any of the aforementioned Wine Merchants. We’ll be there on Friday and possibly on Saturday too, soliciting your feedback on everything so have your SMS thumbs to the ready.

Rough location here:

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A brilliant TV chef who made great cooking look easy and enjoyable. He’ll be missed.