Brick Lane Vegan/Vegetarian Free From Festival!

So I went to Brick Lane for the first time! And as the name suggests, the lane is fairly surrounded by bricks, (though so is most of London).
I wasn't prepared for the abundance of curry houses, and so the men standing outside attempting to usher my friend and I inside was off-putting. I stand by the rule that 'if you have to try that hard to sell it, then it isn't worth buying!'
Anyway, to our glee, we discovered that hiding in a great hall, encased in - you guessed it - bricks, a little 'Free-From' festival was taking place, and filled with delicious vegan and vegetarian food.

The Boiler House, Brick Lane

Our stomachs were rumbling so we were keen to find something substantial to eat. There was such a diverse array of food to choose from, we struggled!

Slowly making our way round, we encountered some delicious vegan delights. The first - Romeo's vegan brownies. As rich and moist as they look, these decadent brownies were a blessing on the tongue! Made with cacao, linseed, coconut blossom nectar, coconut flour and coconut milk, the rich burst of flavour was a brilliant start to this vegan fair. We definitely had more than one free sample...

Romeo's Brownies, delicious and moist @romeosSFbakery

Next we found small cupcakes. There weren't any free samples for these, so we didn't get to try them, but they looked so delicious I had to get a pic.
All raw vegan, these sweet little cakes use delicious ingredients such as cashews, almonds, cranberries, vanilla and raspberries.

After admiring all the sweet treats, we stumbled upon some VEGAN CHEESE! I love sampling different cheeses, purely because in my experience it's the one food item that doesn't quite match up to the 'original'. I'm not a massive cheese lover anyway, but I want to be able to recommend great vegan alternatives.
This nut based cheese was creamy, soft and full of flavour, and probably the best vegan cheese I've tried. Made by Nutkin, you can find them here: www.wearenutkin.com

Some other great things we tried included 'Fravocado', which is a rich a creamy dairy free ice cream made with my favourite - avocados! (www.fravocado.com)

Nectar Foods also had a lot of great raw vegan cakes and savouries which we sampled. (nectarfoods.uk)

Eventually we settled on a delicious meal of spinach lasagne, broccoli, mixed salad, and a nutty stuffing type loaf (yummy). The sauce was also nutty and creamy, and of course, the entire thing was vegan.

It was fantastic to see such a diverse array of vegan products, especially those new businesses which were shiny and new. Veganism is definitely growing - and it tastes real good!