Vegan Takeover with Urbano32 #Blog

Victoria Hayes
5th September 2019

I should begin by stating, I am not a Vegan, and neither is my colleague Briony. We are however, Foodies. We are obsessed with where our food comes from, the way its prepared, how its presented…. so why we should be ignorant of  plant based diet options. As our friend @chesterfoodporn pointed out, meat is just one ingredient, there are 90,000 more.

So this month, we promised ourselves an education. Skip the meat, eggs and dairy and learn more about plant based eating. 

We were excited to begin with the monthly Vegan Kitchen Takeover at Urbano32. The food at Urbano has always been excellent, the service immaculate and once again we were not let down. What we were not prepared for was a full three courses without an animal derived ingredient. 

Urbano do operate a Vegan menu alongside their normal menu however once a month they banish the animal products and go entirely plant based.

They have really given this some thought, its not just a case of what cheese can we find that’s vegan, oh no, these guys have tried and tasted loads of types of cheese to find the right one. Their desserts are not just a sorbet but also rich decadent chocolatey brownie with vegan ice cream. This isn’t just following a trend, its accepting an idea and working to offer simply excellent food.

As we stated, we aren’t Vegan and to lend us some credibility in comparing Vegan dishes and provide us with proper education we brought along our friend who we would definitely call a actual vegan! Carla is also a foodie and has been Vegan for quite a number of years. As a child she was never really keen on eating meat and certain health issues later in life moved her to go first vegetarian and then completely vegan. She is passionate about the subject but what I find most interesting is that she doesn’t push an animal rights agenda with us, instead she educates us on the nutrients in plant based food; how we can achieve the same if not higher levels of nutrition without the need for meat or dairy.

And so to the starters – We decided on two to share between us and we always love a little garlic bread so we went for the Sourdough garlic bread with Vegan Mozzarella (a product known as Sheese – this is 100% Soya and dairy free cheese alternative made with coconut oil) and  a Fresh Chilli Pizza Rosso.

The two starters highlighted one of the key points of one of the nights discussions, the debate between Vegan options which are classically vegetable based and the more creative options now available which mimic the banished animal related ingredients. Carla shared a lot of insight on this topic, pointing out that people who chose to eat a plant based diet don’t necessarily dislike the taste of meat or dairy, just what it represents to them, so these kind of products mean they can retain some of the flavours they love in their diet.

Either way, these starters were both delicious. The vegan mozzarella is creamy and moreish, rich with garlic on the crisp sourdough and the chilli Rosso is a rich fiery flavour in the mouth, the two actually went extremely well together.

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On to mains and since Urbano Pizzas are always crispy and flavourful, I went for the Artichoke, Spinach, Pine Nuts Pizza with more Vegan Mozzarella and garlic oil. I will confess to having been swayed by the fantastic photo of this particular pizza I had earlier seen on twitter and it absolutely lived up to my high expectations.

Carla opted for the Roasted Pepper, chilli, Red Onion, Tomato, Vegan Mozzarella pizza with Balsamic dressing. When this arrived I did a double take as I could not believe that the pizza in front of her was actually vegan, it looked, smelled and tasted amazing and I definitely *had* to steal a slice!

Briony went for something slightly different, a rich portobello mushroom, asparagus, red onion, garlic and tomato linguine, The tomato sauce was unctuous with a slight sweetness and loaded with the yummy vegetables.

All of this was accompanied with crisp garlic and rosemary potatoes…a long standing Urbano  favourite of ours and the house red wine and the house white wine, which were both also vegan. (Vegan fizz was also available). There will be more information about these wines and vegan wines in general next week in out Vegan Wine feature.

We finished with a brownie to share  – as mentioned before this was wonderful. Made with coconut oil it also helped debunk the myth that if you cook with it, everything tastes of coconut, as I could not detect even a hint of it. The ice cream was rich and gorgeous and again, we know they have tried several varieties, Halo Top, Alpro and Oppo for example in order to find the best one to complement their dishes.

At the end of the night, Carla took away some slices of vegan pizza in a box, but Briony and I, we were taking away something else, information…whilst we have not yet been persuaded to give up meat and dairy, we did realise that we do still have a lot to learn about plant based options. Like Urbano32 we like to have the Vegan options on a day to day basis and there is a lot to be gained by completely throwing out the animal options from time to time.

What is comes down to is the question… not ‘is it “good vegan food”?’, it should be, ‘is it “good food”?’ and the answer to that is most emphatically YES.

Our thanks to Carla for giving up her time to eat some yummy food whilst we peppered her head with questions and arguments. Your patience, insight and in depth knowledge is greatly appreciated.

Also to Claire, Ian and the team at Urbano32 for treating us. Your incredible food and staff are an absolute credit to you. – Taste Cheshire were gifted this Vegan experience by Urbano32 but we stand by our comments, if you don’t believe us, or even if you do, we encourage you to check it out for yourself.