All posts tagged: bread

Vegan ‘koffiekoeken’ and pie from Bakkerij Filip, Kuurne

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Shop review #30 – Bakkerij Filip is a local bakery in Kuurne, which is a small town just next to Kortrijk (Courtrai) in the south of Flanders. I had already seen several posts on facebook and Instagram of their vegan pastry and cakes. Yeah! Vegan pastry is still a rarity in Belgian bakeries, and I have only been able to buy it on one ocasion before, at Bakkerij Frimout in Ghent (see blog here). So when we planned a trip to Kortrijk a couple of weeks ago, I definitely wanted to check out Bakkerij Filip! There is a selection of vegan items for sale at the bakery, among which some specialties that are not so easily found in regular shops in Belgium. Like this omelet mix (still need to try it). I also bought some cookies and other goodies (some very nice lemon cookies and veganaise). The wife of bakery Filip, Liraz – vegan herself, gave us a tour of the bakery downstairs, which still runs with some real antique machines (and more modern ones too of …

#73 Breakfast at Le Pain Quotidien, Louvain ***

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Restaurant Review #73 – A couple of weeks ago, we were in Louvain and had breakfast at Le Pain Quotidien. It is located in the city center of Louvain, just next to the old market. Le Pain Quotidien (LPQ) is a world wide chain of organic bistros, founded by Belgian Alain Coumont. We already wrote some reviews of LPQ (the one in Bruges, and the one in Hasselt). Alain Coumont has recently also started a vegan branch of bistros, Le Botaniste, of which we visited the one in Ghent recently (see our review here). Pain Quotidien is French for Daily Bread. LPQ sells a wide variety of bread over the counter, and you can also sit down for breakfast, lunch or just a coffee with some baked goodies. There’s always something vegan available and vegan items are clearly marked on the menu. Most of the breads are also vegan (see our blogpost about LPQ in Bruges) For the two of us, we ordered a blueberry muffin (4,10€), a bowl of fresh fruit (4,80€) and the bread platter (3,40€). There are jams on the table to cover …

#68 Vegan lunch at Le Pain Quotidien, Hasselt ***

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Restaurant review #68 – A couple of weeks ago, we were in Hasselt and had lunch at Le Pain Quotidien. It is located in the city center of Hasselt, just a 2 minutes walk from the market square. Le Pain Quotidien (LPQ) is a world wide chain of organic bistros, founded by Belgian Alain Coumont. We already wrote a review of our visit to LPQ in the city center of Bruges, you can read that review here. Alain Coumont has recently also started a vegan branch of bistros, Le Botaniste, of which we visited the one in Ghent recently (see our review here). Pain Quotidien is French for Daily Bread. LPQ sells a wide variety of bread over the counter, and you can also sit down for breakfast, lunch or just a coffee with some baked goodies. There’s always something vegan available and vegan items are clearly marked on the menu. Most of the breads are also vegan (see our blogpost about LPQ in Bruges). We were there early and ordered some drinks to start with. The drinks came swiftly. 45 …

Southern chiabatta

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Quick and easy chiabatta sandwich for lunch. It doesn’t always have to be fancy! Ciabatta bread is normally vegan, but better check to be sure. We added Wilmersburger cheese (vegan) on top. Wouldn’t it be nice if sandwich bars would make something like this for lunch? Ingredients half chiabatta bread, sliced 1 tbs olive oil 2 small bell peppers 2 spring onion 2 sjalots 200 g mushrooms 1 clove garlic, minced 4 tbs passata (tomatosauce) pinches of pepper, salt, oregano wilmersburger cheese pizzatoping handful of black olives, sliced Preparation Preheat oven to 180° (350F). Chop the vegetables brunoise (diced) and fry them – together with the garlic – in olive oil Add pepper, salt and oregano to your own liking. Put covered chiabatta in oventray and brush the bread with passata. Put the vegetables on the bread, add the sliced olives on top and cover with Wilmersburger cheese. Sprinkle some olive oil on top. Put in oven till the chees form a crust and starts getting golden (about 15 minutes).

Cranberry bread with nuts and papaya

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I’ve made this bread a couple of times. It’s a rather large portion, and because the bread is rather moist (because of the berries) it does not preserve that long. But you can easily put some of it in the freezer, and save it for a later date. I’ve added both walnuts and hazelnuts last time, as I still had a handfull of hazelnuts from our garden. The walnuts are also from our own tree in the garden 🙂 I wish I could say the cranberries are also from our garden, but alas, the birds have eaten most of those 😉 I also added some dried papaya, but you can easily replace this with some other dried berries or fruits, or leave this out altogether. Ingredients cranberry bread with nuts and papaya (vegan) 1 tbs ground flaxseed 3 tbs water 1/4 cup vegan butter – melted and cooled 1 ts vanille extract 1 cup orange juice 1 cup soy milk or almond milk 4 cups all purpose flour 1 cup sugar 4 ts baking powder 1/2 ts …

#27 – Restaurant Vegaverso, Leuven ****

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Restaurant review #27 – Vegaverso is a new addition in Louvain. Louvain or Leuven is a university city about 30km from Belgium’s capital Brussels and 130 km from Bruges. Vegaverso opened in the Summer of 2014 and is an all vegan restaurant. It is actually not a restaurant for elaborate wining and dining, but more a lunch/sandwich type bar with self-service (it also closes at 6PM, so not open for dinner). Vegaverso also offers take-away. But there’s plenty of space inside and outside to sit down and enjoy your lunch. The Loving Hut (vegan restaurant part of a worldwide chain) is just across the street and newly open vegan shop SHAVT is just around the corner (blog to follow!). A small vegan hub in the city center of Leuven! Yeah! 🙂 Vegaverso offers a wide variety of vegan sandwiches. And we’re not used to having such an alaborate menu card to choose from! In traditional restaurants or sandwich bars, a quick glance at the menu cards tells there’s hardly anything available for vegans. So having so many items to choose …

shop Biovita, Sint-Kruis, Bruges

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Shop review #6 – Biovita is an organic shop, just outside the city center of Bruges. They actually have two shops, one in Sint-Kruis (Maalsesteenweg) and one in Sint-Andries (Torhoutsesteenweg). They plan to open a third shop at the end of October 2014 in Roeselare (41km from Bruges). This blog is about the shop in Sint-Kruis (Maalsesteenweg). It is the smaller one of the two in Bruges, but as it is the closest one for me, I mostly go to this one. To give you an idea about how far it is from the city center, it is 1,9km (a large mile) from the Kruispoortbrug at the Eastern side of Bruges, which would probably be a 25 minute walk. It is on a busy road, with many shops from larger chains (supermarkets, clothing shops, media shops). There’s easy parking in front of the shop. Biovita in Bruges is not a vegan shop, but sells many vegan products which you won’t find so easily in ‘regular’ shops. To give you and idea: special cereals, sweeteners (agave, maple syrup, rice syrup, etc), nutrionial yeast, …

#21 Le Pain Quotidien, Bruges **

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Restaurant review #21 – Chances are you’ve probably been in one of the many establishments worldwide of Le Pain Quotidien. Or at least you’ve seen one of them! There is also one in the heart of Bruges, near the central market place and the Burg. Pain Quotidien is French for Daily Bread. They sell a wide variety of bread over the counter, and you can also sit down for breakfast, lunch or just a coffee with some baked goodies. The restaurant always has one large communal table (for 10 people or more), but also other tables for 2 if you want to have a more private conversation. There’s always something vegan available and vegan items are clearly marked on the menu card. Le Pain Quotidien confirmed to us that the bread served at the table is always vegan. Most of the breads sold over the counter are also vegan, but the raisin bread (kramiek), sugar bread and brioche are non-vegan. UPDATE – see below We were at Le Pain Quotidien in Bruges for lunch on a Friday, and the …