All posts tagged: vegan dessert

#117 Nice lunch at Loving Hut Classic, Louvain

Published by

Restaurant Review #117 – The Loving Hut is an international chain of vegan restaurants. We have visited several Loving Huts over the years (in New York, Brighton, Maastricht and Louvain) and despite all holding the same name (and serving no alchol), the cuisine and setting of the respective restaurant varies enormously. This Loving Hut was the first one of two Loving Huts in Louvain (see a review of the other one here), and opened a couple of years ago. I think it was in 2010. We have visited it several times over the years (see also some pics on my Dutch blog Graswortels of a visit way back in 2011 here), but now it had been a while since we last had lunch there. The Loving Hut Classic is near the city center, just a 5 minute walk from the City Hall or the Rector de Somerplein. One thing that immediately caught our eye is that the very uncomfortable white stools have made room for chairs! Yeah! Although still not the most comfy chairs, these are …

#116 Vegan lunch at the beach: Histoires d’O, Ostend

Published by

Restaurant review #116 – Histoires d’O is a bistro on the beach promenade in Ostend. I had inquired beforehand via e-mail and received a reply that they have several vegan dishes, like a pasta pesto and a dish with quinoa. We were in Ostend a couple of weeks ago on a Saturday, and had no set lunch plans, so this was more sprung of the moment. I did phone beforehand to make a reservation (which turned out not to be really necessary, still plenty of space available) and asked again about vegan options. The lady on the phone seemed to be a bit confused about what vegan means, but we decided to go anyway and hoped it would become clear when ordering. Histoires d’O is a nice place, with a vintage feel. The dark wooden furniture reminds me of old fishermen pubs from decades ago. The chairs are also very vintage, and as is often the case with retro style, not so comfortable 😉 Service was very friendly, and the waitress had no problem checking …

#107 Nice lunch at vegetarian restaurant Noordoever, Louvain

Published by

Restaurant review #107 – Noordoever is a new place at the edge of Louvain, on the north side (opened in 2015). It is close to the docks and the old factories of beer brewing company Stella Artois. The area around Noordoever is nicely renovated, with new appartments and a nice open space for events and get togethers next to the docks. Restaurant Noordoever is a nice spacious place, with large windows and as such very bright. It’s a lovely decor. Some chairs have cushions, which is nice and comfortable. There is also a seperate room for meetings or group lunch. You cannot order a la carte, but there is a buffet with loads of options to choose from. Noordoever is a vegetarian restaurant, but most dishes at the buffet were vegan, which was clearly indicated next to the dishes (also with the ingredients of the dish). The buffet normally starts at 12 o clock, but it was was more like 12.15 when the buffet was ready and all dishes were presented and we could start lunch. For drinks we had a …

#90 – Nice lunch at Vegaverso, Louvain (3)

Published by

Restaurant review #90 – Vegaverso is a vegan lunch bar in the city center of Louvain. Vegaverso serves mainly sandwiches, burgers and also some hot dishes like stews or pasta (the menu varies). We’ve been here a couple of times before, and impressions from some of those visits can be seen here (#27) and here (#34). Vegaverso is a lovely charming place, soberly but stylishly decorated, with a relaxed atmosphere. Service by Tilly and her mom is always super friendly. It’s semi-self service: you order at the bar, take your drinks with you, and when your food is ready they bring the order to your table. Our you can also buy to take away. update – see below  — The menu is pretty extensive, with several burgers, wraps, hotdogs to choose from. Also many different vegan sauces, and different types of bread. The combinations are endless! Also a great variety of vegan pastry and cookies. And the menu changes every once in a while too, so there’s always something new to try. We visited Vegaverso again in July for lunch. This is what we had: …

#86 Nice lunch at Roberto’s Love and Food, Hasselt ***

Published by

Restaurant review #86 – Roberto Love and Food was a new place in Hasselt (opened in Spring 2016), on the far away side of Flanders (at least for us, coming from Bruges 😉 ). It was not a vegetarian nor vegan restaurant, but had several vegan options or dishes that could easily be veganised. Roberto used to be the chef at restaurant De Levensboom in Hasselt, a well know restaurant in Hasselt with vegan options. I write “was” because unfortunately only a couple of months after its opening, Roberto Love and Food already closed again in September 2016. The owner and chef found a dream job in Malaga (Spain) and so the excitement of having a new place in Hasselt with vegan options quickly dwindled. We visited the place in July (before the announcement of its closure), and had a nice lunch. Although you will not be able to visit Roberto Love and Food anymore, I decided to write this review anyway. Maybe who knows, Roberto will return to Belgium one day, or perhaps you can go taste his culinary creations in Malaga! We …

#76 – Light lunch at Wild Project, Antwerp ***

Published by

Restaurant review #76 – Wild Project is a new vegetarian Bistro in the center of Antwerpen, close to the city hall and Het Steen (the castle at the river Scheldt). I went here for lunch a couple of weeks ago with a friend. It’s a cosy little place, with a handful of seating places inside (I later discovered there is also room upstairs, but we didn’t see that). There’s also a sunny terrace in front. This what we had for lunch: fresh made juice and a hot ginger drink (3€ each). A vegan burger sandwich (9,5€) and a tofu sandwich (7€). Food was very nice. The burger didn’t really have a burger texture, but was more a patty of grains and vegs. 7,5€ and 9,5€ for the sandwich and burger is cheap for a main dish, but take into account they are not large portions (a lot of bread and not so much filling). This light lunch was more than enough for us, but If you have a big appetite though, I would suggest you maybe order two things. Atmosphere was relaxed, it’s …

#67 Lovely vegan dinner at Réliva, Bruges (4) *****

Published by

Restaurant review #67 – Restaurant Réliva is one of our favourite places to go dining out in Bruges. It is not an all vegan restaurant, but one of the few places in Bruges where there’s standardly a vegan menu available. We have been here several times over the years, which is quite often actually, since it only opened in 2012! I have already written three reviews of restaurant Réliva. You can find those reviews, with many more photos of the food, the interior, and also the terrace at the back here. This review is from a visit in February 2016, when we were there with friends. There is a 3 course vegan menu (35€) or you can choose from two vegan starters and three vegan main courses. We were glad to see the menu had changed since our last visits, and were eager to try out the new dishes! For drinks I had a fresh vegetable juice 6€. Tonic was 2,50€. Our friends had a bottle of bio-vegan rosé, Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo (25€). Good to see they have vegan labelled wine available, one …

Vegan chocolate cream

Published by

This is a very simple and straightforward recipe for chocolate cream. You can use it as topping for cupcakes, on top of pies, or in smaller portions as a dessert on its own. And it’s without refined sugar, you can choose between maple syrup or agave syrup, whichever you like best! Important though is that it requires advance preparation. That is, it needs some time in the fridge to set. At least half an hour, but better still an hour is best to make it stiff, espcially if you want to use it for cupcake topping. Silken tofu is very smooth tofu. It is much softer and ‘creamy’ than regular tofu. You can easily cut regular tofu into cubes, this doesn’t work with silken tofu. In Belgium, I’ve only seen it available in organic shops. Ingredients vegan chocolate cream 1 package silken tofu (400g), drained of excess liquid 1/4 cup soy milk 2 tbs agave or maple syrup 1 ts vanille extract 12 ounce (370g) vegan black chocolate chips Preparation Crumble the silken tofu in a blender. …

#32 Vegan dining at restaurant Mykene, Leuven ***

Published by

Restaurant review #32 Mykene is a traditional restaurant in the city center of Leuven (Louvain). But unlike most other traditional restaurants, it has several vegan options standardly available! Leuven is about 15 minutes away from Europe’s capital. Mykene is a very large restaurant, with a terrace in front on the street and a spacious private terrace at the back. The photos below give you an impression of the interior. We had been at restaurant Mykene a couple of years ago, but at that time their vegan options were still rather limited (adjusting the vegetarian options, e.g. by leaving out the cheese), but now they have a seperate vegan category on the menu card (and yes, the “Belgian cheese” mentioned in one of the vegan dishes is vegan cheese, we asked 😉 ). Our vegan lunch at Mykene It’s nice they have freshly squeezed orange juice, although it was quite expensive for this little glass: 6€. For starters we had the soup of the day (leek soup, 5€) and the vegan salad caprese, with mozzarella and rucola (11,50€). Both were very …