Vegan Burritos in Dublin!

Burritos are increasing in popularity in Dublin with a variety of new companys popping up. There will however be an ongoing argument of where does the BEST burrito. Most say Boojum, but I'd be moving more towards Tolteca!

Boojum - Mexican Burrito Bar

I had heard the Veggie Burrito was vegan but I contacted Boojum just to be sure. and the Veggie is 100% vegan ( minus the cheese and sour cream). I contacted Boojum just to see what they say regarding the burritos being vegan and John kindly informed me with the following information:

'Hi Hannah,

Thanks for contacting us. Rest assured that the pinto beans are in fact vegan. A lot of Mexican restaurants use lard or bacon drippings in their pinto beans for extra flavour, but we do not. We want to keep them vegetarian so we omit these items. The black beans are also vegan.

All of our salsas are vegan as well as the guacamole.'

A Boojum vegan Burrito consists of:

-The wrap

-Fried Peppers/Onions

-Pinto/Black beans (I go for half and half)

-Rice (Mexican/plain)

-Guac

-Salsa

-Lettuce

Boojum Mexican Burrito Bar is located on Millennium Walk Way in Dublin. Just behind Jervis Shopping Centre and across the bridge from Temple Bar. Nice and Central!
http://www.boojummex.com/ 

Tolteca Burritos:

Tolteca located on Baggot Street and recently open a city center location on Suffolk Street offer vegan friendly and vegetarian burritos, fajitas, salads and burrito bowls. Extremely tasty and 5 euro deals offered for students with free drink refills. I personally prefer Tolteca to Boojum. It is a bit more expensive here but the burritos don't make feel as sick and full as Boojum does. 

The Vegi Burritos and Bowls also contains:

-The wrap

-Fried Peppers/Onions

-Black beans (pinto not 100% vegi)

-Rice (brown/white)

-Guac

-Salsa

-Lettuce

Great for a causal meal or just a quick one. Compared to other Dublin Burrito joints, Tolteca on Suffolk Street has plenty of seating so no need to worry about getting a seat. 

Tolecta also claim to have 'happy food' meaning 'We work hard to ensure that our suppliers have the highest animal welfare practices and care about our environment. All our meats are certified Irish and Board Bia approved. Our vegetables, cheese and sour cream are of the highest quality and purchased locally where possible. Tolteca serves you caged free naturally raised Irish chicken and meats'. 

It's still animal products and farming but it's a better effort than most places!

I’m pretty sure the pinto beans ARE NOT VEGETARIAN! So double check if you’re taking a visit.

For more information see: http://www.tolteca.ie/

So that's 2 burrito joints in Dublin, perfect for a quick bite, especially when eating with no vegan/vegetarian friends! 

Cornucopia's Recipe for Chocolate Silken Torte (vegan cheese cake)

Cornucopia's recipe for Chocolate Silken Torte (vegan cheese cake)

This recipe for a vegan chocolate silken torte aka a vegan cheese cake is from Cornucopia's cookbook, who are vegetarian whole foods restaurant located in Dublin. A vegetarian restaurant that have taken Dublin by storm through churning out great vegi dishes time after time!  I am also excited to say that they are currently working on their second cookbook 'The Green Cookbook', which will include fully vegan and plant based recipes from Cornucopia's renowned chef, James Burke.

This was my first attempt at vegan cheesecake. I was very inspired by the silken tofu cakes I had in London (in a below post). So I tried given Cornucopia's vegan Chocolate Silken Torte recipe a go.

This recipe is hands down AMAZING! The cake however is very time consuming and expensive to make and takes a lot of patience but it is worth it. What is even more worth the wait is getting the opinion of how the 'cheesecake' tastes by people who don't know it's vegan. They always say you wouldn't know it was vegan, it tastes THAT good. So that's a good sign it's a great recipe right?!
The recipe lends its cheese cake like texture to the firm silken tofu. The texture at first made me feel a bit suspicious at first but once blended and baked you wouldn't even know its tofu.

Some recipe alterations I have noted:The recipe says leave set for 2 hours but its still runny and not firm at this stage. It takes at least 5 hours or even overnight in a fridge to completely set and firm up.

Chocolate Silken Torte - Vegan Cheese Cake

The Cheese Cake Filling:

• 2 packets of silken tofu (700g). Can find it Nourish health food stores. 
• 200ml soya cream. 
• 175g Tahini. 
• 120ml vegetable/sunflower oil. 
• 200g golden syrup. 
• 2 tbl spoons corn flour/starch 
• 225g chocolate.

The Biscuit Base:

• A packet of vegan biscuits. 
• Margarine. 

1. To make the biscuit base:
You can either make your own biscuit base with a simple flour, margarine and sugar mixture or just crush a pre bought packet of vegan biscuits. When you either bake the biscuit base or crush your pre bought biscuits, add enough melted margarine to evenly cover and wet the biscuits. Press the mixture into the base of a lined spring from tin and place into the fridge. 

2. Melt chocolate: Place the 225g of chocolate into a glass bowl and place on top of a pan with hot boiling water and stir until melted.

3. The cheesecake mixture: Add all of the required ingredients (minus the chocolate)and place in a food processor and blend until smooth.

4. Place about half or a quarter of the silken tofu mixture on top of the biscuit base lined tin.

5. Add the melted chocolate to the remaining cheesecake mixture and mix. Place that mixture on top of the cake.
Stick a fork in and make swirl motions to create a marble effect but that didn't really work for me!


6. Cover with cling film and leave to set in the fridge for several hours. Once a knife comes out clean, you're good to go!

Vegan Garlic Mayonnaise

I had gone to Cornucopia a few weeks back and got their Vegan Garlic mayonnaise Potato salad and fell in love. I couldn't believe they were vegan.

I remember seeing the recipe in the cookbook so I took it out and made a crack at it.

The recipe made way too much so I would half the ingredients.

-88g cashew nuts (soaked over night)

-63ml olive oil

-63ml water

-Juice of half a lemon.

-2/3 cloves of garlic chopped roughly.

Then just pop all the ingredients in a food processor and blitz until smooth.

It didn't turn out as smooth as I thought it would. It didn't resemble the mayo from the restaurant but still tasted good. I added some chives, salt and pepper into the mayo too and made a potato salad.

The recipe also called for mustard and hazelnuts. I forgot the mustard... and i had no hazelnuts but they are for sure a good addition.