Wednesday 18 October 2017

Borough Market



When I lived in South London many moons ago and when I was a student at university, I used to love nothing more than a stroll down to Borough Market at the weekend to pick up some food and to admire the huge array of different delicacies available. I can't quite believe it's taken me so long to plan a return visit, especially as it's not even that far away from where I live in Essex. Anyway, return I did last weekend and it felt so good to be back! I was really curious to see what was available for vegans, especially from the hot street food section, and I couldn't wait to get exploring. 




In all my excitement to find some vegan street food I had almost forgotten about the opportunity to be able to pick up some lovely fresh vegetables for our Sunday roast the next day. It also reminded me of how much I miss being able to look around a traditional green grocers. It's so sad that there are now so few and it bought back fond memories of my childhood in East London and trips to the market and local shops with my Nan.  


As we are now in October there was of course an abundance of pumpkins and squashes to marvel at. I found everything within the main fruit and veg section so photographic and it all just looked so colourful and vibrant. A lot of the veg looked freshly picked from the ground which is another thing you don't tend to see too often in your local supermarket. It made me realise just how artificial and unnatural a lot of the fruit and veg we eat is presented to us in a bid for perfection. It also reminded me that I have for a long time now wanted to sign up to a veg box where fresh organic veg is delivered to your door every week. If anyone has any recommendations then please let me know!  


We hadn't planned to pick up any veg on this day out but we ended up getting quite a bit and for once I actually felt quite excited about the prospect of getting it home and cooking it all. 





After exploring all the vegetables we ventured into the street food market area where all the aromas and business of people was quite a sensory explosion! We went on a Saturday and so it was of course really busy but from what I understand this is the best day of the week to visit and when the widest amount of traders are present. 


As soon as we began to walk about I noticed so many stalls offering vegan options. There was everything from cakes, falafels, salads, curries, burgers and more! I was really quite unexpectedly impressed. 


The Free From BakeHouse had a really good selection of sweet treats and we picked up a couple of their vegan Rocky Road slices which I can confirm are really delicious! 



There were a few falafel wrap and salad options dotted around which all looked really good but as we eat falafel quite a lot anyway we decided to skip it on this occasion but once we got home we regretted not getting one to take away with us! 


One of the best stalls we came across was Gujarati Rasoi who offer up the most incredible looking vegan friendly Thali boxes and onion bhaji's. It was the bhaji's that actually caught our eye first on this stand and drew us in. We ended up getting a few to take away home with us and they made the perfect Saturday night snack! If you go to Borough Market you seriously have to get some of these bhaji's! 




We also found the Big V  stand who offer up a selection of vegan burgers and salad bows. A few people had recommended me to get one of their burgers so as we walked about I had burgers on my mind! Once I saw the stand I suddenly remembered that I have tried these burgers before at the Hackney Downs Vegan Market a few months ago and loved them. Thankfully there was hardly no queue when we arrived which was our signal to dive straight into making an order. My husband had queued for over an hour at the Hackney market which we wasn't keen to repeat again! 



We went for their classic cheese burger and it did not dissapppoint! These burgers are so tasty and there are so many different flavours from the various toppings which make them so enjoyable. They also include their own recipe burger sauce which is to die for! 



Aside from all the food it was also great to see a few plant and flower stands dotted around. If we hadn't been walking around London all day I would have definitely picked up this beautiful 'Physalis' plant which looked like mini hanging pumpkin lanterns. 



All in all we had a really excellent experience at Borough Market and I will definitely be returning again soon. It's probably worth me mentioning that as this is a market that caters for all there is of course a lot of meat and dairy available here too. The sight of the hog roast and rabbits and pheasants hanging up were quite upsetting to see so if you are vegan or vegetarian and easily affected by such sights I would recommend keeping a wide berth of those areas. The Borough Market website does allow you to search for the vendors you are interested in and plan your visit with their handy map which I'd recommend doing. 

After the market we took a stroll along the South Bank and popped into the Tate Modern which was really fun. As we were in the area we also stopped in at the new Tibits Bankside restaurant for some dinner which was the perfect end to our day out (*Review coming soon!). If you have a spare Saturday anytime soon I'd really recommend this as a great day out and way of making the most of being in the area. 

Have you ever been to Borough Market? What did you think? 

Share:

3 comments

  1. I've never been to Borough Market but those pumpkins look amazing and the rocky road pieces look delicious!! :) xx

    Yasmina | The July Journal

    ReplyDelete
  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Riverford veg boxes are fantastic
    www.riverford.co.uk

    ReplyDelete

© Sarahs Life And Style | All rights reserved.
Blog Design Handcrafted by pipdig