It’s real.. a vegan steak! Vivera launched the first vegan steak in the world. Steak was always my favourite meat when I used to eat meat. When I think about the time I did, I can’t actually believe I used to do something so horrible. Anyway, when I heard the news of Vivera launching the steak, I was very excited. Not only because I was curious of the taste, but also for this development itself. The day it was launched I jumped into my car as soon as I was off work and I drove to the biggest Tesco, with my fingers crossed. I was rewarded, because there was a whole box of Veggie Steaks. I took 3! Just because I know Vivera and I know they do good products, so I was confident enough it was going to be tasty. I love that Vivera is a Dutch company and I love it even more that they launch more and more products here in the UK. I love EVEN more, that they’re transitioning from being a vegetarian/vegan company, to an all vegan company. I love it! If you want to know more about Vivera and their products, you can read this article (+ lots of nice recipes!) I wrote before.
So about the Veggie Steak. To have a good idea of the taste, I served it with corn on the cob, sweet potato fries, chunky guacamole and ketchup. All separately served. To start from the beginning, the steaks look very real. The size is just right, the inside is red and they even ‘bleed’ a little. Then the taste. I think they taste very real. They’re soft, juicy and have a realistic structure (esp when you fry them on a high fire, so the outside will be a little more firm). I do like the taste, but in general it didn’t have to be that realistic for me. But to be fair, as far as I can remember a meat steak, I like these Veggie Steaks better. The taste and structure are just very good or maybe it’s just tastier because you can enjoy it with a clear conscious!
If you want to serve them just like I did:
VIVERA VEGGIE STEAK
Serves: 2
2 Vivera Veggie Steaks
2 medium sweet potatoes
1 tsp olive oil
a pinch of garlic granules.
2 corns on the cob
1 small avocado
1 tsp lemon juice
1 clove of garlic (minced)
salt/pepper (to taste)
1/2 tsp chili flakes (optional)
2 tbs ketchup
-Preheat the oven to 200C.
-Cut the sweet potato in long big chunks and drizzle some olive oil on top.
-Add the garlic granules + a little salt (to taste) and mix it well.
-Put the sweet potato on in the oven for about 20 min.
-In the meantime:
-Prepare the Vivera Veggie Steaks as describes on the pack.
-Grill the corn on the cob until little black marks appear.
-Smash the avocado and add the lemon juice, garlic, salt and chilli flakes.
-Serve everything in separate bowls.
I hope I made you curious. I’m very curious if you like them too. Please let me know! You can do this in a comment below or tag me on Instagram. You can also use the hashtag #planetmanel is you like, so I can find your picture and comment! Thank you! X
A while ago Vivera sent me some of their products to review. Vivera is one of my favourite brands and if you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen a few pictures with it. I noticed that still not a lot of people know about this brand here in the UK and maybe some people in the Netherlands are also not aware of these amazing products they offer. So I decided to do an extra article about them. Vivera is made in the Netherlands, but since a while a few of their products are also available in the UK. You can get them via 
different from other burgers I know (structure and taste!), but also the chicken style pieces (you can hardly tell the difference from real chicken) and the mince style (think of lasagna and shepherd’s pie) are very good. I made a few recipes with them for you. Though with some of them you can also just get some fries and have it on the side, like I did here (above) with the chicken style burger. Not so healthy, but super yummy! I hope you enjoy the recipes and using Vivera. I do hope Vivera will sell more options here in the UK soon , like the steaks and the bacon style pieces.. because those are soooo my favourite!
KEBAB
BACON STYLE PIECES
STEAK
CHICKEN STYLE PIECES
-Ideally marinate the chicken pieces a day before. Put the chicken style pieces in a container with lid and add all the marinated ingredients. Put the lid on and shake it (lightly) until it’s all covered. Leave it in the fridge overnight.
Living in London, I often get the question ‘What is typical Dutch dish?’. Well.. There are not a lot of Dutch dishes. Of course there are the famous ‘stroopwafels’ and ‘speculaas’, but the only thing I can come up with is stamppot. What is basically mashed potatoes with vegetables mashed in it and a piece of meat on the side. There are different combinations (with kale as the most popular). It’s not a dish to be super proud of. This must be the reason that Holland is famous for a lot of things, but definitely not for the Dutch kitchen. Stamppot is an ok dish though, people eat it mostly in the winter. It’s a typical winter-dish in Holland. I thought it will be a nice dish on the last day of March. To really finish off the winter. I’m so ready for lots of sun! I was never a huge fan, but as I am a huge fan of Asian kitchen, I made a combination of the two. The one with potatoes, carrots and onions is called ‘hutspot’ and if I had to choose, then that is my favourite, so I used this one for todays recipe. I happened to really love it now, haha! I hope you will love it too.
STAMP-POT
Planet Manel 