Vegan Cruelty-Free Menu

Text: Priya S

Veganism as a lifestyle is still in its infancy stages in India. Talk about Kerala where the Malayalis love their beef, chicken and mutton and one would understand how tough it is to find an ethical Vegan restaurant.

For the uninitiated, being vegan is all about the diet and lifestyle. It is excluding any animal products to produce food, clothing, or anything else you might use in daily life. So that is a stern no-no to milk, curd, butter, cheese or ice cream and of course meat of any kind. For most vegans it also means no to silk and leather too. But fret not, if you are tired of spending long hours pouring over a restaurant menu carefully scrutinizing the ingredients and worrying if the chef did not understand your instructions, and added that teeny tiny bit of ghee, curd or milk to your dishes, then you can bid goodbye to all your worries.

For all those who love the quaint ambience of Fort Kochi which is a melting pot of different cultures and influences, there is a quaint, even rustic vegan café called Loving Earth Yoga Cafe that is tucked away in the by-lanes near Parade ground. Run by New Zealand native Bree Mcilroy, the café also doubles up as a yoga studio. A café tilting towards organic food, it has excellent vegan options that can put a happy smile on any committed vegan’s lips.

A yoga practitioner first and foremost, it was in 2012 that Bree found her calling and embarked on embracing a vegan lifestyle. She started realizing the importance of food and being passionate of the plantbased movement helped her to further her studies as a Holistic Nutritionist specialising in plant-based diets.

Always in love with Fort Kochi with friends here, she decided to help spread the message of a cruelty-free lifestyle and start her café to create awareness. The ambience is totally uncluttered, with several knick knacks kept tastefully on the floors and hung on thatched walls. There is even a well with plants surrounding the rim and there are five tables spread over the area. The casual ambience aside, it is the food that can bring tears of joy to your eyes- wholesome, healthy, organic and freshly made with a choice that is pure manna from heaven.

Here is a sample of the exotic food on the menu- there are breakfast, lunch and dinner options. There is healthy and delicious Fermented soya bean soup loaded with tofu, broccoli, mushroom, sesame, rice noodles, there is even a vegan chicken biriyani with tender succulent marinated soya based vegan chicken or the hummus, sun dried tomato fresh basil served on delicious focaccia with mummas home made tomato chutney and garlic cream drizzle or the fresh Zucchini noodles tossed through creamy basil pesto sauce, roasted eggplant, garlic, mushroom and caramelised onion.

Those with a sweet tooth can indulge in Choc Peanut Butter Cup Smoothie Bowls, Raw, Vegan Berries and Coco Cream or the raw vegan papaya coco tarts. Incidentally everything from the basil pesto to the garlic cream to the pizza sauces, marinated egg plants, sun dried tomatoes are all made by her. Bree sources some of her key ingredients from overseas and her USP is that she makes her food fresh.

Bree states that people are more open to veganism as a concept these days and are becoming more conscious of the health benefits. Fort Kochi, she opines has a good mix of the local and the foreign that works out for her. Bree candidly says, “It was not easy for me to change over to veganism since I have been raised on a non-veg diet and so I wanted to make the way smooth for people who were transitioning to veganism or even deciding to try it out.”

The benefits are plenty as Bree explains,” The health advantages are manifold. Eating a plant based diet keeps your body more alkaline preventing life style diseases. People have this misconception that vegans lose out on protein but a balanced plant diet takes care of the necessary nutrients. Personally, my own skin cleared up and I feel at peace with myself and lost weight.”

There is healthy and delicious Fermented soya bean soup loaded with tofu, broccoli, mushroom, sesame, rice noodles, there is even a vegan chicken biriyani with tender succulent marinated soya based vegan chicken or the hummus, sun dried tomato fresh basil served on delicious focaccia with mummas home made tomato chutney.

There is a reason why Bree has named her venture as the Yoga café where you guessed right- yoga and vegan food exist side by side. Bree, with her knowledge of yoga, came to India 4 years back and that was a transformational experience for her, with regard to her life style. It was this transformation that had her deciding to give back something to India and we are lucky she chose Kerala. Bree has her yoga classes two times a day and Mondays are off and she teaches different styles to break the monotony of the same routine. Here is to a healthy body and gut.