The Northern Vegan Winter Festival, with about six different rows of stalls inside the sports hall, featured a range of vegan stalls, offering everything from baked goods, home-made artisanal vegan cheese, clothing, personal care items, fundraisers, and live cooking demos and talks.
The first thing we tried was a Jamaican patty from Big Taste Jamaican Caribbean Food. While not the highlight of the day, it was a strong start, noting that it was well spiced and balanced but perhaps slightly dry.
Credit: Adella Tobing @ The Mancunion
Credit: Adella Tobing @ The Mancunion
We also picked up a spiced aubergine bake, from Bare Vegan. The bake was spicier and had a slightly more sour taste profile than the Jamaican patty, but both were equally delicious and satisfying.
Credit: Adella Tobing @ The Mancunion
Bare Vegan also offered packaged marinated soya chunks to bring home and cook. We purchased the soya goat curry chunks, which can be frozen for up to three months, featuring soya chunks marinated in a range of earthy spices. To make the curry, we followed an online recipe, replacing goat chunks with the marinated soya chunks.
It was absolutely delicious and the texture of the soya was firm yet satisfying. The ingredients can easily be found in Sainsbury's and makes for an easy hearty and warming meal during cold months. The owner of the shop was also extremely kind and friendly; we got to chat with him and got advice on everything from vegan cooking to dating in Manchester.
Credit: Adella Tobing @ The Mancunion
We also picked out some artisanal home-made vegan cheese from Sophie's Delight, a high-score in our books. While on the pricier side, Sophie offered a range of unique cheeses that were smooth and perfectly umami, without any weird aftertaste or smell that you usually get with vegan cheese. We picked up the vegan halloumi, which fried exactly like regular halloumi cheese, and was a perfect addition on sandwiches at lunch time.
Credit: Adella Tobing @ The Mancunion
For a proper meal, we picked up a vegan fish and chips with mushy peas from The Plant Based chippy. While the mushy peas were slightly lacking, it was very similar to the famous vegan fish and chips found on Brighton Pier!
Credit: Adella Tobing @ The Mancunion
Credit: Priyanka Menon @ The Mancunion
We also shared a vegan Mac n Cheese from Wholesome Junkies. While it was creamy, it lacked flavour and needed more salt and cheesiness to make it stand out. As a vegan, Priyanka thought there was room for much improvement; however, Adella was more than satisfied, despite being a dairy enjoyer.
Credit: Adella Tobing @ The Mancunion
Finally for dessert, we picked up a slice of coconut cake with passionfruit filling from Vegan Sweet Tooth. This stall offered a beautiful range of Italian desserts that were beautifully decorated and savoury take-home dishes such as arancini and eggplant parmigiana. This was easily the best vegan cake Priya has had: it wasn't too dense while having a perfect texture, and had the perfect balance of sweetness and strong coconut flavour. The passionfruit filling also offered some welcome sourness and moisture to contrast the sweet cake. A satiating end to our time at the festival.
Credit: Priyanka Menon @ The Mancunion
In addition to the wide range of food, we had lots of fun looking at the natural skin care, jewellery, clothing, shoes, and more that were being sold that day. These vegan festivals are definitely worth a visit if you're vegan – or have a vegan friend – and are interested in supporting small vegan businesses both local and from around the UK.
The Northern Vegan Festival returns to Manchester on 4 April 2026.
Comments
Powered by DisqusComments are provided by Disqus.