I went to Borough Market recently after meeting some non-vegan friends for brunch at Mallow. I last went to Mallow a couple of years back when I could still eat gluten, and really liked the food there. (For those who don't know Mallow, it's a sort of upmarket vegan place, and part of the same chain as Mildreds. For those who don't know Mildreds, it's a small chain of vegan restaurants in London that's been around for decades and serves a world-food type menu).
My non-vegan friends loved the vegan food at Mallow. Alas, I didn't get to try any of it, as there weren't any dishes that were marked on the menu as not containing gluten, apart from things that looked like they were cooked in the same fryer as gluten-containing things - and I didn't want to take my chances. So, my friends had a lovely brunch, I had a bellini and an empty stomach. But, after my sadly liquid brunch, I headed into the market to find some good, gluten-free food.
If you're vegan, there's no shortage of great food to check out at Borough Market. If you're vegan and gluten-free, it's a little bit harder, but you can still eat really well.
My first stop was Tacos Padre - as you've probably guessed, it's a stall which sells tacos, but what you might not have guess is that it's almost entirely gluten-free.
Alas, it's not vegan, but the vegan choices they do are delicious. When I went there were three vegan choices: smoked celeriac with orange habanero glaze, charred cauliflower with salsa macha, and crispy potato with salsa verde. They all sounded amazing, so I grabbed a couple - the cauliflower and the potato.
One of the difficulties with Borough Market is that there's not a lot of places to actually sit down and eat whatever food you've bought, so stood up next to the stall and ate my tacos like a goblin. They didn't last long - not only because they were tasty, but because they were tiny too. Which made them a great starter for my three-course Borough Market lunch, but you'll need quite a few to make a full meal (or maybe I'm just inventing an excuse here to eat more tacos).
If Tacos Padre was my starter, I headed over to Horn OK Please for my main course. Luckily, Tacos Padre and Horn OK Please are next to each other so it wasn't a long journey!
Horn OK Please (named after the message you often see on the back of vehicles in India, which means 'honk your horn if you're overtaking) sells a small-but-perfectly formed menu of vegetarian Indian street food, most of which is vegan or can be made vegan, and the same for gluten free. I love masala potatoes, I love dosas, so I didn't need any excuse to order a dosa with masala potatoes.
This was one of the vegan dosa options - a soft crepe, comfortingly-spiced potatoes, crunchy sev. For £10 for a plate, it feels like a good deal in a part of London that really isn't known for bargains.
After my two course Borough Market lunch, I wasn't hungry, but I still went looking for dessert, because I love dessert - if I was in charge of menus, I'd put dessert first so there's no chance I'd have to skip it because I was too full.
I hit up Free From Bakehouse - a bakery that caters to various allergies and dietary preferences, including soy-free, nut-free, vegan and gluten-free, and luckily for me, even does sweet treats that are both vegan and gluten free at the same time.
Given I was too full for dessert at the market, I took a few treats home with me - a bakewell tart and a slab of cookies and cream cake. Getting good cake that's vegan and properly gluten-free can be a slog at the best of times, so finding Free From Bakehouse felt like stumbling on an oasis after you've been wandering around the desert for too long. Or finding a dessert after you've been wandering around Borough Market for too long!
Having recently had to switch to a fully gluten free diet (thanks coeliac disease), there's no getting away from the fact that gluten-free cakes do not taste the same, or have the same texture as gluten-containing cakes. They can be drier, chalkier, crumblier (at least in my experience). The Free From Bakehouse cakes managed to side step all of these pitfalls, and turned out suitably moist and luxurious. I know this, because I had them both for breakfast the next day. No regrets.
Borough Market
8 Southwark Street, London, SE1 1TL
0207 407 1002
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