AN ABERDEEN hotel is leading the way with a delicious range of mouth-watering vegan dishes to help support World Vegan Month throughout this week.
The hotel will showcase a variety of delicious vegan recipes to celebrate the 100% cruelty-free lifestyle – which is a way of life that omits all forms of cruelty to animals for food, products or any other purpose.
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The plant-based menu – which will run for a week – has been created by head chef at the Craighaar Hotel, Kenny Moir.
Kenny, head chef at the Stoneywood hotel, which is only a stone’s throw from the P&J Live, has created a tempting array of dishes to whet the appetite of even the fussiest eater.
Kenny, 54, who has been running the kitchen at the hotel for the past 31 years, said: “This is the first time we have put on a vegan menu during vegan month.
“People have become so much more socially conscious in recent years around food, especially the younger generation.
“The menu I have created is quite a simple one, but never-the-less, its tasty and it has so far received a really positive response for us on social media. “
There is little doubt Kenny’s dishes will draw in the crowds with his plant-based choice menu.
From his starter selection, Kenny has opted for a fresh tomato, basil and mozzarisella crostini; a herbed quinoa salad with raspberry vinaigrette; a warming bowl of leek and butternut squash soup, and a tasty cantaloupe melon with pink grapefruit and orange segments – all bound to appeal to all palettes.
From the main selection, Kenny has the famous Craighaar special vegan burger, served with tomato relish in a vegan brioche bun with side salad and skinny fries. Other main choices include stuffed baked courgette with cashew nuts, wild rice and tomato and basil sauce. For the more discerning diner the aubergine and chickpea tagine, accompanied with rice pilaff and a dish of sweet potato and avocado salad served with pomegranate seeds, spinach and toasted pine nuts dressed with lemon, are both guaranteed to please.
Should you still have room for dessert, then Kenny’s vegan salted caramel cake, vegan pancakes with blueberries and maple syrup, chocolate iced parfait and exotic fresh fruit salad will prove to be irresistible.
Although Kenny concedes the science behind vegan food is all together new to him, he never rests on his laurels and embraces the opportunity to try out new dishes which include cooking lentils in a rice cooker.
“I’ve chosen not to make the menu too complex, he carried on.
“I hope at the end of the week we will find that vegan food is not just for vegans.
“Healthy eating is something we should all embrace, and while I personally still enjoy a good steak, I myself have enjoyed sampling the menu. “
Should Kenny’s vegan menu prove to be a hit with residents’ and customers at the hotel, then they will be made available upon request.
“That’s the thing about the Craighaar Hotel, we like to move with the times.”
The popularity of veganism is rapidly growing in the UK, where vegans are set to make up a quarter of the total British population by 2025 according to Sainsbury’s Future of Food Report 2019.
