Five Vegan Christmas Meal Deals
It truly is the most wonderful time of the year again. The time of the year when every shop and cafe adds a new sandwich, panini or wrap to their meal deal selection with a festive twist. I absolutely love this every year. It’s always a treat for me to head into the local Tesco, co-op or boots have a nose at the meal deal selection and pick up the new Christmas treat. So I decided this year, why not rate all of the ones that I manage to try so that others might have a rough guide of what to go for and what to avoid. With that said, right off the bat, I do have some initial likes and dislikes that I seem to find each year. Onion Bhaji as a main in a sandwich is a cop-out, I will accept a fritter if it’s made of winter vegetables but a straight bhaji is off-limits. As much as I personally dislike cranberry sauce I will accept it because it is traditional. And finally, despite understanding why some might not be happy with it, I will always prefer mock meat. I just think it’s Christmas, the star of the show is turkey so if I can get a mock chicken, or turkey or beef in my meal deal you know I’ll prefer that.
Starting off very strong here, we have the M&S Very Merry Veggie Roast Wrap. Coming in at £4.85 or £5 with a side and a drink this is an early contender for my favourite of the year. Spiced vegetable balls with butternut squash, red cabbage slaw, garlic dressing and spinach on a seeded tortilla. A solid showing from M&S, despite the price being higher than most other meal deals you know you’re always going to get good quality with Marks. All the ingredients work well together and, for me, fit in the Christmas food wheelhouse. Spiced vegetable balls aren’t too far off the dreaded bhaji but paired with the butternut, red cabbage and garlic dressing bring it right back into the crimbo territory. 4/5 would but again if the price was lower.
Myself and Gro don’t always see eye to eye as for the past two years they have tried to get away with an onion bhaji and mango chutney sandwich. So you can imagine my surprise when I saw Gro No Turkey & Spiced Slaw hitting the shelves. Soya protein pieces with roast seasoned carrot and parsnip, cranberry chutney, vegan mayo, spinach and sage, onion & oat stuffing on wheat & oatmeal bread. Now that’s what I call a Christmas sandwich. Did it need the vegan mayo added? Probably not, but I’m happy it’s there to balance out the cranberry. And for £3.70 or £4 as part of a meal deal, there isn’t too much to complain about. With that being said, it is fine, it’s a fine sandwich nothing too spectacular. 2/5 I would maybe take it on my train home this Christmas.
Tesco is actually the home of my favourite vegan meal deal main. I will always pick up a Tesco Plant Chef Roasted Vegetable & Pesto Wrap any chance that I get, so I had high hopes when I saw this year’s festive offering. Tesco Plant Chef Christmas Veg Fest is made up of roasted carrot and parsnip, spinach, red cabbage and red onion, cranberries and spices with savoury mayo in a spinach tortilla. If the idea of vegan gravy mayo isn’t enough to sell you on this, I don’t know what will. Coming in at £3.00 or £3.60 as a meal (with a little clubcard) I see no reason why you shouldn’t pick this one up over the M&S offering. It’s a fraction of the price and more or less the same filling. Very happy with this one 4/5 could’ve been elevated by a mock meat but still more cost-effective than M&S.
Boots, what’s going on here? Boots already offer a Vegan No Chicken Salad Sandwich as well as stocking This Isnt products, so what were they thinking with this one? Festive Bhaji with Mango Chutney and Mint Dressing. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I think a bhaji is a cop-out. Any other time of the year I will happily have an onion bhaji sandwich. But in my opinion at Christmas I would much rather see a “chicken” or “turkey” sandwich or even some kind of fritter or stuffing ball. The mango chutney and mint dressing do go very well with bhaji and especially for the clearance price of £1 it was a steal. For £3.99 though as a meal, I would rather go to Tesco or just pick myself up the No Chicken Salad. 1/5 I thought better of you Boots.
This one was a first for me, I have never gotten a meal deal from Aldi before for £1.99 there was no chance I was turning this opportunity down. Vegan Festive Feast sandwich made up of cranberry and poppyseed bread filled with parsnip fritters, red cabbage, and apple, as well as cranberry sauce, toasted pumpkin seeds, vegan sage and onion mayonnaise and spinach. I know I’ve stated my opinion on bhajis but a parsnip fritter just about manages to get away with it, especially because it’s combined with so many other festive ingredients. Red cabbage, apple, cranberry and even sage & onion mayonnaise, the whole sandwich works perfectly. Do I think this could be the best value-for-money vegan festive sandwich, maybe? For £1.99 you really have to try it for yourself. 3/5 good going Aldi, I’m proud of you.