The past weekend, I visited the Plant-Powered Show at the CTICC in Cape Town! I visited the different exhibitor stands and attended Plant-Power Talks sponsored by ProVeg South Africa and cooking demo’s sponsored by Checkers. One of my aims for the weekend was to establish a list of my favorite vegan products as tasted at the show. This is a vegan meal prep resource, so the products listed in this post are products that I find most practical in terms of making vegan meal prep easier, more fun, and thus more maintainable. As well as a few delicious treats!
This post is not sponsored by any of the mentioned brands. I merely tasted all these products at the Show and want to share them with you! I will link to each of the products on the Faithful To Nature Webshop (affiliate links) or the brand’s online shop (non-affiliate links). If the product isn’t available online, I will link to the stockist whenever possible. These products aren’t listed in a specific order of preference.
Unfortunately, the Show didn’t have any vegan cheese brands exhibiting their products. Since I was hoping to explore new vegan cheese options, I found that a bit disappointing. If you were hoping to find vegan cheese on this list, you will be disappointed as well.
This post is all about the 13 Hottest Vegan Products On The South African Market!
1. Yokos Dairy-Free Yoghurt
Yokos has the largest range of vegan yoghurt on the South African market. They have plain-cultured coconut yoghurt, flavoured cultured coconut yoghurt, as well as plain-cultured oat, cashew, almond, and hazelnut yoghurt! They recently launched a range of vegan milk and frozen yoghurt as well!
Their dairy-free yoghurt allows you to whip up a nutritious vegan brekkie or snack in no time! It also makes vegan meal prep easier and more delicious. Think overnight oats or chia pudding, made with dairy-free yoghurt! So good.
2. ButtaNut Spreads
ButtaNut offers a wide variety of nut butter featuring flavours such as cocoa macadamia, cinnamon macadamia, pistachio cashew, and more!
Nuts and seeds are excellent sources of nutrients that vegans can find challenging to consume enough of. Specifically, nuts and seeds are a great way for vegans to get in healthy fats including omega 3s, vitamin E, zinc, iron, calcium, and selenium. Why not get your nuts in with some exciting nut-based spread on your breakfast toast? For meal prep, they are the best addition to overnight oats!
3. Pesto Princess Foods
Pesto Princess has a wide range of vegan-friendly convenience foods, such as pesto, hummus, soups, and sauces! They are all made with wholesome unprocessed ingredients, which you are familiar with in your home kitchen.
All their products are insanely tasty and allow you to whip up a workday lunch in no time. Check out this Pesto Pasta Salad or this Harissa Chickpea Wrap for vegan meal prep inspiration. Their soups and sauces are perfect to whip up a nutritious fuss-free dinner in no time.
4. Outcast Foods Premixes
Outcast Foods offers a range of premixes, to make falafel, burgers, and flapjacks in an instant! All premixes are made of wholesome unprocessed ingredients. Despite being premixes, they don’t contain fillers, preservatives, or additives.
Aside from being super tasty, they allow you to put a meal on the table quickly. I personally love to use them during short meal prep sessions or when we go camping! They have saved lives in my household.
5. Gudness Plant-Based Cold Cuts
Gudness offers an innovative plant-based alternative to conventional deli meats! Plant-based deli meats have been widely available on the US and EU markets for many years, but Gudness is a newer brand, which is locally produced in South Africa!
Cold cuts are particularly nostalgic for me! While growing up in Belgium, my Mom would pop into our local butchery several times per week, to pick up fresh meat. Every visit, my sister and I would get a rolled-up slice of cold cut. It makes me happy to still be able to eat cold cuts, without the meat!
6. On The Greenside Chicken Mayo Sandwich Available at Vida E Caffe
On the 1st of June 2022, Vida E Caffe is launching a VEGAN Ch*cken Mayo Toastie in their stores nationwide. The toastie made its debut at the Plant-Powered Show and it didn’t disappoint. The plant-based chicken that is used to make the sandwich is from the On The Greenside brand.
My husband had the Toastie for lunch on the Saturday of the Show and he absolutely loved every bite of it.
7. Meatless Farm Burger Patties
There are already plenty of meatless burger patties on the South African market, but Meatless Farm burger patty is the newest kid on the block. It is imported from the UK and is a meat alternative, that resembles meat very closely. Their stand was very popular at the Show and many people told me it was the best thing they tasted at the event.
I personally love a good burger patty and this one was nothing short of delicious! At our household, we make burgers every Wednesday night and the Meatless Farm burger patties will definitely become part of the rotation.
8. B-Well Plato’s Crisps
How cool is this? B-Well developed a crisp made of spent grain, a by-product from the brewing industry. By upcycling the spent grain they make an effort to reduce food waste. The crisps are named Plato’s and come in three different flavours.
My husband and I bought a packet of each flavour at the Show and these crisps will be a great addition to my office lunch box and our weekend graze platters!
9. Mama Bongi’s Choc Chip Cookies
Mama Bongi makes the best choc chip cookies! Her choc chip business is her side hustle, which allows her to send money to her kids who live in Zimbabwe.
I personally love a delicious choc chip cookie and these have become my go-to! I also love to gift them, especially to vegan sceptics. Please support Mama Bongi if you love choc chip cookies and have the funds to do so!! She and her cookies are incredible.
10. Cheaky Co Roasted Chicpea Chyps
Cheaky Co, aka the chickpea experts, is dedicated to creating delicious plant-based snacks that best express the many tasty properties of the adaptable chickpea. They have both sweet and savoury chickpea options on offer!
I’m personally obsessed with their savoury range and stocked up on their sea salt and vinegar roasted chickpea chyps at the Show. They make the yummiest snacks!
11. POP Secret Ice Cream
POP Secret promises to make all your ice cream dreams come true in an unconventional fashion. And boy, they do not lie! They serve flavours such as pecan cinnabomb, lemon berry cheesecake, mangolicious, miso salted caramel, peanut butter choc chunk, and classic chocolate. All dairy-free!
My favourite dessert is ice cream! And yes, this made my first few years as a vegan damn hard! There were essentially no vegan ice cream options on the market back then. Nowadays, I can eat the most delicious miso salted caramel ice cream thanks to brands like POP Secret! It makes me want to cry with every lick I take.
12. Malies Ice Cream
Shout out to Jessica Kotlowitz / The Green Dietitian‘s husband and toddler for posing for this picture 🙂 !
Malies Ice Cream is lower in sugar ice cream celebrating indigenous African ingredients, such as baobab and marula nut!
Despite its lower sugar content, it doesn’t sacrifice flavour! All flavours are absolutely smooth, creamy, delicious, and toddler approved!
13. CultureLab Kombucha
CultureLab was founded and is run by the ambitious husband and wife duo, Amy and Jacques! They offer a really fun variety of kombucha flavours: Wild Dagga Ginger, Lemongrass, Buchu Rooibos, and Konfettibos.
I’m not going to lie, I’m big on kombucha and I’ve enjoyed most kombucha brands I’ve tried. But, I’m currently very into the fun CultureLab flavours and I’m absolutely smitten by their new branding. It’s stunning! My husband and I bought a 24-can case at the Show! We are stocked up for a few days.
This post was all about the 13 Hottest Vegan Products On The South African Market!
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