{"id":616615,"date":"2025-12-06T20:23:49","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T20:23:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/616615\/"},"modified":"2025-12-06T20:23:49","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T20:23:49","slug":"one-thing-disappointed-me-about-the-vegan-food-at-manchester-christmas-markets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/616615\/","title":{"rendered":"One thing disappointed me about the vegan food at Manchester Christmas Markets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Miranda Pell went to the Manchester Christmas Markets to find out what is on offer for vegans\"DumplingsI went to try out the vegan options at Manchester Christmas Markets (Image: M.E.N)<\/p>\n

Christmas cheer has well and truly hit the city of Manchester as the annual Christmas markets are back in town – with some exciting additions including Albert Square opening up for the first time in six years. But sadly, one thing is lacking.<\/p>\n

Every year in the run up to Christmas, I wait in eager anticipation for my first taste of mulled wine; and as it has become a tradition for me to visit the markets with my mum, it has also become a tradition for us to taste all the varieties of the warming beverage on offer.<\/p>\n

This year, we were thrilled to find mince pie and pumpkin spice flavoured mulled wine at the Exchange Square site, which was probably the highlight of my Christmassy voyage into Manchester city centre.<\/p>\n

As a vegan living in Manchester, it is not often that I am faced with a lack of options, however the Christmas markets was somewhat of a let-down for what it offered herbivores like myself.<\/p>\n

\"VeganLast year I had a vegan bratwurst in Piccadilly Gardens, but sadly it was not here this year(Image: M.E.N)<\/p>\n

Thankfully, I had inspiration from Instagram account @vegan.manchester who provided a list of all the vegan options across the ten sites in Manchester city centre, which included a variety of loaded hash browns, vegan curry from Manchester staple Rita’s Reign, and an assortment of Asian cuisine.<\/p>\n

But what about the more traditional Christmas market food like Bratwurst? Well, I was disappointed to discover that (to the best of my knowledge) there are no vegan bratwurst or hot dogs on offer this year in Manchester.<\/p>\n

Last year, I had a delicious curry bratwurst from a vegan stall in Piccadilly Gardens, also known as Winter Gardens, and I was excited to taste this again. But I found that, this year, the stall was not here.<\/p>\n

On top of that, we struggled to find a vegan dessert, which forced us to go for a much less conventional pudding… but more about that later.<\/p>\n

Disappointment aside, me and my mum didn’t go hungry. We shared two varieties of loaded hash browns, an array of mulled wine, a mixed box of olives, and curry dumplings.<\/p>\n

The first dish we tried was from The Loaded Hash Browns stall at Albert Square. We ordered the Vegan Hash which is described as: “Hash browns, crispy vegan chicken, your choice of katsu or Korean BBQ sauce, spring onion, chilli and Asian slaw”. We chose the BBQ sauce, but on reflection, we decided it might have been better with the katsu.<\/p>\n

\"TheseThese were the vegan loaded hash browns from a stall in Albert Square(Image: M.E.N)<\/p>\n

The hash browns were perfectly crunchy, and not overly oily. The slaw was crisp and fresh, and the BBQ sauce was generously poured. The serving was enough for both of us to have a taste of everything and feel satisfied, ready to move on to the next dish.<\/p>\n

With a slight lack of options, we decided to try another variety of loaded hash browns, this time from Hash and Dash on Cathedral Street. These hash browns were more festive themed, aptly titled The Grinch, described as: “Brussels sprouts with garlic and chilli, green herb aioli”.<\/p>\n

I was a bit nervous when they started loading the sauce onto the potato treats, as it looked suspiciously creamy, but the staff assured me it was vegan. Although it wasn’t the most visually appealing dish, it absolutely hit the spot. While they are a rather divisive vegetable, I love sprouts, so this was a 9\/10 dish for me.<\/p>\n

The sauce was garlicky, herby, and thoroughly indulgent. For those sprout-averse among us, also available on the menu at Hash and Dash was a Merry Maple dish which includes maple mushrooms, walnuts and rosemary.<\/p>\n

\"TheseThese were The Grinch loaded hash browns from Hash and Dash(Image: M.E.N)<\/p>\n

We also tried some dumplings from Oi Dumplings in Piccadilly Gardens. We ordered the peanut dumplings; when it arrived we were handed four soft, steamed dumplings in a bed of spicy, warming curry sauce. Just spicy enough to make my nose run but without blowing my head off, the dumplings were probably my favourite thing I ate at the Christmas Markets this year.<\/p>\n

After trying all that tasty, savoury food, we went on the hunt for pudding. We had been informed that CT Event Catering, supposedly on Exchange Street, offered vegan chocolate taps, but we hunted for the stall and sadly couldn’t find it!<\/p>\n

So instead, we searched and searched for somewhere that offered a vegan dessert, asking at several stalls, but unfortunately we were unsuccessful. Standing around St Ann’s Square wondering what we could possibly have for pudding, we found ourselves stumbling into somewhere less festive.<\/p>\n

\"McDonaldsWe ended the night with an apple pie from McDonalds after failing to secure a pudding at the markets!(Image: M.E.N)<\/p>\n

We decided to go into McDonalds for an apple pie to finish off the night. Not very festive, or supportive of small businesses, but we needed something sweet to finish on and that’s all we could find!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Miranda Pell went to the Manchester Christmas Markets to find out what is on offer for vegansI went…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":616616,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,144780,393,786,4884,2465,146045,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-616615","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-christmas-markets","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-food-and-drink","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-manchester","14":"tag-manchester-christmas-markets","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115674500670650614","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}