Muffins galore

I headed to Covent Garden the other day to find a muffin shop that I'd read about online that does gluten-free muffins - Muffinskis. I found it and it was certainly worth the walk from work as they indeed do make gluten-free ones and the one I had was seriously good! There was blueberry and white chocolate and raspberry and white chocolate on offer - I went for the blueberry. It was pretty fricking tasty - crunchy on top and filled with loads of blueberries so gooey inside - great texture and delicious - hooray! The man behind the counter, who I think is possibly the owner, was really friendly too and knew what was in the muffins (no soya flour, thank God) which is always useful. DEFINITELY worth a visit. My trip there inspired me to come up with a better recipe for my own muffins which I did and I have to say they were seriously winning (banana ones). I will post the recipe shortly...

So visit Muffinskis - you can eat in or take away so a good place to meet friends for tea as, for once, you won't have to miss out on the cakes - yay!

Gluten-free Indian food in Soho

Rasa will always be my favourite Indian restaurant in London, but for lunchtime take-aways I have a new best friend - Imli. As a restaurant that introduced 'Indian tapas' to London, I have always been suspicious of it and never ventured in, but after Googling "best dal in Soho" and seeing it I thought I'd check out the menu on the website. I then discovered that they do take-away AND that on the Imli To Go menu they mark what is gluten-free - amazing!
I went there to pick up some lunch today and had some of the best tadka dal I've ever had, some rice and a delcious passion fruit lassi - all for £5.97 (you get a 10% discount if you pick it up rather than have it delivered) - bargain!
It really was good and they do three desserts which are all gluten-free, starters, mains and sides. No gluten-free bread available but you get free poppadums with your order anyway. A winner.

Vegan, vegetarian - and gluten-free!

Having just started working in Soho, after a lengthy spell of lunchtime-option nothingness in Queen's Park, I have been like a child in a (gluten-free) sweet shop - running around trying all the different options on my lunch hour. I did some Googling to see what came up and found a review for Beatroot - a tiny cafe practically opposite my new office. It has a range of hot and cold options to choose from and three different-sized containers to put them in - ranging from £3.70 - £5.70.
The staff are really friendly and knowledgeable about what's in the food and there are loads of gluten-free options - they even use gluten-free soy sauce in their stir-fries. It's all vegetarian and I think they do lots of vegan things too - including nut/dried fruit cakes etc.
The food I had (dal, rice and some tofu stir-fry) was all really good, simple and nutritious - if I had one complaint it would be that it was slightly bland as not much salt - however, that's good for me so I shouldn't really make an issue out of it...!
Definitely somewhere I'll be returning too - especially as summer dissolves into the cooler months and warming food is on the agenda...