M&S have failed with their veggie Christmas food this year?

[MandSLetDown]

Nut roasts etc arrive in store only a few days before Christmas and sell out almost instantaneously. The very lovely store assistant said they could have sold at least 20 times the number they had in and she’s spoken to a lot of disappointed people.

Slim pickings for the rest of the its in the plant based Christmas range - literally only one or two single items on the shelf.

This is a huge M&S. Rest of store decently stocked. Staff working their socks off btw so no complaints there.

Why of why do M&S do this to themselves. It’s the same with size 12 or 14 jeans - never any available. Or the most common sizes in footwear.

@MandSLetDown this nut roast is delicious (says vegetarian DD3 who insisted I make it again this year) and really simple to make:

hurrythefoodup.com/bad-ass-nut-roast-vegetarian/

@MandSLetDown But people cook a turkey! You cook your main course too! It’s really not difficult. Why ready made? Not all families by any means have a vegetarian or vegan person in them. I don’t cook vegan but would happily cook a nut roast. It’s seriously not difficult and easy to do a big one and share! I really don’t get the fuss!

Hairy Bikers Christmas book has a nice recipe for nut roast. I make individual ones in a silicone muffin tray and freeze them

Hairy Bikers Christmas book has a nice recipe for nut roast. I make individual ones in a silicone muffin tray and freeze them

Merry Christmas to you, grinch.

Yes, no nut roasts or festive tea here on Monday either. Miss the old M&S which as 5 mins from work, new one is other side of town centre so more an after work trip. Used to pop in before 9 and check dates.

I’m 58
Mum always shopped in the butchers with sawdust on the floor and that smell 🤢

but my grandad slaughtered his own pig so I surpose it’s not surprising I’ve been veggie since I was 14.

There is a butchers shop near us that displays stuff outside right next to a lovely coffee shop with outside seating. They currently have masses of pheasants hanging right across the pavement outside and huge carcasses of something in the window
I took a picture to show to dh, I won’t post. Too sad !

At least it wasn’t £195 🤯🤯

@DrPrunesqualer oh yes the sawdust 🤮🤮 I forgot about that !! and dead pheasants is so sad, they have such beautiful plumage. Poor little things 🥲 Not a nice view for anyone whilst trying to enjoy a coffee break.
i hope you have a lovely christmas break and lots of lovely healthy food xx ❤️

@MandSLetDown im with you, it would have been nice to have a ready made Nut Roast, there is too much to do without having to prepare that as well. Hope you have a good solution 🌰

A nut roast shouldn’t be over processed (assume you mean ultra-processed rather than simply processed). No vegan (or vegetarian) food needs to be.

From my understanding, the OP is cooking a full Christmas dinner with roast turkey for her family, hence wanting something easy for herself. No one gets a medal for spending all day in the kitchen - either at Christmas or any other day.

I went in looking for salmon en croute - We usually go with Aldi's, but none there so tried M&S.

Forty. Five. Quid.

£45!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Went to Aldi again next day and found our usual.

@ABeerInTheSunshineMakesMeHappy thank you! Absolutely this. Thank you for not judging me, like PPs, for daring to buy something from
M&S for a) ease and b) because I really love theirs and I doubt I’d be able to recreate it myself.

Merry Christmas 🥂

Thanks Calzone !
you too 🎄

For the record I can confirm that the M&S spinach dosas and veggie tacos were amazing!

so annoying how MnS got rid of all their plant section and mixed it in with other products. I cba hunting round the whole fucking shop to see what they offer.
Side note aldi frozen chocolate churros are vegan and amazing

Your two-word description is exactly the same as what I've just been saying about it. I bought one last week - this is the Vegetable Tikki Masala which costs £6. It was so horrible, watery, bland, with a few bits of cauliflower floating - so offputting even to look at, I couldn't eat it.

I couldn't believe it was so bad. Contrast this with the famous slogan 'It's M&S food', touting their stuff as something extra special. Who in M & S thought this was fit to send out for sale?

Tonight I had the Cauliflower and Leek Bake from Plant Kitchen. It wasn't particularly appetising either. The cauliflower was hard - I wondered if I hadn't set the temperature right - and the rest wasn't good in either flavour or texture. I put a chunk of the rock hard cauliflower in with carrots I was steaming but ended up not eating much of the thing at all.

Totally agree!

Well I had my M&S shallot tarte tatin and it was honestly AWFUL. Horrendously sickly sweet. Gross. And I’m not fussy normally!

Fewer people are wanting to be vegan so fewer options which sucks. There are about 10 versions of pigs in blankets for meat eaters and I had to search hard for veggie ones. There was one packet left - theres still clearly a need. Especially at Xmas.
Still on the hunt for a quorn ham.

This the most annoying thing. Shops jumped onto the veganism bandwagon and made loads of UPF heavy vegan fake meat products and didnt bother making vegetaran foods (usually made with real food) then when people moved on from veganism, instead of starting to make vegetarian foods, shops just stopped stocking as much vegan stuff.

@MandSLetDown its awful when they add sweet stuff like loads of caramelised onions on a decent vintage cheddar quiche. Aldi had what I thought would be a great pizza think it was 7/8 cheeses including pecorino and tallegio then when I ate it discovered it had sweet chilli relish on it too totally ruined it.