#vegantoptions

Crowned as the No. 1 Sri Lankan restaurant at the recent ‘London Asian Food Awards’, Yaalu Yaalu has been celebrating its success by launching a new Brunch Menu available to try from 9am till 2pm at weekends. Featuring innovative Sri Lankan dishes with mouth-watering coconut accents, this menu is a new take on the tired brunch basics you see and is just the thing for Londoners who are looking for an exciting new experience. We went down to see the team again and sample the new menu. Lucky for Vegans and Vegetarians, half the menu caters specifically for them and Co- founders Dinesh Mandawal and Roshan Gunasekara are working on inventing a brand new Vegetarian dish every week.  Watch this space!  

Vegans can choose between two options on the menu: the ‘Kola Kanda’ and the ‘Kiri Bath’. The ‘Kola Kanda’ is Sri Lankan’s equivalent to our traditional porridge and is made with blended green leaves in savoury rice. It is served with roti and sweet coconut juggery, which is traditionally used in Asia instead of sugar and is unrefined and intact with minerals and vitamins. This is an extremely healthy dish and is filling and satisfying similar to porridge. The ‘Kiri Bath’ is made with coconut milk rice and a choice of tuna or jackfruit and comes with caremelised onion chutney. This is a classic example of Yaalu Yaalu showing off their creative flair by pairing authentic savoury ingredients with sweet elements - they’re not one to play it safe with their recipes. Vegan and full of fibre, jackfruit is a major meat alternative now and highly popular in both Asian and British cultures.

Vegetarians can also choose between the ‘Curd Sensation’ and ‘Coconut Pancakes’. The ‘Curd Sensation’ is a healthy Sri Lankan granola made with Sri Lankan yoghurt referred to as ‘Curd’, toasted cashew, avocado and pomegranate dressed with palm treacle and a slice of roti. This is a deliciously healthy and colourful dish and more daring and interesting than your classic granola. The coconut pancakes come with sweet ‘Pani Pol’ (caremelised shredded coconut with palm treacle) blueberry, pomegranate and ‘curd’ (traditional Sri Lankan yoghurt). This is heavenly to taste and all the flavours fly in and out superbly. This would make a fabulous dessert dish too we thought.

If you’re big into brunch like us, you would certainly enjoy popping down to Yaalu Yaalu to start your weekend with what we can positively describe as a brand new experience. Yet again, we were blown away by the deliciousness of the food, the beautiful presentation and the team’s super-friendly hospitality.

We ended our brunch with Coconut Lattes and left feeling like we were ready to change the world! Yaalu Yaalu likes to keep things fresh and different, which we really like and the food simply speaks for itself. Could this be the newest brunch in London?

Website: www.yaaluyaalu.co.uk

Instagram: @yaaluyaalu