If you are a vegan who does not live under a rock, you may have noticed that Marks & Spencer has released a new line of vegan ready meals, known as their Plant Kitchen range. This has inspired the usual comments from the online vegan community: they’re too unhealthy, inspire laziness, use too much plastic. Personally, I think anything that  makes veganism more accessible must be a good thing, and even the most well-intentioned home cook/zero-waster has the occasional day when they just need a quick fix. As such, I was very pleased to see these products start popping up at the M&S branches in Prague.

The mushroom pie is my favourite discovery, because vegan pastry is virtually unheard of here. This pastry in particular is so buttery that the first time I had it I went and double checked the box just in case it wasn’t really vegan. It is delicious! So far I’ve only found it in one location in Prague (Wenceslas Square, for anyone trying to track it down), but it’s always worth the detour.

The dirty fries are more readily available, and also pretty good – proper, thickly cut chips are hard to come by in these parts, to I definitely appreciate that.

The chips are doused in a tomatoey sauce and bechamel. Generally, I like a dry chip, but I can’t deny that these are tasty. Both sauces are really nice, and there’s good coverage on the chips as well. There’s something quite decadent about chips like these!

We paired the fries with the cauliflower popcorn for a lazy night in, kicking off our long overdue great Buffy rewatch (six episodes in I have to say that Xander’s creepy obsession with Buffy has not aged well). It is perfect in-front-of-the-TV junk food!

The coating on the cauliflower was good and well-seasoned, and the pieces were the perfect size for pecking at. The dip was also pleasant, though not spectacular.

I’d heard mixed reviews about the cashew mac from the rest of the vegan community, so I was expecting the worst. I needn’t have worried though!

The sauce was good and creamy, and the mushrooms and crumb topping were great additions. It might have needed a touch more seasoning, but honestly, for a ready meal I think this was really good.

And lastly, we’ve also tried the lasagne (ah, behold the yellow stickers – always a welcome sight!). This was the most underwhelming of the bunch – solid, but a bit bland and unremarkable. Fine for an emergency, but I won’t be rushing to purchase it again like I will with the others.

So there we have it – vegan life just got a little easier, and I’m definitely on board! The pie is already one of my favourite vegan products ever (yes, better than the Linda McCartney pie), and I hope it will spread to the other locations around Prague.

What other products from the range should I look out for? And is anyone else really disappointed that the sandwich from this range is essentially just hummus and avocado? I was expecting so much more!