Lalita's - Alchemy Festival, Southbank

To say I’m normally veg averse would be a bit of an understatement.  After trying a selection of Lalita’s vegan and vegetarian Indian/Gujarati street food I’m beginning to feel like I’ve been missing out.

Lalita’s have been doing the festival circuit for a while as well as private catering but I caught them a few weeks ago at the Alchemy festival on the Southbank.  Chatting to Ums though who runs the stall hopefully we’ll be seeing more of them at some of London’s other street food markets as well.

The Pav Bhaji were freaking great; pav are basically griddled bread rolls and the bhaji is a slow cooked mixed vegetable sabji. The pav bhaji was topped with chopped raw onions, fresh coriander, green chillies, salad leaves, and then some amazing homemade chutney.

Ours had the tomato and garlic; I’ve got to say I’ve never eaten anything like it before, the sabji was deep and rich in flavour, almost creamy.  I was confused; how can vegetarian food be this tasty?

Next up was the roti roll and my favourite if I’m honest.  Crispy potato masala warmed in a rich tomato base, wrapped in a roti fresh from the griddle and topped with salad and more of the fantastic chutney but date and tamarind this time.

I was getting quite full but found some space for an onion bhaji.  By this point more of a vehicle for chutney but delicious all the same.

I grabbed a masala chai as well for the walk to the pub afterwards and spicy tea is definitely the future; I think I could taste cardamon, pepper, lemongrass in there.  I love that Lalita’s only use their own home made spice mix which turns out is made by Ums’ mum and the stalls name sake Lalita!

If you spot Lalita’s around the place it’s definitely worth a try; apparently this was only a small selection of what they do as each stall had basically been told what they can sell as it was part of the Alchemy festival.  I’m definitely a fan.