As we all begin to open ourselves up to new experiences, many people are discovering new interests and lifestyle changes. Veganism has taken the world by storm and many have started embracing this lifestyle. With many people getting to know veganism, a lot of them do not know where they should start from. However, there nothing to worry about as vegan businesses can always satiate your cravings and introduce you to wonderful world of vegan food.
Dubai is home to a number of vegan entrepreneurs that have built their business through hard work, determination, and with a mission to change people's lives with their delicious food.
Marilyne Defer - Pumpkin & Kale (@pumpkin_and_kale)
Born and raised in France, Marilyne has worked her entire career in hospitality and catering.
In 2015 Marilyne moved to UAE with her family and dedicated herself to mastering her skills in cooking, creating recipes and also hosting workshops and cooking classes to share her knowledge about Raw Plant-Based food.
In 2018 Marilyne founded Pumpkin and Kale, to deliver meal plans specially tailored to each client’s needs, new addition to our Meal Plans are Family Meals, Healthy range of snacks and kids cooking kit.
Many items are made from scratch, from the almond cheese to coconut yoghurts, our granola, raw crackers and kale chips are dehydrated, Marilyne as the chef make sure that she delivers only quality meals and snacks.
Pumpkin & Kale stands for healthy and tasty and quality meals.
Marilyne also stated,
As a Chef, I personally craft Pumpkin & Kale meals for full on flavour and health benefits.
I take the time to source only the finest ingredients and ensure nature's nutrients are nurtured during the preparation process.
As a Mom, I make sure that every product is as wholesome, hygienically handled and delivered to your table with the same love and attention as the meals delivered to my family table.
Instagram: @pumpkin_and_kale
Flour Girl
Flour Girl is a pastry shop/ concept that I started with my brothers. We are the first in the UAE to bring the concept of Cruffins, which are croissant/muffins. They have the top flakiness of a croissant and soft/ spongy inside of a muffin. We also made vegan options with them!
We are all about creativity, quality and exceptional taste. As a French trained chef, it’s really important to me to keep the traditional authentic processes of desserts and baked goods while adding my creative and middle eastern twists on them. Additionally, I was really motivated to create vegan desserts and baked goods that have flavour, quality and variety as I felt that there was a huge lack of such products in the market. Currently we are running out of a central kitchen in Al Quoz, catering directly to customers through our website and online platforms like Talabat, Zomato and Instashop. We have a wide range of vegan and non-vegan desserts from cakes, cookies, cake jars, croissants and of course our famous Cruffins.
I started my business journey from home during lockdown. I wasn’t working and had just moved back to Dubai from working at Nobu in Houston, Texas which was so fast paced and creative.
So not having much to do and not being able to be away from the kitchen too long, I decided to start baking and creating new things from home. As my friends and family started tasting what I was making, they started to really motivate me to start selling what I was making as they couldn’t find it anywhere else. Slowly things started to fall more and more into place, I moved to a commercial kitchen space, partnered up with my brothers and with the help and support of my awesome family and friends, Flour Girl came to life !
If you feel like you have made a differences in the vegan community really grateful and proud to have made a difference in the vegan community. It took a bit of time and experimentation but I can truly say our vegan products are one of kind. Our vegan croissants and cruffins are buttery and flaky, with the same exact characteristic of non vegan French croissants. Our cakes and cookies are light and delicious as well, and they are sweetened with coconut sugar which makes them healthy and quite guilt free!
Visit their website: www.flourgirlbakeries.com
Donaccino (@ildonaccino)
Like every story starts with a dream this was no different than bringing dreams of 3 men into reality but with a twist which in turn became their well-known concept and eventually which is picked up by other brands. PS: They still do.
Donaccino was born from two things: 1. From the idea of spreading happiness in the most unharmful way 2. Love for Coffee.
This was started 7 years back in JLT, when we had very limited flavours & staff. Our heart was full and so was the appetite of our customers when we started receiving positive feedback in no time about the deliciousness and quality of these cute, eggless fluff balls in the Dubai Market. Our dream for sure came true but there was one more thing which we always wanted to live by while doing this business – “conscious living”. There came a time when we realized the importance of how difficult it is to give/save a life and how easy it has become to take one. No matter which species you are, healthy living is a birth right. However, rarely does it come without effort, and a mindfulness on our part to maintain it. That’s when we decided that we will start our line of Vegan donuts and it sounded astonishing, expensive (of course) and impossible at first but our love for this community was undeniable too. And guess who won?
Eating one vegan diet could be the “single biggest way” to reduce your environmental impact on earth. Researchers at the University of Oxford found that cutting meat and dairy products from your diet could reduce an individual's carbon footprint from food by up to 73% and we can proudly say that we have been part of this 73 % from past 7 years now and are absolutely committed to do so in the future.
Some of the feedbacks were so overwhelming, in fact that was one of the major reasons that we expanded our kitchen to Business Bay in 2020. Yes, COVID – 19 - this pandemic changed us but not all changes that happened in 2020 were bad, in 2021 May we also started spreading our circle of happiness to another emirate – Abu Dhabi and we can swell with proud by saying that the response is equally loveable from the other side too.
We not only specialize in regular donuts, but we also have baked donuts – for the ones who keep a check on their cheat meals too, savoury donuts – for someone who doesn’t have a sweet tooth. We were delighted to be part of some of incredible birthday celebrations and festivities.
Instagram: @ildonaccino
Vegan Cookies Dubai (@vegancookiesdubai)
I’ve been vegan for 3 years and one thing I can say that I have missed is indulgent deserts. There are many businesses and coffee shops (as well as Instagram businesses) that sell normal deserts but not many that are 100% vegan. I had finished for summer at university in May and had a lot of time to devote to experimenting and baking so I thought why not start baking vegan cookies and see how it goes. I started up my Instagram account and wanted to show everyone that being vegan does not mean only eating salad and vegetables, you can also eat delicious indulgent deserts. I got my dad to try the cookies and he said they taste just like normal cookies! and he is a big meat eater. One of the best compliments I’ve revived has been from a customer who isn’t vegan at all but said that they are the Best cookies he has ever tried! Compliments like that just make me so happy and make the long nights I spend baking worth all of my time.
Instagram: @vegancookiesdubai
Pravishtah - Gluttonkitten (@gluttonkitten)
My name is Pravishtah, the creator of @gluttonkitten , a new mom and an old baking enthusiast. I learnt my baking and confectionery basics during my graduation in hotel management. And there on, it has been purely out of enthusiasm that I self taught many techniques and methods.
6 years back, I made a life changing and a wonderful decision to turn vegan. Since then, I have been re learning all that I already knew , on completely plant based ingredients. @gluttonkitten happened recently when my friends started giving me their orders for birthdays and other celebrations. As a homebaker, you do have limited resources reaching out, but so far, it has been great. I remember, when I turned vegan, the baking goods used to be a bit over priced, which always made me limit my purchases. Daily, we consume many 'accidentally vegan' goods without the tag. But the moment it is identified as vegan , the pricing and marketing changes for some reason. I wanted to change that. Granted, sometimes, ingredients can be a bit more expensive than the rest, but all the baking through @gluttonkitten is reasonably priced. I also make sure there is minimum plastic usage in packaging and everything is cruelty free, just like my household.
As a profession or otherwise, I plan to continue Baking in future . It is absolutely wonderful and encouraging when your customers get back to you with such amazing and positive feed back. Although @gluttonkitten is plant based , I am equally approached by people who want to try vegan bakes out of curiosity or for a change, people with allergies and vegetarians. Very delighted and thankful to receive appreciation from all ends.
Instagram: @gluttonkitten
Dimple Khitri - Being Vegan (@beingvegan.dubai)
Being Vegan is a delivery restaurant that offers a variety of vegan sweets and savouries. All of our products are refined sugar free, dairy free, soy free, food colour free and most of them are also gluten free. Being Vegan is for anybody who is planning to transit into or is thriving to maintain a vegan diet. We believe in promoting conscious eating that can help one transform into a Healthy/Happy Mind, Body & Soul.
When I turned vegan, I started with first experimenting with vegan chocolate based desserts for myself since I have always been a chocoholic. While I was making those desserts, I shared them with family and friends. Gradually, I was motivated by everyone around me to start a vegan business. Today, it’s been 2 years since Being Vegan was started.
Apart from serving the vegan community with vegan desserts and bakes, we are also making sure that everyone has the option of making healthy choices. We offer products that are refined sugar free, food color free, preservatives free and gluten free as well. We also cater to allergies.
Instagram: @beingvegan.dubai
Don't miss out and visit their Instagram pages linked above for more information! Order the scrumptious treats now and treat yourself!
