When Leicester resident Donald Watson co-founded The Vegan Society in 1944, he could have had no idea how colossal his idea would become. Veganism was so new that there was no word for it – Donald had to invent ‘vegan’ using the first three and last two letters of ‘vegetarian’.
Equally, the idea of a person not eating any food derived from animals was so strange that Donald and his fellow vegans were widely seen as bonkers. So much so that critics claimed vegans couldn’t survive on their proposed diet! Today, that tiny seed planted by Donald Watson in Leicester has reshaped the global food and drink landscape. According to redefinemeat.com, there are now 79 million vegans worldwide, and the size of the plant-based food market is expected to rise to £25.50 billion by 2026, up from £11.53 billion in 2018.
In other words, what a joinery teacher called Donald started from his Leicester home in the 1940s has gone absolutely, completely and utterly ballistic on a global scale! To pay tribute to Donald Watson, Leicester’s vegetarian Indian restaurant Herb opened ‘The Donald Watson Vegan Bar’ on Granby Street in 2023. And Donald would be pleased to see many more plant-based and vegetarian venues in the city and county, plus vegan options on menus everywhere.
But Leicester’s incredible plant-based story doesn’t end with Donald Watson. By a twist of fate, many Indians who settled in Leicester came from Gujarat, an Indian state with a strong association with vegan and vegetarian food. It is often said that Leicester has the biggest Gujarati population outside of India. The result is that Leicester is now home to a spectacular array of Indian restaurants specialising in vegan and vegetarian dishes, alongside an equally fabulous selection of British plant-based delis, cafés and bistros.
So whether you fancy a plant-based Indian meal at one of the city’s superb restaurants, or something more European like a spinach and polenta slice with an oat milk coffee at one of its vegan cafes, or even a pint of vegan beer at a pub, your wish is the city’s command.
And you can eat and drink knowing that you are enjoying the experience in the world’s birthplace of vegan food.
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