The days are shorter, the weather is colder and festive adverts are already splashed across our TV screens. This only means one thing- Greggs' Christmas menu is coming and there's a new vegan addition to the menu. The Vegan Turkey-free & Stuffing Baguette is available to buy now, arriving earlier than the hotly anticipated festive bakes which are coming to stores on November 10.
The baguette seems to be a vegan Christmas take on Greggs' meaty Roast Chicken and Stuffing Baguette. The Vegan Turkey-Free & Stuffing Baguette costs £3.50 (the same price as the meat option which is a big plus when it comes to often overpriced vegan alternatives) and the white baguette is filled with sage and onion plant-based THIS™ goujons, cranberry and port sauce and onion gravy.
As a big Greggs fan when it comes to their vegan offerings and a lover of anything vaguely Christmas-related, I gave one a try and here's what I thought....
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After hearing about people's troubles of getting hold of one of these bad boys due to them selling out, I set off nice and early on my mission to get my hands on a turkey-free baguette. There were just two left when I arrived at around 11am so I got mine heated up in store and accepted the fact that I'd be eating stuffing and fake turkey for breakfast.
I drove it home in anticipation and the smell of fresh bread, stuffing and cranberry sauce filled my car. It smelled like a roast dinner and I felt like putting on some Mariah Carey and going to do some present shopping.
Resisting the urge to go into full Christmas mode, I came home excited to tuck in but when I took the baguette out of its wrapping and opened it up, I was already disappointed. The inside looked a bit sad, where was the festive spirit of piling up a sandwich with all the tasty trimmings? The turkey-free pieces were coated in some stuffing which looked a bit soggy and the baguette desperately needed decking out with more fillings.
Each bite was different as the pitiful amount of gravy and cranberry were unevenly spread on - a big Christmas sandwich no-no in my books - but overall it was a stodgy sandwich that needed something to cheer it up a bit.
As vegan meat alternatives can often be quite dry, it is important all the other components of a sandwich like this bring the wow factor. With such mean servings, this baguette could not be saved. Some mouthfuls just consisted of plain bread which is the Greggs brunch equivalent of getting coal in your Christmas stockings.
As vegan options can always be a bit hit and miss and the only other vegan baguette option at Greggs is a plain, cold "cheese" and "ham", I might buy it again if I had nowhere else to get lunch and was really hungry (because that's how desperate lunch trips can get when you are looking for vegan food).
At £3.50 a pop though, I won't be running to try this stingy baguette again anytime soon! Maybe I was unlucky with mine, but I don't think this addition is anything to get excited about if you are plant-based. I'll stick to the Greggs vegan bakes for now.
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