The Greggs Vegan Sausage Roll reached the iconic status very quickly. It took Mona Lisa 200 years and the 2 CV (La Deudeuche) four decades but the vegan sausage roll took off on its little pastry-fuelled rocket and reached the top in only a couple of months. With a twisted turn of fate and delightful irony, this happened partly because of all the grumpy fuss some people made about it. It did make some very cross and some ecstatic and became famous in the process.

Our first attempt at sampling this potential marvel was less than successful. We were travelling and stopped at some motorway services boasting the presence of a Greggs shop. We geared ourselves up and were ready for the Greggs sausage roll experience. We parked by the pond and walked to the huge services’ shopping hall… where we were told there weren’t any left for the day. We were not prepared to give up that easily. How about the vegan doughnut? They were not selling that one yet. The vegan steak bake maybe, whatever a steak bake is? They were baking some but they wouldn’t be ready for another half hour. We were tired, hungry and in a hurry to get home to see Penelope Rabbit, who was waiting for us stomping her foot and expecting a banana offering. We admitted defeat, bought a fruit salad from M&S and went back to the car to eat it while watching the ducks. It was all a bit of a non-event, no offense to the ducks. They were absolutely adequate in their duckness. We kept a grape for Penelope so some of us had a better deal than others.

For our second attempt we were better prepared. We had a plan B, with a list of shops in a 10 miles range in case we were met with the same resistance. Mr Binky went on the mission while I was co-ordinating from home using Skype. Half an hour later it was the triumphal return of the hunter-gatherer laden with a small box containing 2 Greggs Vegan Sausage Rolls.

I had prepared a salad to go with, to lower the average junkyfoodness level of the meal. Surely if you add plenty of lettuce and cucumber it makes it ok…

Then came the moment of truth, the first bite: chew, chew, chew, roll the eyes up to the ceiling while chewing some more (somehow this makes the taste buds more efficient), swallow and look at each other… Reciprocal stare of delight and excitement: this is truly delicious! The pastry is light and layers beautifully while flaking away just like it should and the vegan sausage is very… sausagy… without tasting alarmingly meaty. It doesn’t feel too heavy either. It rates at 312 kcals, which isn’t that outrageous, providing you eat only 1 and you skip the chips.

Since then we had the sausage rolls 3 times (oooops), with more salad and cucumber of course. Between the great taste and the controversy, the iconic status is well and truly deserved. Have you tried it? What did you think? Let us know in the comments below…

Happy eating 🙂