Find the best vegan, gluten-free hampers / food boxes
If you are reading this it is likely that you are choosing a non-dairy and or non-gluten diet or you know someone who is choosing this diet. This may be due to certain intolerances or allergies or maybe for environmental reasons. Whatever the reason, it's January and whilst we are being asked to stay at home, there is an opportunity to eat better food. In particular, if you think you would like to remove or reduce meat, fish and dairy from your diet, to give your body a break after the recent Christmas period and to allow your body to instead be exposed to snacks with ingredients that are lentils, beans, pulses, fruit, vegetables, seeds and nuts, keep reading as we share tips and explain why our ProperBoxes can help deliver you what you need.
Some call it 'Veganuary' others just say they would like to have a healthier diet for a while. If you're going to do it though, and you really want to give your body that clean break then you need to cut it out of cooking but also snack foods, so why make it hard, why look at every snack product before you buy it when ProperBox can select the right products and deliver it all to you in one go.
At ProperBox, we not only select products from small UK business but we also make sure you won't sacrifice on taste. This is why all our tea and snack ProperBoxes are loved by everyone because the most important thing is to provide you with the best tasting and highest quality British products and many of our ProperBoxes are 100% vegan, gluten-free and organic.
So whatever the reason or motivation, if you want to treat yourself or someone to a special foodie gift and you have your mind set on it being a dairy-free, gluten-free and or organic, keep reading. Here are our top 5 tips on what to look for when buying your food box/hamper and why we think ProperBox can help.
1. Crackers
There are a lot of gluten-free crackers out there. We have come along way since gluten-free whole grain oats or rice based products. You or your friend might be used to having a certain type of cracker but they won‘t necessarily find it exciting to receive that in a gift box, so try to look for those crackers with ingredients that make it interesting? Maybe chickpeas, lentils or corn? Also kale or carrots or other seeds can add lots of delicious taste to the crunch.
Our Veganuary and Little Vegan tea and snack box comes with Cru8 Kale Crackers. They are organic, raw vegan, paleo, gluten-free, dairy-free and have no GM or artificial ingredients! These go well topped with avocado or hummus with tomatoes and or cucumber. It’s a delicious, satisfying healthy snack.
2. Chocolate
Whilst milk chocolate was a wonderful innovation, the best way to taste the cocoa is with a high percentage dark chocolate. Tread with caution here though because not all dark chocolate is the same and 70% chocolate can taste completely different to 90% chocolate which is a lot more bitter. Also dark chocolate can get a bit boring but when combined with other flavours or ingredients it can transform the taste.
Our Veganuary tea and snack box comes with a selection of Love Cocoa’s organic dark chocolate bars. They are also palm oil-free and made in the U.K. If you or the person you are buying for feels guilty munching on these luxurious goodies then don’t forget to mention that Love Cocoa plant a tree for every chocolate bar sold - good thing you get three Love Cocoa chocolate bars in our Veganuary box ... as that means three trees are planted with every purchase!
Both the Little Vegan and Veganuary tea and snacks box also include a delicious Goji Berry and Cashew dark chocolate bar by Gnaw. This is not just any dark chocolate bar, this is divine, smooth, sweet but not too sweet. As goji berries are packed with antioxidants, you or your friend will also get a free health boost with every bite!
3. Tea
Many food boxes or hampers include some kind of drink. Some have alcoholic drinks and others have tea or coffee. Think about what you or the person you are buying for would enjoy and appreciate most before choosing your food box. For instance whilst a a nice bottle of fizz sounds great, will that be used or sit waiting for a special occasion. The drink could be caffeinated or be something that can be sipped without getting over stimulated and whilst a loose leaf tea is fancy and elegant it is more work and will requires a strainer or tea pot.
All our ProperBox tea and snack boxes include a box of 15 x pyramid organic tea bags from Joe’s Tea Co so all you need is a mug and you’re ready to go. You get a complimentary choice of organic tea or infusion with the order so you can choose from Black tea (or English breakfast), Earl Grey Tea, Green Tea, Chamomile, Peppermint, Tumeric or Decaf Black.
4. Granola
When you search for a food box/hamper think about when the person might want to enjoy the contents. Is the answer breakfast, brunch, afternoon or snacking through the day? Would they appreciate all-sweet, all-savoury or a combination of sweet and savoury snacks?
Our Veganuary and Little Vegan tea and snacks boxes includes Erbology’s Tigernut Granola which is indulgently chocolatey, has no refunded sugar and is naturally sweetened with apples and dates. It’s packs a satisfyingly crunch and is perfect for any time of day. It also combines really well with the nut butter in the box!
5. Spread
A nut or seed butter is great addition to any food hamper and the best ones don't need dairy products because nuts and or seeds naturally have a lot of their own healthy fats which give a creamy consistency. They are a wonderful snack that you can eat with crackers, granola or just with a spoon straight out of the jar.
Our Veganuary ProperBoxes comes with Nutcessity's caromel cashew organic nut butter which also contains carob powder, pumpkin seeds and pink salt and our little Vegan ProperBox comes with Nutcessity's Date and Walnut organic nut butter - both of which are fantastic.
We hope you found our first blog post interesting and helpful and that you decided to buy one of our ProperBoxes!