La Vie Vegan Ham is making its debut in the UK market exclusively at Tesco. We pigged out on some samples

Personally I don’t usually bother with vegetarian products masquerading as meat. Vegan food can be perfectly delicious all on its own.

That said, when you fancy a sandwich and you don’t want cheese, or cheese is out because you’re vegan, then choice is very limited.

I do like a ham sandwich, but I do also like pigs and I hate the way so many are treated. So for me  vegan ‘ham’ sounds like a good idea.

La Vie, is a French plant-based food brand that has spent five years developing a vegan ham that can compete with traditional ham in taste, smell, and texture. They’ve been previously very successful with vegan bacon rashers and lardons

This vegan ham  entered the  French “Carrefour Plant-Based Contest” winning  “Flavor of the Year 2023,” and comes in two flavours – regular and smoked. Both are made from ingredients that include pea protein, soy protein, radish juice concentrate, potassium acetate (acidity regulator), salt, natural flavourings, and vegan lactic acid.

So we tried them both, with some vegan butter and crammed inside a sourdough baguette. Added extras were some lettuce and tomato.

The shape of the slices is very regular, very round, no attempt is made to mimic a ‘proper’ slice of ham, and it’s thinly sliced. We thought it only fair to try a slice naked, as well as in the baguette.

Texture wise both flavours are pretty good, there’s a decent juicy ‘chew’ to them and the mouth feel is reminiscent of ham. Eaten on their own there is the definite ‘mealiness’ of a pea to the texture. The smoked ham is the strongest flavoured and has actually quite a strong aroma too, our fridge soon filled with it once we had opened the pack. This apparently is normal and it goes away soon after. 

We put both into baguettes and were pretty impressed. They certainly looked like ham rolls and the overall taste, which was perfecly fine,  would probably have fooled us had we not known in advance what we were eating. Bien fait!

If you’re vegan or have a young family member bugging you about what he or she eats saying ‘ meat is murder!’, then this new ham is definitely worth a try.

La Vie’s Vegan Ham regular and smoked 100g packs are priced at just £3 RRP exclusively in Tescos.