Soul ALife – Rejuvenate Your Soul As You Graze on Beautiful Vegan Dishes

Many of us don’t get an adequate amount of fibre in our diet. Yes, we may eat the vegetables served in our handmade noodles, or make an effort to order vegetables when eating economic rice, but how many of us are actually meeting the recommended daily intake of veggies? 

Vegetarian and vegan eateries are on the rise in Singapore, so it really isn’t that hard for us to maybe just take two or three vegan/vegetarian meals a week to ensure that we are consuming an adequate amount of greens.

Soul ALife is a new vegan café that sprouted in China Square. Although they consider themselves vegan, do take note that they use garlic and onion in some of their dishes.

The café sells beautiful and healthy dishes at affordable prices, considering that they’re located in the CBD.

We tried the Buddha Bowl ($9.90) and the Teriyaki Burger ($9.90).

The Buddha Bowl reminded me very much of bimbimbap. All the different ingredients are laid out in a circle, and the psychedelic colours really make the dish look more like a piece of art than a meal. The bowl comes with a myriad of ingredients —  purple slaw, turmeric cauliflower, roasted sweet potatoes, edamame and more. A generous dollop of homemade beetroot hummus, which comes in an electric pink shade, sits in the middle. 

Other than looking good, the hummus tasted earthy and, of course, healthy. The variety of ingredients meant that I could enjoy different flavour combinations with every mouthful.

The Teriyaki Burger is served with crispy sweet potato fries. The burger patty, which is made from mushroom, really does look like a decent beef patty that you can get from upscale burger joints.

However, the texture of the patty is different from what we are used to. Instead of biting into something slightly tougher, the patty had the texture of raw minced meat – soft, brittle and flaky. But don’t get me wrong, it isn’t a bad texture. It just takes some time to get used to. 

I really loved the crispiness of the sweet potato fries. I still remember the first time that I had sweet potato fries. I was in Hong Kong, and the fries were stale and tough. They were bad enough to stop me from ordering sweet potato fries anywhere else. I’m thankful that the fries at Soul ALife have changed my perception.

The café also serves up healthy cold-pressed juices and smoothies, such as the pastel orange Tropical Bliss ($5.90), which was a fruity and refreshing blend of mango, banana, pineapple, coconut water and soy milk. I needed my caffeine fix and got a cup of Green Tea Latte ($4.50). Although the matcha powder wasn’t dissolved well (I had clumps of matcha powder floating in my drink), I liked the combination of soy milk and matcha.

I confess: I can never give up meat. There’s something about that tender, juicy piece of steak, or that crispy, flavourful deep fried chicken wing that just appeals to me so much. Just the thought of them makes me salivate. Although I can’t completely cut out meat from my life, I can try to reduce my meat intake and consume more leafy greens to ensure that I get sufficient fibre, vitamins and minerals. It’s great that there are more vegan and vegetarian eateries that served tasty meals springing up around Singapore!

MissTamChiak.com made anonymous visit and paid its own meal at the stall featured here.