Peckham’s prime vegan hotspot is minutes from Peckham Rye station here at Holdrons Yard and Deserted Cactus’s arcade diner with two or three tables set up are always busy. Set up by vegan influencer Esme – @london_afro_vegan has 33.2K followers – the cafe has an ever-changing menu of homestyle vegan dishes and many have an Asian / Caribbean influence such as rice n peas served with plantain dumplings and jerk tofu-fried dumpling burger.
Using only plant-based foods, innovative spices and her imagination, Esme cooks up hearty plates with filling portions that won’t weigh you down. Dishes have a mix of flavours and a plate of southern fried jackfruit with bbq sauce, spiced quinoa, roasted red pepper dip, avocado, cajun roasted sweet potatoes, popped turmeric spiced butter beans can go head-to-head with a plate of jerk roasted cauliflower with plantain, coconut gravy, popped butter beans and basmati rice so picking your favourite is difficult.
Esme is as adept at putting out Mexican flavours as well as Italian next to foods with an American diner influence – people come from far and wide to sample her southern fried jackfruit, coleslaw, three-bean chilli with rice and tortilla chips. And her mac no cheese came about as regular customers and followers kept requesting it – definitely worth a visit, if we don’t mind saying so ourselves.