Shall I put the kettle on?

 Swede is one of those vegetables. Yes, it’s a root vegetable, obviously, but that’s not what I mean. What I mean is it’s not one of those popular vegetables. Like your carrot. Or your parsnip. No, swede is one of those vegetables that people always sneer at a little. I think they think your average swede is a bit ugly. A bit pale, a bit chunky and a beast to tackle. Poor swede.

But at Union of Genius we’re not so judgemental. After all, who couldn’t love a vegetable with a purple bum?* Anyway, we embrace all veg equally (figuratively, of course). No veg is too big, or small, pretty or ugly to be hacked in to inch-size cubes and blended in to a sea of edible bliss. And this week it was the turn of lilac-bottomed Mr Swede.

One pound porridge pot

Until the end of January, come into Union of Genius before 11am and say "I need oats", to get our One Pound Porridge Breakfast.* This is a pot of our own blend of organic porridge with two free toppings - choose from: maple syrup, cream, honey, mixed fruit, blueberry jus, pear jus or raspberry jam.

Or, you can have the offer above plus a standard Americano for just £2.

Delicious, healthy, happy-making and cheap.

You need oats.


*That is of course a pot of porridge for £1, not an actual pound of porridge. That said, we do make about 10 lbs of porridge at a time so if you're really, really hungry you could just stick your head in the kettle and go for it.

Diet soup

January.

Oh, January. The month where we look back on December and regret the over-eating, over-spending and general over-indulgence. And of course, every newspaper and website is promising you a thinner body in  three minutes flat by sticking to the latest miracle diet/superfood/vitamin regime.

So, every January we say no to treats, no to fun and yes to hair shirts, the scratchier the better. At Union of Genius, we try to approach life from a kindlier direction, and we want  to make the hair shirt a little less scratchy and a bit easier to cope with.

What we don't do here is push the latest fad diet (soupy or not) or pretend that some foods are magically good for you. The phrase "super food" is something we think is over-used, and should be approached with caution. That said, we think that soup for lunch offers advantages to those who want to recover from the holiday excesses without too much self-flagellation.