Auchencairn: Part One: The Dragonfly Cafe, Auchencairn, Scotland

 

 

When: 12th-15th July 2019

Where: The Dragonfly, 11 Main Street, Auchencairn, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland

Check out The Dragonfly’s Facebook page here for opening times, Instagram here and Galloway Holistic Retreats website here.

This is part one of a series of three blog posts about our trip to Galloway Holistic Retreats, Auchencairn, Dumfries & Galloway, Scotland. Part two will be about the retreat experience and stay here; part three will be about our experience of flightless travel from Dublin to rural Scotland, comparing price, time, convenience, comfort and of course, emissions and general environmental impact.

Within the tiny Scottish village of Auchencairn, on the beautiful coast of Dumfries & Galloway, Scotland, is a vegan and vegetarian cafe, newly opened in summer 2019. The cafe is part of the vegan friendly B & B and holistic retreat centre ‘Galloway Holistic Retreats’ founded by an inspirational and wonderful lady by the name of Esther.

The Dragonfly is situated in what was The Auchencairn Arms Hotel and subsequently The Old Smugglers Inn; a building dating back to the 18th century. The pub decor has been completely renovated and transformed into a beautiful airy, light and welcoming restaurant and cafe. Beautiful flowers set on each table, work from local artists adorn the walls and there’s a garden area out the back too. The Dragonfly is also fully licensed, and the entire booze list is vegan-friendly.

With all food made from scratch, and ingredients sourced locally, the menu changes seasonally. Every dish we were served was tasty, well thought out and had incredible attention to detail; garnished creatively with an array of edible flowers. Everything on the menu is vegetarian, most items are vegan and there are also some vegan, gluten-free options too. Everything is cooked from scratch and prepared lovingly by the lovely but much too humble chef Andy.

Breakfast

Breakfast was usually smooth creamy porridge made with oat milk, accompanied by fresh fruits, nuts and seeds, and a green boosting smoothie. On our last morning, we had overnight oats with chia seeds and fruit.

Lunch

We arrived late afternoon after a long journey, for our late lunch we had this delicious vegan quiche, made with gram flour, accompanied by couscous with pomegranate, coleslaw and fresh leaves. Tasty and wholesome.

Home-made, vegan, mushroom and lentil pâté with Scottish oatcakes. The pâté went perfectly with the rocket salad and oatcakes.

Home-made falafel, salads, flatbreads and houmous buffet. Absolutely divine. I tried making falafel once, they came out like rocks, these were smooth and flavoursome.

Dinner

Lasagne is my one of partner’s favourite dishes, and the meat version was one he loved, since being vegan, he mostly finds the vegan versions disappointing, this one amazingly, the one here at Dragonfly got his seal of approval, he would have eaten it every night if he could! The vegan lasagne is made with freshly cooked vegetables instead of meat and topped with vegan béchamel and bread crumbs.

Aloo gobi curry with rice and vegan raita, accompanied by home-made flatbread. The curry had a nice kick to it, that didn’t overpower the fragrant flavours of the curry.

 

 

Dessert

Vegan meringue with sicilian orange and chocolate sauce, garnished with flowers and fruit, so good I had it two nights in a row.

Apple and banana cake with cream cheese frosting, very moist and tasty.

The food at the Dragonfly is second to none. It’s healthy, wholesome, seasonal and beautiful. It’s definitely not boring and I loved all the edible flowers. I’ve never come away from a weekend away so inspired when it comes to food, we had been slipping into some unhealthy eating habits, eating processed and convenient food and we’re already eating more healthily and mixing things up with more salads and less processed food.

Follow The Greedy Herbivore on Instagram and Facebook to keep up with my latest blog posts, reviews and ramblings, or follow through WordPress to receive notifications of new posts direct to your inbox.