A couple of weeks ago, I met good friends, Cam and Cath at the newish Sol Natural Foods in the Valley.

This place is run by the team behind the popular Sol Breads - they also have cafes in West End and Toowong. It's a really welcoming and upmarket-looking space, right near James Street. Here's the interior:

For some reason I thought it was a vegetarian cafe, but it's not. There's a lot on the menu that can be converted into vegetarian or vegan, and a few vegan options. I had a great chat to one of the staff, Claudia who's vegan and she talked us through the menu. Claudia also makes her own vegan nut cheese - we had a sample after our meal and I look forward to trying it on a pizza in the future.

Cam ordered an Eat Your Greens smoothie with spinach, kale, pear, ginger, banana, lemon and coconut water AU$9.50:

I had the Chocolate Minty Fresh smoothie with cacao, cacao nibs, spinach, fresh mint, almond butter, banana and almond mylk AU$11.50:

Cath and I ordered the Pumpkin Patch pizza to share - with roast pumpkin, caramelised onion, pine nuts and rocket. We decided to get no (Notzarella) cheese and requested avocado instead of the ricotta listed on the menu. AU$15

Cam ordered a Kinoko pizza with mushroom ragu, Notzarella (instead of goats') cheese and spinach AU$17:

Cam's pizza was better than ours, but maybe that was due to the vegan cheese. I'm glad there's a great vegan pizza option in the Valley and look forward to trying some other dishes another time. Check it out next time you're in the area.