Aine Carlin made a name for herself blogging about her vegan foodie adventures. She tells ELLA WALKER how ditching meat and dairy transformed her life

“THE amount of dairy I was packing away was shocking to be honest,” says Aine Carlin, gravely.

It was this realisation, and the fact that “every single meal had some form of dairy in it”, that sent the food writer, former actress and award-winning blogger (www.peasoupeats.com) into a tailspin over what she was putting into her body.

“I opened the fridge one day and had a hard look at what we were eating,” she remembers – and six years on, she has no regrets about going vegan.

Understandably so, considering her first book, Keep It Vegan, won the 2014 PETA Award for Best Vegan Cookbook and the 2015 Gourmand Award for Best UK Vegan Book.

Originally from Derry, Northern Ireland, Carlin, 34, had always been interested in food and cooking from scratch, but her vegan transformation took place during a stint living in Chicago.

“They were so far ahead of us in regards to vegetarianism and veganism – I’d never seen vegetarian food like it.”

The premise of Carlin’s latest book, The New Vegan, is to make vegan eating accessible to everyone.