I’VE had a lot of sausage rolls in my time, and the vast majority of these bad boys have come from Greggs.

The flaky goodness of two of these along with a strong cup of Yorkshire Tea have dragged me through the harsh long winters while at university.

The idea of a vegan sausage roll did not sound appealing.Why mess with perfection?

I wouldn’t go as far as daytime TV host and human foghorn Piers Morgan, who called the bakery “PC-ravaged clowns”, but the idea didn’t get me salivating.

How very wrong I was: it is every bit as delicious as it’s meat-based twin.

On first impressions, it certainly looked and smelled like a sausage roll.

The pastry is still as irritatingly flaky as the original, covering every piece of clothing you wear after every single bite.

The filling, the most important bit, is almost identical. It’s warm, tasty, herby and most satisfyingly of all, meaty.

Thankfully, the vegan sausage roll is also less greasy on the hands than usual.

All in all, I cannot fault the effort, and the execution, of this take on one of Scotland and the North of England’s staple snacks. It’s invention isn’t a sign of ‘this country going to the dogs.’ However, there will soon be a point where we have to stop eating as much meat, unless we want the planet to die in a haze of greenhouse gasses from cows.

This could bring veganism mainstream, and for once, it tastes as good as the real thing.

It won’t turn me vegan just yet, but it’s as close as I’ll come when I’m hungover.