South Asian Leftover Mash-up

The Chef: Joni

The Menu: A mishmash of leftover Thai, Burmese, and Indian foods—spicy tofu, glazed eggplant, yellow veggie curry, and coconut rice

The Dish: I had family in town recently, which means lots of dining out (no complaints here!). I’m pretty sure we ate at every South Asian restaurant in San Francisco, hence the assortment of leftovers for lunch today. While South Asian cuisine occupies a large portion of my love for food, so does dessert, and I’m ready for some cookies! We spent much of yesterday sorting through the myriad of recipe entries to the VegNews Holiday Cookie Contest and our top 10 finalists sound amazing. We’ll be having a bake-off on Friday to determine the winners and I can’t wait to bake the Peanut Butter Blossoms. It will surely be the perfect end to the week.

Masala Dosa

The Chefs: Joni and Udupi Palace

The Menu: Crispy masala dosa filled with spiced potatoes and onions, steamy sambar (lentil-onion soup), and three kinds of chutney—savory coconut, seasoned tomato, and zesty ginger.

The Goods: Nothing inspires fantasies of travel to exotic, sunny locations more than grey San Francisco mornings. Since the vacation had to fit within my hour-long lunch, travel to India via feasting on a masala dosa at Udupi Palace was the next best thing! Besides, with such a busy and exciting week here at the VNHQ as we finish up the September+October issue of VegNews, not even lousy weather could tempt me to actually leave town. We’ve also got a Twitter chat with four amazing farm sanctuaries tonight at 9PM ET/ 6PM PT. But at the VNHQ, when we work hard, we play harder, and I can’t wait for summery cocktails at this month’s Vegan Drinks Night at Martuni’s this Thursday at 6PM. 

Indian Eats

The Chef: Joseph

The Menu: A spread of Indian-inspired delights including fragrant, slow-cooked five-spice rice mixed with peas paired with a satisfying stir-fry of zucchini, carrot, and punjab eggplant marinated in a spicy, flavorful sesame seed sauce. Joseph rounded out the meal by serving up a simple spinach salad topped with a savory, saucy dressing.

The Goods: It's Friday! Yay! We're not sure if you're big fans of the weekend, but for us, Saturdays are pretty much akin to Christmas morning. This weekend, half the VN staff is happily working over—not for—the weekend Saturday and Sunday at the second-annual Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival here in semi-sunny San Francisco. The stacked line-up features a handful of fantastic veg musicians, from punk rockers Social Distortion to indie darlings My Morning Jacket, and we can't wait to revel in all the festival fun. We're also looking forward to all the tasty, local vegan eats available at the event, ranging from veggie burgers to gluten-free vegan sandwiches and vegan sausages. Yeah, not bad. Come Monday, we'll be sure to report on all the Outside Lands fun on Press Pass.

Chana Masala, Spicy Rice

The Chef: Colleen

The Menu: A simple, lovely lunch featuring a delicious chana masala complete with tomato, kale, and spicy marinated chickpeas paired with two varieties of slow-cooked, seasoned basmati rice. Colleen also prepared a crunchy side salad chockfull of shredded romaine and cucumber slices.

The Goods: This hearty, Indian standard was exactly what we needed to warm us up on this chilly, windy Friday afternoon. We'd love to compare Colleen's tasty take on chana masala with the vegan eats served at India's first vegetarian hotel, or to all the tasty alternatives we'lll be dining on in October, when VN goes to India! Our first VegNews Vacations trip to Rajasthan, India sold-out in record time, and we can't wait to announce our plans for upcoming 2011 excursions!

Curry and Rice

The Chef: Liz

The Menu: A super-flavorful Indian curry with tons of veggies! If there's anything a team of vegans likes better than a plate full of vegetables, we don't even want to know about it. Brown rice made the base for our satisfying meal, and we topped it with a yummy curry of potatoes, carrots, broccoli, mushrooms, and chickpeas. Then we sprinkled Daiya over everything, mostly because we could.

The Goods: Today's meal was totally fantastic in its own right, but, sadly, it really didn't stand a chance in comparison with what we're having tomorrow. In celebration of a spectacular, surprise event, we're having lunch catered by none other than our beloved Ike, of Ike's Place. OK, there might be one thing vegans love more than a plate full of vegetables: a smorgasbord of sandwiches!

Quinoa and Cake

The Chef: Lyndsay

The Menu: A delicious and nutritious blend of quinoas, both red and regular, topped with Punjab Eggplant (thanks, Trader Joe's!) and tofu. A mixed-greens side salad with sliced red onions, avocado, and a light sprinkling of Daiya finished off the plates.

The Goods: As you may have already read on Press Pass, we had a little something special for dessert today, namely a yummy Almond Milk Chocolate Cake from local confectionery Violet Sweet Shoppe. Um, how can you not eat something this adorable?
We served slices of this behemoth à la mode with scoops of Coconut and Mocha Almond Fudge Purely Decadent with Coconut Milk. Sometimes, when it's Monday you need a little something sweet! To share the sugar, um, figuratively, we have a totally sweet deal! All this week, we'll be giving away Sarah Kramer's latest work, her 2010 Go Vegan! Calendar. Just leave us a comment with your favorite cake-and-ice-cream flavor combination, and we'll pick one winner each day. Go! Comment! Win!

The Best Pizza Ever

The Chef: Colleen

The Menu: Pizza that was so good we freaking died. Made on Indian-spiced naan, covered with melty Daiya cheese, red onions, kalamata olives, rosemary, greens, and sun-dried tomatoes, today's main course was insanely delicious. Once again, despite its own gorgeousness and garlicky dressing, our salad of greens, sliced bell peppers, tomato, and avocado played second fiddle to the incredible pizza.

The Goods: Of course, the food today was phenomenal, or, as the chef herself might have put it, "phenom." The goods didn't end there, however, since today we also had the pleasure of dining with Jennifer Fearing of The Humane Society of the United States—who brought with her some of the best homemade chocolate-chip cookies we've ever had—and Jayne Harless, aka Kailey's mom. The weather was gorgeous, the food was awesome, and the company couldn't have been better. Oh! And in case anyone didn't already know, today's Friday, which means the weekend is mere hours away. Yes, this makes us happy.

Presto Punjab

The Chef: Kailey

The Menu: A deliciously doctored ready-made Indian meal. On a bed of brown rice, Kailey served up a packaged Punjab Choley to which she added some fresh tomato. Oven-roasted zucchini and yellow-squash chips made a savory side, and we thoroughly enjoyed the big, hearty salad, which featured cucumbers, red onions, and tons of Parma.

The Goods: It's a busy time here at the VNHQ, but then again that's pretty much all the time. We once again took in as much vitamin D from the sun today as we possibly could, and talked about the exciting trip to LA that the majority of our staff will be taking for AR 2009. In case you're one of those super-hip types, you can totally follow the conference's progress on Twitter!

Instant Indian

The Chef: Lyndsay and Joseph

The Menu: A totally satisfying meal of Indian-inspired dishes. While he was in the office briefly this morning for a meeting, Joseph decided to lend a helping hand to today's chef by cooking up a cumin-spiced blend of basmati rice and red quinoa, which was absolutely delicious. Lyndsay topped our day's grains with ready-made Punjab Eggplant, made a huge side salad with lettuce and carrots, and sliced up some naan from Gourmet India—another find from Expo West. Since so many store-bought naans contain dairy, it was thrilling to find this totally vegan version, complete with all the fluffiness and authentic taste we could ever want.

The Goods: Mondays always seem to find us short on time and long on tasks here at the VNHQ, so taking a little help in the kitchen—whether from considerate co-workers or the convenience store—is always a good thing at the beginning of the week. Oh, and did we mention that we totally love Indian food? It's true, we do.

International Insanity

The Chef: Elizabeth

The Menu: A recipe testing feast! Maybe you can tell that Elizabeth was too excited about today to get any sleep last night, as she came in carrying tupperware full of test recipes from the forthcoming January+February issue. Considering today's dishes, in addition to the dim sum we had a little while back, let's just say that the Jan+Feb issue is not lacking in international inspiration. To start with the one American dish, the bowl on the top right-hand side is filled with thick, savory clam-free chowdah. Yes, that is the technical spelling of "chowdah." Moving clockwise, our next stop is India for some aloo tikki and palak chaat, both doused with a spiced vegan yogurt. From there we head to Korea for bibimbop, which, it must be said, was totally bangin'. Not pictured are the kimchi that accompanied the bibimbop, nor the whoopie pies we enjoyed for dessert.

The Goods: Okay, for real. This is the last time we're going to say it. Vote Yes on Prop. 2! It's your absolute last chance to be a part of this historic ballot initiative, and 20 million animals in California will thank you for it. Oh, also, maybe this country is getting new leadership today. Could we possibly be any more excited? No. Are we all atwitter, constantly checking the swing- state maps? Indeed. Was it a good thing that lunch today was freakin' huge so that none of us has to worry about cooking dinner tonight and can stay glued to the results as they're announced? Quite.

Inspired Indian

The Chef: Colleen

The Menu: A scrumptious lunch of Indian-spice-simmered yellow potatoes and spinach, served over a bed of brown basmati rice that Colleen infused with toasted mustard seeds. Maybe having a ready-made Indian sauce on-hand contributed to the ease of this meal, and maybe it was the touch of coconut milk and her own spice blend that Colleen added that made it phenomenal. The potatoes were absolutely perfectly cooked, and the whole thing could not have been more delicious. To keep in theme, Colleen used a peach chutney as the base for her salad dressing, which made for a superb side.

The Goods: This weekend should set some sort of record for "most vegan weddings," as three VN staffers will be attending vegan weddings tomorrow. Well, okay, two staffers are going together, but still, what are the chances of two vegan weddings during the same weekend, much less on the same day? Regardless of whether or not we need to call the Guinness book people, congratulations to the wonderful couples: Margaret and Justin, and Kelly and Justin. Oh, that's right, the same day and veganism aren't all the couples have in common!

Vegan à Go-Go! Week: Day Four

The Chef: Colleen

The Menu: Aloo-Yoop Curry Potato Wraps! Between yesterday's burritos and today's awesome main dish, we are getting spoiled rotten with yummy wraps! Colleen busted out these inventive, flavorful goodies—straight from the pages of Vegan à Go-Go!, of course—using freshly warmed tortillas, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, garbanzo beans, peas, coconut milk, and curry spices. Savory and just a teeny bit sweet, we each could have eaten about six of these were it not for the fact that they were also totally filling. Colleen also made a blended balsamic vinaigrette which she poured over romaine, spinach, tomatoes, and grated zucchini for a perfect side salad.

The Goods: And so Vegan à Go-Go! week comes to a close. We've been having a great time making recipes from this little book, and if you're curious to know the whole scoop be sure to look for a full review in the pages of the January+February issue of VegNews! Speaking of things that are coming to an end, today is the last day to get your comments in on our Press Pass giveaway, so don't delay!

Indian-Inspired Stir-Fry

The Chef: Colleen

The Menu: Amazing. Yes, we realize that "amazing" is not a menu item, but there isn't really another word that wholly encompasses this meal. To be a little bit more specific, Colleen busted out an incredible blend of tomatoes, garbanzo beans, broccoli, eggplant, and yellow squash—all infused with savory Indian spices and served over cumin-seed and mustard-seed infused basmati rice. Oh, and maybe there was a light, lovely salad with fresh bell pepper and cherry tomatoes. Yes, we are spoiled. Yes, we like it.

The Goods: In addition to the utterly delicious food, we got to enjoy the company of one Paul Saccone, whom it's always a pleasure to see. We figure as long as we're being totally spoiled, we might as well spread the wealth around. When friends are in town, it's pretty much our obligation to feed them—which works out well since they get to eat, and we get to hang out with awesome people.

Speaking of awesome people, congratulations to Veganmomma who is the official winner of our surprise mid-month giveaway! We asked what you would do with molasses, amaranth, pinenuts, and hemp nut butter and she said, "Hmm, pop the amaranth so it gets nice and roasty, and then make hemp seed butter bars with pine nuts and molasses and a few other fine ingredients you can scrounge up." Congrats! A VN gift pack is her reward for coming up with a delicious-sounding plan for these incidental ingredients. Veganmomma, send us an email and we'll send out your prize!

Indian Delight!

The Chef: Aurelia

The Menu: An Indian-inspired feast including perfectly cooked rice, curried lentils and garbanzos, lightly spiced shiitake mushrooms, freshly toasted pappadam, and sautéed swiss chard with red bell pepper. If there's anything better than a delectable Indian meal on a gray, foggy day, we don't even want to know about it. With dabs of mango marmalade and tamarind sauce, we were very nearly able to imagine ourselves on an Indian vacation.

The Goods: Back in reality, we're gearing up big time for a swanky little soirée called the Vegan à Go-Go Book Bash! On the off chance you've not heard of this little do, we're throwing a big ol' party celebrating the launch of Sarah Kramer's new travel/cooking/how-to-be-awesome book. In case you haven't, now would be the prudent time to get tickets. Just sayin'.

Easy Amy's

The Chef: Colleen and Amy's Kitchen

The Menu: A vibrant garden salad of romaine hearts, vine-ripened tomatoes, and smooth avocado provide a delightfully cool and crisp backdrop to left-over warm spinach wraps, followed by a sweet sliver of watermelon.

The Goods: It's really amazing that there were any of these much sought-after spinach wraps left after yesterday's feast, but, with so many stellar meals to sample, I suppose we had to draw the line at fourths. Lucky for the few of us here today, we were able to savor a second round of these delightful offerings from Amy's, without, once again, having to lift a finger.

Amy's Indian Buffet

The Chefs: Michelle and Erica from Amy's Kitchen!

The Menu: As you can see, we had no shortage of excellent Indian items for today's lunch. The very lovely Michelle and Erica came and prepared an insane array of goodies straight from their kitchens. Starting at the top and moving clockwise, we enjoyed some delicious Curried Lentil soup, then came the Mattar Tofu meal with curried peas and rice, then the Vegetable Korma meal with rice and dal, then the Spinach Tofu Wrap—which was absolutely packed with spinach, so good—and then there was the Samosa Wrap. Whew.

The Goods: It was such a pleasure to have our two guests come and bust out this great meal for us! Everything we tasted today was delicious. When Michelle asked us all what our favorite item was, everyone's answer came out something like, "Well, I really liked the spinach wrap, but I also really liked the soup. And the tofu. And the samosa. And everything else." This meal was definitely one for the record books—everything was great and we all walked away from the table totally stuffed. Here are Michelle and Erica with the VN gang on this not-quite-sunny day:

Ready-Made Eats

The Chef: Lisa

The Menu: A mélange of ready-to-go Indian items, including chana masala, vegetable curry, and dhal from Devya Indian Gourmet. Served over lovely, fluffy rice and alongside steamed lemon-and-herb-tossed green beans and swiss chard, these flavorful treats were both yummy and easy. Oh, and that slice of faux-meat hanging out at the top of the plate? That would be none other than the famous Tofurky roast, which was an unexpected treat.

The Goods: Really, is there anything better than a delicious lunch that takes minutes to throw together? We didn't think so. On days when you'd really rather spend your lunch hour enjoying a satisfying meal while sitting in the sun—instead of spending 45 minutes chopping in the kitchen and 10 scarfing something down—it's always nice to know that prefab sauces, curries, and mains can help get you out into the sunshine. Wait, did we mention that it was sunny today? The last few weeks have been one big foggy, drippy mess, so we were all a little extra excited to get our vitamin D today.

Commendable Coconut

The Chef: Jenny

The Menu: An amazing Indian-inspired spread. First off, let's talk about that coconut rice. We could all eat this incredible blend of rice, coconut milk, shredded coconut, and raisins every day. Rich, luxurious, and wonderfully filling, this rice is an utter treat. Never a one-hit-wonder, Jenny also whipped up some creative curried pancakes, and a medley of creamer potatoes, eggplant, and cherry tomatoes in a spicy curry sauce.

The Goods: Coconut milk definitely makes our worlds go 'round. It's hard to imagine dishes that couldn't do with a dose of flavorful, delicious coconut milk, so let's not! Instead, why don't you go ahead and tell us all about your favorite ways of incorporating this indispensible ingredient. For pretty much all of our favorite dishes, you can check out any meal that was made by Ms. Jenny.

Indian Intensity

The Chef: Jenny

The Menu: A full-flavor Indian-inspired feast! Ms. Jenny has missed cooking her own recipes, what with all the cleansing and testing that's been going on around here. Today she was back in full force with an amazing assortment of Indian dishes. Starting up at the top of the page, you can see a highly delicious sweet tomato chutney spiced with green chile and cinnamon, a slightly sweet Bengali shak with spinach, kale, raisins, and coconut pulp, a robust chana dhal, and, finally, a lovely toasted mustard seed and saffron-infused rice. We said full force, right? Today's lunch was Jenny's awesome cooking at its finest.

The Goods: We are all abuzz over here about our party! Tickets are very nearly sold out, and we have just a few volunteer positions still open. If you're looking to attend this amazing event, and have some skills like passing hors d'ouevres or bartending, send us an email and you'll not only get in for free but receive some seriously great VN swag for your time. Oh, and did we mention that you'll get to be at our party? Yeah, that's where everybody else will be, so don't get left out!

Indulgent Indian

The Chef: Colleen

The Menu: Today we feasted on an incredible Indian-themed meal. Colleen created a delicious tomato-based curry with chunks of potato, garbanzo beans, and fresh parsley which she served atop a perfectly fluffy basmati rice infused with toasted mustard seeds. Yum? Yes, yum. Alongside you see a lovely slice of homemade bread, courtesy of Ms. Frankie, which derived its alluring orange hue from an addition of tomato juice. To balance out the denser dishes we dined on a bright salad of romaine, tomato, and avocado.

The Goods: What makes amazing meals even better? The inclusion of fantastic guests, of course! We thoroughly enjoyed the company of our Technical Guru Paul and his entourage of the lovely Sandra and Mister T. Yes, Mister T is now a 10-year-old British boy, what of it? Here's the whole gang with Joseph and Colleen:
Thanks for coming by guys!