Sweet Potato and Salad

The Chef: Elizabeth

The Menu: A big ol' salad with kale, romaine, Field Roast sausage, and red, orange, and yellow bell peppers, plus a baked sweet potato slathered with Earth Balance.

The Goods: Yes, this is a pretty enormous lunch, and yes, it was fantastic. My love for salad is well documented on this blog, but today I wanted a little something extra to go along with it. Enter, the sweet potato. I think that if I hadn't been a lazy chump today and had added avocado to this salad, that I could eat this meal for the rest of my life, wherever that ends up being. My life is currently (no surprise!) in San Francisco, which happens to be a great town to play tourist in, even if you already live here. Check out a San Francisco staycation over on Press Pass.

Lentil Soup, Saucy Salad

The Chef: Liz

The Menu: A super satisfying soup filled with red and green lentils, sweet potatoes, russet potatoes, onion, garlic, tomatoes, and spices including cayenne, curry powder, and Italian seasonings. Liz also whipped up a mighty appetizing side salad using spinach, arugula, tomato, mushroom, green olives, red cabbage, and cucumber, tossed in a lovely white almond-cashew dressing. Did slices of slightly warm bread round out the meal? In fact they did.

The Goods: We have no idea how it's officially the last week in July, but as it's a fun-filled, jam-packed week, we hardly have time to ask how or why. In addition to sending our September+October issue to press, we'll be indulging in cruelty-free cocktails at SF Vegan Drinks on Thursday, and working hard (read: eating a lot) at the SF Vegan Bakesale on Saturday. In short, yes, it's a busy week, and no, we still have no idea how it's almost August.

Golden Soup, Kale Salad

The Chef: Liz

The Menu: An old-fashioned veggie soup filled with russet potatoes, sweet potatoes, roasted onion and garlic, spinach, and spices cooked and blended in the Vita-Mix. Liz paired this silky soup with a fresh salad overflowing with kale, spinach, diced tomatoes, crimini mushrooms, cucumber slices, chickpeas, shredded carrot, and avocado.

The Goods: It's been awhile—read: more than one week—since we've dined on a crisp, crunchy kale salad, and lets just say that no one is complaining about its return. It's a quiet day here at the VNHQ, with operations slightly slowing after sending our July+August Anniversary issue off to press last Thursday. Don't worry, we're definitely not celebrating by eating our weight in dairy-free Mango Custard. That would be an absurd, delicious waste of time.

Garden Variety

The Chef: Liz

The Menu: A heaping helping of roasted veggies including broccoli, sweet potatoes, green bell pepper, eggplant, onion, and garlic, marinated in vegetable broth, rosemary, and oregano made up our hearty, herbivorous main. Liz served these perfectly cooked veggies over a savory mixture of brown rice and brown basmati rice with a fresh green salad brimming with mushrooms, avocado, spinach, and kale on the side. Yep, this lunch couldn't have been more chock-full of whole foods goodness if it tried.

The Goods: Today's lunch was satisfying and tasty, but our favorite part may have been the inclusion of kale. Yes, everyone in our office is pretty much a die-hard kale fan, so we were equally excited to read about Savvy Abby's latest entry detailing the fine art of making homemade kale chips on the cheap. If your appetite for salty snacks is anything like ours, we're sure that this recipe will become a fast favorite. Need some new reading material to keep your brain busy during snack time? Be sure to check out our May newsletter between bites, jam packed with fabulous news, eats, and events.

Sweet-Potato Falafel

The Chef: Kailey

The Menu: A delicious spread of sweet-potato falafel, inspired by FatFree Vegan Kitchen's version, baked tofu, and a great big, gorgeous salad with mixed greens, cherry tomatoes, avocado, and bell pepper. Kailey didn't exactly follow the FFVK's recipe, but worked with what we had in the kitchen, and the results were absolutely delicious. Do black sesame seeds make everything better? Yes. Are we sometimes tempted to stick our faces into bulk bins of them? Yes. What of it?

The Goods: We're still deep in the editorial trenches for the November+December issue, and there's a hot rumor going around that we might be getting the September+October issue from the printer this week. When it comes in, we will freak out. We suggest you do the same.

Welcome Back Curry

The Chef: Lyndsay

The Menu: In another installment of her signature dish, Ms. Lyndsay concocted a crazy-good green curry, which she served over brown basmati rice. The savory, coconut-milk-flavored dish featured both sweet and russet potatoes, broccoli, peas, onions, garlic, and big, toothsome chunks of tofu. With the slightly spicy green curry sauce, all the other ingredients came together in perfect one-bowl-meal harmony, to which we say woot.

The Goods: Since weekends around these parts can be a little on the intense side, it's always nice to start the workweek off with a warm, comforting meal—just like the one we thoroughly enjoyed today. We also got to share the meal with one Paul Saccone—a longtime friend of VN—and Ms. Tara Failey, a sometime VN contributor. We only wish we'd had more time to enjoy their company, as today's also our editorial deadline and we're swamped! Gung hay fat choy!

Cookbook Week: The Tropical Vegan Kitchen

The Chef: Elizabeth

The Menu: A trip to the tropics! Well, at least a lunchtime taste transportation to the tropics. From Donna Klein's brand new book, Elizabeth whipped up a pile of Sweet Potato and Black Bean Quesadillas. You might notice that the black beans in the photo are looking a little pale, which is primarily due to the fact that they are pinto beans. Even with the substitution, these 'dillas were delicious thanks to their secret ingredient—green chiles. Crispy whole-wheat tortillas wrapped everything up, and a side salad of kale, lettuce, craisins, and shredded carrot completed the meal.

The Goods: Yeah, about being a vegan in the tropics. About that. If Klein's book is any indication of the tropical vegan lifestyle, you very well might be getting future Café VegNews dispatches from the shores of the Caribbean. Today's chef is strongly in favor of implementing this strategy. The bright flavors of the quesadillas perfectly matched the optimistic mood we're all in following today's inauguration!

Coconut Roasted Vegetable Stew

The Chef: Lyndsay

The Menu: A wintery blend of roasted sweet and russet potatoes, butternut squash, and fresh peas atop a mound of brown rice perfected with a pinch of Parma. Lyndsay was kind enough to incorporate a hint of sweet coconut and savory spice on this drizzly day, which satiated our stomachs and minds with warm tropical flavors and accompanied daydreams. An assortment of desserts salvaged from the pre-holiday surplus, including, but certainly not limited to, Sun Flour Baking Company's snickerdoodles and dark pecan Brooklyn Fudge took the edge off our mutual post-holiday sugar withdrawal.

The Goods: On our first official day back from the holiday break, we happily welcomed the arrival of 2009 and our new editorial assistant, Stacy Blondin, with this delightfully delicious menu. It was elegantly paired with a thought-provoking discussion of Stacy's only loathed legume, the lima bean, which we were all thankful Lyndsay omitted from the day's offerings. One lingering question was where a desperate shopper might actually find this neglected ingredient, other than among Rainbow Grocery's infinite bulk-food selections. One standard ingredient we did miss, however, was Elizabeth. Unfortunately, she was unable to join the celebration due to an ill-fated morning bike ride to the VNHQ, which left her sprained, stitched, and sedated. (Get well soon, E!) With our tummies tamed, we made a beeline back to our respective work stations, anxious to embark on the New Year's tasks, among them the next issue of VegNews ...

Cold-Fighting Curry

The Chef: Joseph

The Menu: A delicious double-duty sweet potato curry. Joseph went all out today, adding sweet potatoes, dinosaur kale, beans, garlic, and spices to a really excellent yellow curry, which he served over a blend of rice and amaranth. The whole thing came together as one fortifying, satisfying meal. Oh, and that little bowl on the side? That would be some freshly popped popcorn which was drizzled with Earth Balance, nutritional yeast, and Parma. Yes, there are health benefits to popcorn—we'll just have to get back to you later about what they are.

The Goods: Today's regularly scheduled chef is out sick, so Joseph stepped in to make sure we all didn't starve. A couple other staffers have been under the weather, so a seriously healthy meal was definitely in order for today. During lunch we discussed some of the most extreme cold fighters—like chewing on cinnamon sticks, consuming more green chiles than is usually humanly possible, and all those other wacky "traditional" cures. What are your best bets for staying healthy during cold and flu season?

Award-Winning African Stew

The Chef: Jill Nussinow, The Veggie Queen

The Menu: An award-winning West African sweet potato stew served over a perfectly fluffy bed of millet and absolutely delicious winter salad. The savory stew had tomatoes, swiss chard, peanut butter, and just a little kick of ginger. A slightly sweet salad of greens, persimmons, and dried cranberries dressed in a balsamic vinaigrette completed the yummy meal.

The Goods: Today's lunch was full of treats! First of all, it's not every day that we have a cookbook author come over and make lunch for us. Not only did we get the day off from cooking, but lunch was absolutely scrumptious. Jill also gave us her tips for perfect pressure-cooker meals, which sounded totally ideal for the coming winter nights. Here's the whole gang:

Friday Soup + Salad

The Chef: Colleen

The Menu: A simple meal of carbonada soup (a regular fixture this week with a twist—today we loaded it up with organic Swiss chard) and a huge salad with greens, orange and yellow bell pepper, avocado, olives, and red onion tossed in olive oil, balsamic vinegar, sea salt, and black pepper. Okay, there was also dessert, a recipe which will be featured in our September+October food issue. Imagine a sweet potato spice cake smothered in vanilla buttercreme icing and topped with toasted coconut and pecans. Soooooo good.

The Goods: With a full week of California sunshine, the cool temps kicked in today, making us crave a warm, comforting lunch. Although our recipe testing is complete, we still had a large bowl of carbonada in the fridge, so we doctored it up and gave it new life for today's meal. Most of our team is out of the office today either on deadline working from home or on some fabulous weekend adventure, so we enjoyed an intimate gathering with our Friday crew.

And guess what, folks? Our Press Pass giveaway, featuring an overstuffed goodie bag from the Farm Sanctuary NYC gala, ends Sunday. That means you have just two days to let us know why you want this bag (is there anyone who wouldn't want it?!?). The winner will be announced on Monday, only on Press Pass.