Glorious Vegan Valentine's Day Lunch

The Chefs: Rashida, Lyndsay, and longtime VN friend Peter

The Menu: Negimiso hot dogs topped with miso sauce, crunchy cabbage, and fresh scallions; wasabi fries; cheesy vegan pizza; and a fresh veggie salad

The Goods: Maybe it’s the sun, which is finally shining after days of rain, or maybe—just maybe—it’s the vintage Alanis Morissette (who, might I add, is vegan!) playing on our '90s Pandora station, but this Valentine’s Day is shaping up to be as sweet as can be. Love and romance are great and all, but the real cause for celebration is today's amazing lunch spread, which includes both a heart-shaped vegan pizza and VN columnist Terry Hope Romero's take on New York latest culinary sensation Japadog (a franchise from Vancouver), as prepared by Office Manager Lyndsay Orwig using an upcoming recipe from our May+June issue. Whether you’re getting into the holiday spirit today or not, these incredible facts about farm animals are sure to put a smile on your face. For example, did you know pigs are as good at video games as primates? Me neither! And if picturing a pig kicking butt at video games isn’t enough to get you giddy, I have three words for you: red panda embrace. Consider that a Valentine's gift from us to you!

Chickpea Picatta

The Chef: Gabrielle

The Menu: Leftover chickpea picatta with shallots, capers, garlic, arugula, and lemon, simmered in white wine; served over roasted garlic mashed potatoes and paired with a simple spinach and corn salad.

The Goods: This picatta from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's upcoming book Appetite for Reduction might very well be one of the best meals I've made recently, which fairs well for the yet-to-be-released cookbook. Isa's recipes (whether authored alone, or with the superstar VegNews columnist Terry Hope Romero) comprise what are hands down my favorite cookbooks, and even my omnivorous mum agrees that Veganomicon is one of the best cookbooks out there, veg or not. Over the weekend I was searching for something delicious to make for the week ahead, and was thrilled to find that Isa had posted some sample recipes from Appetite for Reduction on her revamped Post Punk Kitchen website. I promptly made this recipe (with a tiny modification to allow garbanzos to share real estate with black eyed peas), and served mine over some decidedly not low-fat mashed potatoes that are my own recipe. That is, if you can call potatoes, garlic, a lot of earth balance, salt, and nutritional yeast a recipe, and not just delicious!

Cinco de Mayo Vegan Fiesta!

The Chef: Elizabeth

The Menu: Some very highly delicious Chorizo-Spinach Sopes, recipe courtesy of VN columnist Terry Hope Romero's latest book, Viva Vegan! While the recipe itself calls for handmade, fat tortillas, we were a little crunched for time and so substituted blue corn ones. The sizzling SoyRizo and spinach combination were completely wonderful, and the added bonus of shredded cabbage and fresh guacamole made us feel highly celebratory. Also there was salad. Woot, salad.

The Goods: Since this isn't the type of blog where we keep all the goodies to ourselves, we'll be giving away one copy of Viva Vegan! Does anything say "Happy Cinco de Mayo" better than 200 recipes for Latin-food lovers? Nope, didn't think so. To enter to win this stellar cookbook, tell us in the comments: What is your favorite variety of Latin food? We'll pick a winner before tomorrow's post!

Omigosh! Okonomiyaki

The Chef: Melissa

The Menu: A Japanese feast! Ms. Melissa, our Tokyo transplant, generously offered to help out with testing our recipes from the forthcoming May+June issue of VegNews, which worked out perfectly since we just happened to have something Japanese in our lineup, courtesy of our Hot Urban Eats columnist, Terry Hope Romero. Okonomiyaki, or "as you like it" pancake-pizza hybrids may be the most delicious and best-kept secret of Japanese cuisine. Sort of like savory potato pancakes, these treats are made with grated nagaimo, which makes an almost egg-like base. Melissa added flour, shredded napa cabbage, grated carrots, pickled ginger, and spices to each pancake, and then we all added our own toppings—which is where the similarity to pizza comes in, in case you were wondering. We selected from chopped Tofurky slices, green onions, whipped vegan mayonnaise, homemade okonomiyaki sauce, strips of nori, and toasted sesame seeds. Oh, and Melissa also made an awesome salad with grated carrots and steamed edamame. Yeah, things are pretty stinking good here!

The Goods: The majority of us in the office had never heard of okonomiyaki before today, and now we are officially hooked. If there's anything better than savory pancakes that you douse with sauce and toppings like pizza, we don't even want to know about it.