Soup, Rice, and Salad

The Chef: Colleen

The Menu: Fragrant, seasoned white basmati rice served with a perfectly cooked, crunchy veggie-filled salad complete with carrot, broccoli, cherry tomatoes, spinach, and bell pepper. Colleen paired this balanced main with a lovely side of savory sweet potato soup.

The Goods: Today is an exciting day at the VNHQ, as it marks our first design meeting for VN's Sept+Oct issue. We always love design meetings—mostly because VN Art Director Sutton Long is sort of the best ever. Also, after working hard to put together VN's July+August Anniversary issue—our largest issue ever—putting together the next issue feels kind of like a cakewalk. Speaking of cake, as we so often do, we'll be noshing on some delicious, dairy-free treats courtesy of The Vegan Divas during our design meeting. As you might know, baskets of bite-size vegan baked goods don't stick around these here offices for very long.

Quinoa Salad and Black Bean Soup

The Chef: Colleen

The Menu: Soup and salad, the perfect combination. Colleen makes this black bean soup for us every once in a while, and it's stellar. Rich, tasty, and filling, it was a lovely complement to her veggie-filled quinoa salad. Zucchini, spinach, carrots, red onions, and kalamata olives all starred in this "souper" side dish. See that? See what we did there? The salad was served as a side to the soup!

The Goods: OK, back in reality we are gearing up for SF Vegan Drinks, which will feature a hot dog time machine! Well, fine. We're not 100-percent sure that the hot dog machine at Martuni's doubles as a time machine, but we are sure that there will be hot dogs, and they will be vegan. And, of course, all the usual fun you've come to expect at Vegan Drinks!

Black Bean Soup

The Chef: Lyndsay

The Menu: A silky, blended black bean soup, which we topped generously with Daiya. Does the bowl look a bit like it's full of chocolate pudding? Yeah, it did to us, too. But back to oh-so-savory reality. We gobbled up a side salad bursting with kale and avocado, and lovely little quesadillas, also made with Daiya.

The Goods: Yep, still going with the soup. No, we don't have the excuse of an impending blizzard for all this soup-making, but you know what? We don't really have a good excuse for covering everything we can in Daiya, either, yet that is exactly what we do. So there you have it.

Black Bean Soup

The Chef: Colleen

The Menu: A delicious, savory, slightly spicy black-bean soup, dolloped with vegan sour cream. Colleen is a whiz at making something out of, um, close to nothing, and this soup was a very tasty example. She served cumin-seed-roasted potato wedges and slices of toast slathered with WayFare Food's We Can't Say It's Cheese alongside.

The Goods: And so another week at the VNHQ comes to an end. It's been and awesome and busy week, and we hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!

Black-Bean Soup and Daiya Pizzas

The Chef: Colleen

The Menu: An unbelievable spread of savory treats, starting off with a zesty black-bean soup filled with roasted eggplant, onions, and carrots. A healthy dose of garlic and cumin seed seasoned Colleen's signature roasted potatoes, and a little something we like to call individual Daiya pizzas made an appearance. Topped with the perfect Daiya blend—that's right, two kinds of melty, stretchy cheese—and Match Meats BBQ pork, these tasty pies didn't last long.

The Goods: Not only did we enjoy a stellar meal thanks to Colleen's culinary ingenuity, but we dined al fresco for the first time all week. Then there was this entire plate of goodies to be grateful for, including homemade chocolate fudge. Yes, fudge. And Dandies. And cookies, courtesy of Pattycake Bakery and our very own Joe Connelly. If you need us, we'll be bouncing off the walls thanks to a fantastic Friday sugar high. Happy weekend, everyone!

Creative Kitchen Comforts

The Chef: Abby

The Menu: A warm and sweet butternut-bean soup with a side of grains and greens. Abby helped clean out the kitchen and masterminded a delightful marriage of leftover chili with a pre-made butternut squash soup. To accompany the soup, she whipped up an Indian-spiced corn, pea, bell pepper, tomato, and shredded kale mixture. Soft couscous sprinkled with Parma rounded out the warm and toasty meal.

The Goods: It's the beginning of another whirlwind week here at the VNHQ, and a cozy meal made for the perfect way to ease us into the oncoming insanity. The office doesn't feel quite the same, however, as Elizabeth is at home resting and rejuvenating after having been bit by a vicious flu bug. We hope she recovers quickly and is treating herself to eats as comforting as we've enjoyed today!

Brains and Beans

The Chef: Jenny

The Menu: Following a cozy bowl of thick black-bean soup, we munched on warmed tortillas topped with steamed Jasmine rice, a flavorful tofu chile, and a large serving of sliced just-ripe avocadoes.

The Scoop: There are only three of us here today, and so, on an unusually quiet Monday at the office, we were happy to host a favorite longtime friend of VegNews, San Francisco State University journalism professor Don Menn. Regailing us with stories of his global travels, the joys of teaching, and his communist youth, the silver-haired vegetarian offered us a thrilling—if temporary—escape from our editorial bubble, and what with all that avocado, we consumed just enough EFAs to keep up with the lively tête-à-tête.

Guess Who Came to Lunch?

The Chef: Jenny

The Menu: A robust and rich tomato-spinach, coconut-curry soup served with toasted mustard- and sesame-seed infused rice, and then a new-agey twist on an old-world favorite: lemon-soaked channa masala stir fried with sprouted granola and goji berries.

The Goods: While we didn’t enjoy this beautiful spread with Sidney Poitier himself, our lovely Ms. Elizabeth brought in her equally dashing man-friend—visiting from Connecticut—to meet the VegNews family. Armed with a pretty box of organic artisan chocolates from Manchester’s Divine Treasures, one of our favorite vegan and gluten-free chocolatiers, we all wished guests like him visited more often. Don’t these morsels look delicious?

Souper Troopers

The Chef: Colleen

The Menu: This is not your everyday black-bean soup; laced with fresh, baby spinach, topped with a ripe cherry tomato and lemongrass aoili garnish, and finished with paprika-'sheeze' crostini, we dined well beyond our already elevated Café VegNews expectations.

The Goods: The non-dairy cheese you see featured here is a top-secret, yet-to-be-released new product that we had the pleasure of enjoying toasted and dipped into the thick, legume-y mélange. But before you jump to any unsavory conclusions about the VN staff and their indulgent ways, let it be known that many of the office personnel are already off for a long weekend—some galavanting in New York city's finest vegan restaurants—and there are only four of us remaining here to man the VN post. Today's glorious and satisfying meal was well-appreciated and deserved.