Vegan Vietnamese Round 2!

The Chef: Brooke and Sunflower

The Menu: A healthy serving of leftovers from my lunch at Sunflower yesterday. I had Vegetarian Vietnamese Vermicelli, which was filled with cabbage, tofu, mushrooms, celery, bean sprouts, red leaf lettuce, and mint. One of my Mission favorites!

The Goods: I hate to say it, but I'm a creature of habit. One of my first weeks in San Francisco, I stumbled upon Sunflower Vietnamese Restaurant in the Mission, and fell in love with their Vietnamese Vermicelli. In the past six months, I've easily had it another 10 times. What can I say, it's amazing! If you're looking for a new favorite veg spot in your own city, be sure to check out The Cooking Channel's The Veg Edge, airing tonight at 9 PM! The show features veg superstars such as Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Chloe Coscarelli!

Potato Curry & Super Salad

The Chef: Lyndsay

The Menu: A delicious, hearty Thai curry including sweet potatoes, russet potatoes, chickpeas, bell pepper, and mushrooms all mixed in a lovely almond milk-curry sauce. Lyndsay balanced this rich dish with a simple side salad of arugula, romaine, and red cabbage.

The Goods: Lyndsay has a knack for preparing tangy, tasty curries, and we love when she busts out one of her signature veggie-filled feasts. In addition to her lunch talents, Lyndsay also has a knack for sparking scintillating conversation in the VegNews Book Club. This week, Mad Cowboy author Howard Lyman will be answering reader questions about his meat-free manifesto, so inquiring minds should submit their burning questions today—yes, like pretty much right now. Happy dialoguing!

Mediterranean Wraps

The Chef: Lyndsay

The Menu: Lyndsay took her turn in the kitchen with The Conscious Cook and whipped up Chef Tal’s Mediterranean Chickpea Wraps. A slight change was made due to a rare lack of chickpeas, but her smart substitution of black beans worked perfectly with the flavorful combo of carrots, banana peppers, potatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, and a heat-raising blend of spices. A lovely green salad with colorful cabbage and a sprinkle of pine nuts cooled things off.

The Goods: These warm wraps saved us from the dreary, drizzling rain, back with a vengeance after yesterday’s sunshine. Don’t worry, though, there’s plenty of news to brighten the afternoon. First, congratulations to yesterday’s cookbook winner, Amanda, who said her favorite baked good is “baked doughnuts, hands down.” Amanda, send us an e-mail with your full name and mailing address, and we’ll get your copy of The Conscious Cook out in a flash! Now for the big news: The 2009 Veggie Awards are finally here! Head over to Ecorazzi tomorrow for their Veggie Awards Exclusive—a bonafide sneak peek at the winners you won't want to miss. For a chance to win today’s copy of the cookbook, tell us in the comments: In the spirit of honoring the best veg people, products, and more, who/what would you give an award?

Tofu Stir-fry and Gyoza

The Chef: Abby

The Menu: Cabbage-tofu stir-fry, pan-fried vegetable gyoza, and a simple side salad. While it may not be the most photogenic of one-pot meals, this stir-fry was a light and satisfying way to kick off lunch. Abby created the main course with Napa cabbage, red and green peppers, broccoli, and baked tofu, all cooked in a tangy mustard-maple sauce. Trader Joe's provided the tasty veggie-filled gyoza, and a fresh salad of mixed greens, strawberries, kidney beans, and sunflower seeds finished off the Friday fare.

The Goods: It's a bit of a ghost town here at the VNHQ today, with most of our staff out of the office. While they were dearly missed during our cherished lunchtime banter, an extra-cozy meal was the perfect Friday treat. Now if the sun would just come out in time for the long Labor Day weekend, we'd be set. Today also concludes our two fresh-faced editorial assistants' first week. Congratulations, Sara and Liz!

Perfect Peanut Pasta

The Chef: Melissa

The Menu: An absolutely delicious whole-wheat pasta tossed with veggies in a homemade coconut-peanut sauce. Carrots, broccoli, onions, snap peas, and big cubes of tofu all got covered in the spectacular sauce, then topped with black sesame seeds. Yes, this savory treat smelled amazing as Melissa was cooking, and the taste easily met the expectations that the aroma set out. Alongside we enjoyed a vibrant salad with chopped red cabbage, red bell peppers, cucumber, sunflower seeds, and more black sesame seeds.

The Goods: It's nice to have everyone back in the office after the eventful (and long, for some) weekend! We're officially back in full force today, which is awfully convenient since we have a little something called the July+August cover to finalize. Today's super-yummy lunch was just the thing we needed to fuel our busy workday! Oh, and speaking of lunches, we just might have something special planned for tomorrow, so keep an eye out!

Slaw Food

The Chef: Elizabeth

The Menu: Some of the brightest collard-green wraps we've ever seen! These large, leafy beauties were stuffed with a chickpea-couscous pilaf, sautéed squash with onions and tofu, and a red cabbage and shredded carrot slaw. Yes, all these ingredients were items we just happened to have on-hand, and yes, they somehow worked out well together.

The Goods: We're big fans of the impromptu menu here at the VNHQ, as you might have noticed. As you can see, we just might have developed a collective taste for colorful coleslaw, and couldn't more highly recommend reacquainting yourself with cabbage. The best thing about slaw? It takes roughly ten seconds of chopping and shredding, maybe another five for mixing up a marinade, and voila!

Cookbook Week: Vegan Soul Kitchen

The Chef: Aurelia

The Menu: More stellar soul food! Yeah, um, maybe we totally love having soul food twice in the same week, and maybe, just maybe, we were all totally blown away by the loveliness of this plate. Oh, did you actually want to know what all that gorgeousness is? Well, fine. Ms. Aurelia's Open-Faced BBQ Tempeh Sandwiches with Carrot-Cayenne Coleslaw started out with toasted, fluffy rosemary focaccia, which she topped with some super spicy barbecue-style tempeh, and, of course, the crazy-colorful slaw. Is that not the prettiest little cabbage you ever did see? Yeah. Yum.

The Goods: Bryant Terry's Vegan Soul Kitchen promises to be one hell of a cookbook, especially if today's lunch is any indication. First of all, look at that plate. Gaw. Secondly, Aurelia reported that the recipes were easy to follow and put together, though she did recommend reading them all the way through before beginning—let's just say that the coleslaw was incredibly delicious, despite not having marinated overnight. It would be difficult to describe how very much we enjoyed these sandwiches, so instead we'll leave you with a little Radiohead, which, according to VSK, is this meal's soundtrack!