Asian Marinated Kale Salad

The Chef: Jennifer

The Menu: An Asian-twist on the Marinated Kale Salad recipe with seaweed strips, toasted sesame seeds, and marinated bean curd noodles and a cup of Zola Açaí Original Juice.

The Goods: When I usually make the VN Marinated Kale Salad for dinner, I top it with avocado, mushrooms, and Gardein chicken. But since I had none of those ingredients except for organic kale from the farmers' market, I decided to do some cooking improv. Thanks to my local Asian grocery store, Ranch 99, I had some bean curd noodles (imagine tofu spaghetti-sized noodles), a bag of shredded seaweed strips, and toasted sesame seeds. I tossed them in with my lemon-olive oil dressing and hoped for the best. Turns out, it tasted like a great big seaweed salad, which I love. My husband calls me the cooking MacGyver because I take random ingredients and make a meal. I attribute my random-ingredients cooking skills to living in New York City, post-college, on a tiny salary. But hey, it still comes in handy!

Vegan Tom Yum Soup

The Chef: Elizabeth

The Menu: A vegan tom yum soup with tofu, seaweed, and rice cakes. The secret ingredients in this super-simple soup? Veggie chicken stock and tom yum paste.

The Goods: This might not be the prettiest soup on the planet, but I tell you what: it's freaking delicious. I love the chewy little rice cakes (not the puffed rice kind, these are gummy discs of joy), and the soothing quality of a huge bowl of soup. Maybe I was recently in Florida for four glorious days, basking in the heat, and maybe I needed a return to warmth when faced with today's drizzly SF weather—if only by way of soup. One more new find that's currently combating the cold is the yummy Red Velvet Tea that arrived today. Hello, cake in a cup! Between the tea and the soup, it's almost like being back on the beach.

Vegan Miso Soup

The Chef: Elizabeth

The Menu: A quick, easy miso soup with soba noodles, tofu, seaweed, and enoki mushrooms.

The Goods: You know something? The Menu is shorter when you go home for lunch instead of spending bazillions of dollars on fancy salads. There are also hidden bonuses to dining in the privacy of a place that is neither a restaurant nor your office, namely being able to make a huge pot of soup and slurp it to your heart's content. Here's hoping everyone has a lovely bowl of soup this evening!

Simple Miso Soup

The Chef: Aurelia

The Menu: A light, lovely miso soup, complete with seaweed, tofu, and thinly sliced carrots. Following the heavy-food-free theme, Ms. Aurelia also prepared a raw salad of broccoli and bell peppers in a soy sauce, rice-wine vinegar, and miso marinade. The meal was very fresh and left plenty of room in our bellies. While that might not sound like a good attribute for lunch, we have a little something up our sleeves...

The Goods: So, we were intentionally not overdoing it on lunch today so that we'd be good and ready to gorge ourselves at Millennium's Southern Comfort Dinner. Around these parts we are all huge fans of anything deep fried, and the added bonus of getting Millennium's quality in some serious comfort food is maybe just too exciting to handle. In the spirit, tell us what your favorite deep-fried, artery-clogging, bad-for-you-but-oh-so-good indulgence is! We'll be letting you know all about how the night goes over on Press Pass, so make sure to check it out!