A Kitchen Sink Salad

The Chef: Anna and Valencia Whole Foods

The Menu: Pesto pasta with sun-dried tomatoes atop a salad of corn, carrots, fava beans, hummus, dried cranberries, cherry tomatoes, chickpeas, and some other stuff I can't remember.

The Dish: I wasn't really hungry when lunchtime rolled around today, so I figured I might as well try to get some greens in there. Sure, pesto pasta isn't necessarily the "green" I went to the store with the intention of buying, but at least I got some of the leafy stuff in, right? My stomach was mostly filled with taro fries that we taste tested earlier in the day, and just so happens to be one of the seven delicious, taro-based recipes in our July+August feature. Want to get your hands on a copy before it hits store shelves? Order a subscription today!

Rustic Rotini

The Chef: Lyndsay

The Menu: A lovely, primavera-ish rotini with roasted eggplant, zucchini, green bell peppers, cannellini beans, red onion, and sun-dried tomatoes, all simmered in a savory tomato sauce. A mixed-greens salad in tangy lemon salad dressing completed the plate.

The Goods: Remember a couple days ago when we were griping about the hum-drum weather? Today we gripe no more! It's freaking gorgeous out, and some of us might have even gotten too much sun during lunch. Yes, you read that right, we said too much sun. Insanity. Along with the sparkling sunshine we very much enjoyed the company of Emma and Mike, friends of Elizabeth who are honeymooning their way along the California coast. Did they totally come on the most beautiful day we've had all year? Yes. Did they also bring cookies for us? Yes. Do we wish we had awesome guests every day? Yes!

Lovely Curry

The Chef: Kailey

The Menu: A light, lovely yellow curry with garbanzo beans, zucchini, and carrots served atop fluffy brown rice. Kailey also roasted up some sweet-potato fries and busted out a mixed-greens salad with sun-dried tomatoes and celery. This meal was just the thing for a sort of dreary San Francisco day, and we eagerly gobbled it up.

The Goods: Aside from the overcast weather, things are pretty bright here at the VNHQ. We have nearly 10,000 votes in the Veggie Awards survey, we spent the majority of lunch talking about food—something that always makes us happy—and this weekend we'll be reporting from the SF Vegan Prom. Could we really want for anything else? Nah.

Mmmm Moroccan

The Chefs: Melissa and Hannah Tai

The Menu: An absolutely stellar meal of Moroccan-inspired pasta. Chickpeas, sun-dried tomatoes, raisins, and a superbly spiced tomato sauce covered hearty strands of brown-rice spaghetti. An herb-mix salad with yummy avocado, dried cranberries, cubed Follow Your Heart mozzarella, and crumbled Mediterranean-style Sunergia Soy Feta made an excellent accompaniment. Oh, and maybe we had a little dessert, too.

The Goods: Yes, that phenomenally gorgeous cake that you see below came to us courtesy of—and couriered by—the lovely Hannah Tai, vegan wedding-cake baker extraordinaire. Her cardamom-spiced cake with chocolate ganache and layers of raspberry and rosewater buttercream matched perfectly with today's Moroccan theme, though both she and Melissa swear they didn't confer beforehand. Today also happens to be a day of firsts! First, Ms. Melissa debuted as chef, and her scrumptious meal blew us all away. Next, tonight will be the first ever SF Vegan Drinks! Woo hoo! We're extremely excited. Finally, today was the first time that we considered partnering with Hannah for some sort of super SF Vegan Drinks surprise, so make sure and keep an eye out for something thrilling in the months to come! Whew. Back to work!

Righteous Risotto

The Chef: Elizabeth

The Menu: A not-quite-seasonal springtime risotto. With crisp asparagus, flavorful sun-dried tomatoes, and some very zesty lemon zest, this rich dish really hit the spot on an extremely cold winter's day. With a simple spinach salad, and maybe a little dessert, the meal was complete.

The Goods: Since we're perpetually working four months in advance of the actual date, we sometimes run into a little trouble of having to test recipes with seasonal ingredients that are, to put it bluntly, totally out of season. Nonetheless, we're sure that this yummy main course will be even better come March, just in time for the March+April installment of Jesse Miner's column, High-Tech Chef, in VegNews! Want to know what else you'll find in that issue? Oh, just a little something we ate after lunch called Neapolitan Bars, courtesy of Ms. Hannah Kaminsky's My Sweet Vegan column. Yes, your curiosity in said bars is well founded.

Primo Primavera

The Chefs: Jenny, Lyndsay, and Abby

The Menu: An absolutely delicious pasta primavera. You know what the best thing about primavera is? You can use an incredible variety of veggies in this adaptable dish. Today, Jenny tossed in fresh red and yellow bell peppers, halved cherry tomatoes, broccoli, sun-dried tomatoes, and fresh basil. Abby busted out some of her signature biscuits, which also featured the fresh basil. Lyndsay was on salad duty and did a fine job, combining greens, tomatoes, and avocado.

The Goods: After the craziness of the weekend—namely one Vegan à Go-Go! Book Bash and one World Veg Festival—it was great to have such a hearty meal to start out the week. In addition to the great grub, we were also treated to the fab company of Vegan Body Building's Robert Cheeke, and fellow muscle man Ricardo Moreira. As if our two guests weren't enough to perk us up, Joseph scored some delicious cupcakes from Sugar Beat Sweets over the weekend, which we enthusiastically devoured. Here are the two people in attendance least likely to be seen with cupcakes, what with their killer workout schedules and all: