On October 23, Vancouver’s vegan and vegan-conscious community will come together for the twelfth time for the Taste of Health Festival. I’ve attended this festival a couple of times and have always found it delightful, inspiring, and full of free samples of locally produced vegan products. Often there are vendor specials, too – one year I walked away with two wheels of Sheese for $10. What a deal.

The event is happening at the Masonic Hall on West 8th near Granville St.

Mark your attendance and get details at the Facebook event or visit its page on EarthSave. The event is free for EarthSave members, or $5 for non-member attendees; there will be speakers, demonstrations, food vending, and (the best part) vegans everywhere! (I bet you didn’t realize there were so many of us!)

There’s also a gala (tickets $25 before September 23) featuring keynote speaker John Robbins and hors d’oeuvres served by Organic Lives. This is where you will find all the swishy well-to-do vegans in town, so if you are hoping to marry rich and environmental-conscious, the $25 ticket is a good investment. (I am only saying this because I attended the gala a few years ago and everyone was dressed really nicely.)

Anyway, you should go to Taste of Health, because we will be there, and you should bring your non-vegan parent, lover, child, or friend, to help inspire them down the path of granola-with-nondairy-milk-alternative.

I wish I had a photo for this, but damn damn double-damn, I don’t. I made this for a vegan cookoff in March or April. The cookoff was avocado themed, and I actually ended up winning with this dish (tying with Corinna’s avocado noodle). Here, however, is the recipe. It’s incredibly simple and incredibly delicious.

Avocado Raviolini

1 medium to large avocado (or 2 small avocados), with pit and skin discarded
3 hydrated sundried tomatoes, minced
1 clove garlic, minced or pressed
1/2 lemon, juiced or 1 tbsp lemon juice
Salt & pepper

Mash all of these ingredients together in a small bowl. Cover and freeze.

1 package won-ton or spring roll wrappers

Look at the ingredients as some contain egg. I bought the larger spring roll wrappers and cut them into rectangles. You could also make fresh pasta dough from scratch if you wanted to be really ambitious. You can often find these wrappers in the frozen section and/or the Asian import section of a grocery store. Alternately, you could use phyllo pastry, though in that case I am not sure how you’d best cook the ravioli afterward – perhaps by baking it?

Prepare the wrappers by cutting them into square or rectangular shapes. Keep in mind that you will be stuffing these and folding them over. I like a rectangle shape that I then fold in half. The size and shape is up to you.

Once your avocado mixture is frozen – give it an hour if you can – you’ll want to prepare a paste for closing the ravioli up.

3 tbsp flour
3 tbsp water

Mix these together in a small bowl. You may need to prepare more of the paste later.

Make yourself a rolling/stuffing/filling station with a lightly floured surface, your bowl of paste, a fork, your wrappers, and your frozen avocado mixture. You will also want a receptacle for the filled ravioli, like a baking sheet or plate. Spoon 1 tsp of avocado mixture on to a wrapper, apply paste along the edges with your fingertip, fold the wrapper over, and crimp it closed with the fork ON BOTH SIDES. Set aside, and repeat until all of your wrappers and avocado are gone.

You may need to use less or more than 1 tsp avocado for each ravioli depending on the size of your wrappers. If you overfill them, they are more likely to break when cooking.

Cooking the ravioli

You have two choices here. When I prepared these for cookoff, I flash-fried them and then drained them with paper towel. However, another method that I think could work really well is this.

Lay a piece of wax or parchment paper on a baking sheet. Cover it with a single layer of ravioli; try to keep them from touching each other. If you have more ravioli than that, make another layer, with a piece of wax or parchment paper. Top with a final piece of wax or parchment paper.

Freeze the ravioli for at least an hour. Now, you can cook them by dropping them into a pot of water that’s already at a rolling boil for a minute or two, OR you can fry them, OR you can bake them (a hot oven for a short period of time).

The key is that you don’t want the avocado to overcook. In fact, when I prepared my dish I froze the avocado so it would stay no more than room-temperature while the wrappers cooked.

I served this with a sundried tomato cream sauce.

I woke up wanting something a little different than the usual scram, so I got a little creative with the ingredients we had in our kitchen.  I never thought that warm cucumber could be so good. Here’s the recipe for braised cucumber… (more…)

Kaylie and I haven’t been cooking as much as usual lately, which is why we’re low on recipe posts… we’ve been going out to eat far too often, 50% because Kaylie now works at a vegan-friendly restaurant where she eats for free and I hang out because I have nothing better to do, and 50% because we’re just too damn busy going out to spend evenings at home. Hopefully this will change with the new semester!

Next weekend we’re planning a trip to Seattle. Let us know of your favourite vegan-friendly Seattle restaurants in the comments, if you can? I’ve been to Pizza Pi so many times already!

SweetOnVeg Photo

Bandidas is nearly perfect. I could list my few and far between complaints first but that would hardly be fair!

The food at Bandidas is always great and you get a lot for what you pay for. The prices are reasonable. I never feel ripped off and I always feel full and satisfied. They can veganize just about everything, which I totally appreciate. It seems like everyone I bring here loves it.

They have a few default-vegan items, like the Ronny Russell, just in case you’re not into faux cheese. They recently switched to Daiya, which means vegan nachos, cheesy baked burritos and enchiladas, and cheese-covered tofu scramble breakfasts.

Tuesdays their tequila lemonade is only $4. It’s basically a cheap margarita and it’s damn delicious, plus it’s served in a mason jar. How charming! The daily specials are nice too. I always give myself an internal high five when the Camillo tacos are on special. They’re breaded spicy walnuts – delicious. Their tortilla soup is delightful. Their nachos are big wide plates of delicious, and are my second favourite vegan nachos in town. They are certainly better than the Naam’s.

Brunch at Bandidas is too good for words. One complaint is that most of the menu items are the same ingredients organized differently, but they all taste good. I usually just order the “breakfast” made vegan because it’s the cheapest, but when I feel like splurging I get a veganized Hicks Benny.

Endless coffee. Cute servers. There used to be a girl working there who fairly regularly screwed up orders and brought us things non-vegan, but I haven’t seen her in some time, and haven’t had a problem with the veganity of my food since she last served my table. Still, be on your toes and make sure that the server knows you want your item vegan!

They also have delicious brownies that are vegan. A vegan dessert option is rare and delightful, so if you happen to have space left in your digestive system after that burrito, I recommend the brownies.

Paul Galipeau photo

Budgies Burritos is a vegetarian burrito joint on Kingsway near where it splits off from Main Street, at about 8th Avenue. It expanded a couple of years ago and now offers a downstairs area with tables; recently they got licensed and are now selling alcohol as well. They offer burritos (my favourite), tacos, chips, and some other items too – but I always, always get the burrito.

When you order a burrito vegan at Budgies, they sub fresh, delicious guacamole for the normal cheese and sour cream. Having accidentally ordered a non-vegan burrito, I can say that they are better vegan.The freshness of the guacamole really makes a difference.

My favourite burrito is the Jame-Dog. It’s garlic potatoes and it’s delicious. The chipotle tofu is just marinated chunks of tofu and it tastes like… tofu. It’s firm tofu with a good texture, but I wish it were fried or roasted. The Tofurky burrito contains Tofurky sausage, which I’m not a personal fan of, but if Tofurky rocks your boat then I bet this is a great burrito. They also added a ground round burrito to their menu that I haven’t tried.

If you want a truly delicious burrito, here is what I always order:

10″ Vegan Jame-Dog on whole wheat with refried beans and mix salsa (all three).

I definitely think that they should have breakfast burritos, of course with a tofu scramble option. And if they were to crumble their chipotle tofu, marinate it in the same sauce, and then panfry it a bit, it’d be about ten million times better. Still, this is a reliably cheap and delicious place to get a burrito that will fill you up and give you the energy you need to continue being a vegan warrior. For $7, you just can’t beat the amount of food that comes in one of those.

Our new internet friends over at The Vegan Project reposted one of our recipes (my chicken salad – and yes – I have some in the fridge right now, sounds great to me). They’re three Vancouver vegans who I’ve never met, which I find really strange… but hopefully we will. We don’t seem to know enough vegans!

Speaking of Vancouver vegan, I brought Kaylie to Sejuiced on West 4th in Kitsilano yesterday and she, picky picky foodie Kaylie, really liked it! It’s healthy, delicious vegetarian food and smoothies. Hard to go wrong. I wish I’d had stomach-room for that vegan Nanaimo bar.

Carrot Coconut Soup and Veggie Burger Wrap from Sejuiced

Muddle 6 pitted cherries in the bottom of each glass, add ice to the top. Pour limeade over the ice, squeeze a slice of lime into the glass, and garnish with a thin, round-cut piece of lime. Enjoy!

Morrocan spiced, chile spiced, sweet or salty. These chickpeas go well with any salad, side or substitute for the usual rice and/or potatoes.

(more…)

Just in time for you to make a weekend brunch date..
This is the hopefully definitive list of tofu scrambles available in Vancouver, BC. If you know of any that we haven’t included, please let us know and we’ll sample them and add them to the list as soon as possible.

West Side

Kitsilano

The Naam – West 4th Ave and MacDonald
The Naam offers a tofu scramble as well as Daiya and some other delicious breakfast options like a tempeh benny-type thing with miso gravy. You can sub tofu in most of the breakfast foods, but beware that your food will probably have been baked beside something with cheese. They also forget to bring tofu instead of eggs every once in a while, too. It is a flavourful tofu scram, which is nice.

Sophie’s Cosmic Cafe – West 4th and Arbutus
Sophie’s is a long-line type of breakfast diner that offers a tofu scramble. I haven’t had it, but I did sub tofu in the huevos rancheros, which I wouldn’t suggest. It was another case of floppy, medium-firm, unflavoured tofu covered in a sauce that was originally designed to go with more flavourful non-vegan foods.

Sejuiced – West 4th and Cypress
I have never managed to make it to Sejuiced early enough to eat their tofu scramble. They stop serving it at 11am or so and I live across town… but I’ve heard good things and everything else I’ve eaten at this little vegetarian place has been fantastic.

Cafe Zen – Yew St and York Ave
Passable tofu scramble in a cute diner-style restaurant that’s very popular for brunch. They offer bottomless coffee and tonnes of different brunch options for omnis and vegetarians as well.

East Side

Roundel Cafe – East Hastings St and Nanaimo St
This is definitely one of the best tofu scrambles in the city and it’s a great place to bring your omnivorous friends too – they have a breakfast special every morning and they’re always very creative. This place is awesome. Their tofu scramble is to die for. They also have a veggie burger that’s simply perfect.

The Perch – Powell St and Commercial Drive
A flavourful baked tofu scramble with mushrooms, tomatoes, and spinach, topped with Daiya, invented by Vegan Mischief’s very own Kaylie (who works there). They also serve baked eggs for the non-vegan types. A nice variation – a non-stirfried tofu scram.

Commercial Drive

Cafe Deux Soleils – Commercial Drive and East 5th Avenue
This is one of my favourite tofu scrams in the city. It’s a great hangover breakfast. It’s a teriyaki-flavoured scramble with big chunks of medium-firm tofu, peppers, zucchini, and mushrooms, served with delicious potatoes. They also include toast but the bread isn’t vegan and they will butter it unless asked not to. Get French bread instead if you want toast. Their veggie sausage is delicious, too.

Cafe Du Soleil – Commercial Drive and Kitchener St
This is not the same place as the other Cafe! It’s much smaller and posher. Their tofu scramble is delicious, full of veg, and served with great potatoes and English muffin. When I went there they knew not to butter the English muffin, but you might want to mention that just in case.

Sweet Cherubim – Commercial Drive and Napier St
This vegetarian restaurant does have a tofu scramble but I’ve never ordered it because there are so many other delicious things on the menu. Their veggie burger is one of the best I’ve ever had.

Bandidas Taqueria – Commercial Drive and East 12th Avenue
Bandidas is a Mexican-inspired vegetarian restaurant that can sub tofu (and butternut squash – a delicious mix) for eggs in most of their breakfast dishes. You can have a vegan benny – but it’s not a traditional benny. Corn muffins, salsa, red cabbage, and guacamole are staples at Bandidas. It’s a great breakfast joint, though, with bottomless coffee.

Theresa’s – Commercial Drive and Charles St
This little co-operatively owned and run joint on the Drive has mix and match breakfasts and a fun atmosphere. Unfortunately their tofu scramble resembles vomit in texture and appearance, and doesn’t have much flavour. I have found it difficult to finish on occasion, which, if you’ve ever eaten with me, should indicate to you how blah this tofu scram is.

Main Street

Rhizome Cafe – East Broadway and Scotia St
Rhizome is a queer- and family-friendly space that serves some truly delicious and ethical food. They are not a vegetarian restaurant but do have vegan and veg options. Their breakfasts are pretty good, though not mindblowingly flavourful; still, a great place for conversation. I love to support this little community cafe.

The Wallflower Modern Diner – Main St and East 8th Avenue
I’ve only had breakfast here once and the tofu was unfortunately bland. I’ve been reassured that it may have just been that particular day, so I’ll go and try it again, at which point I will update this list.

The Whip – East 6th and Main
I was terribly underwhelmed by this scramble. Tomatoes and mushrooms with unflavoured tofu. Maybe they used salt and pepper? It seems like omnivorous chefs think that vegans eat tofu for the pure unseasoned flavour of it. They did remember to serve our toast unbuttered and it does say “vegan” right on the menu.

Sunny Spot Cafe – Main St and East 10th Avenue
We have heard legends that this cheap greasy spoon has a tofu scramble but we haven’t checked yet.

The Foundation – Main St and East 7th Avenue
This isn’t technically breakfast because Foundation doesn’t open until noon, but if you’re a late riser, they have three scrambled (on spinach) tofu dishes on their lunch menu. Choose from pesto, peanut, and sweet (mango) – all delicious, though I’m partial to the p-nut. It’s a decent amount of food for a good price, too. If you are not a bee-gan, make sure to ask whether they use honey in their sauces, though I’m pretty sure the pesto scram at least is honey-free.

Downtown

Templeton Diner – Granville St and Helmcken St
This fifties diner is pretty much the only place to get a vegan breakfast when you’re on the downtown peninsula. Their tofu scramble is passable and they serve Yves veggie bacon if, for some reason, you like that stuff.