Atlanta VegFest!!!

Yesterday, I showed you the dinner I ate at Cafe Sunflower on my first night in Atlanta. But tonight, I have pictures from the actual Atlanta VegFest event. Tomorrow, I'll show you everything else I ate during my stay.

This was the first-ever Atlanta VegFest, and I was thrilled to have been invited to do a cooking demo! I'd never been to Atlanta, and I'd never attended a VegFest (the only other one I know of in the South is  in New Orleans). So I was way super excited!

The event was held at Ambient Plus Studio, a loft-style photography studio with an abundance of natural light. When my mom and I walked in around 10:30 a.m., the place was already packed. And it had only been going on for 30 minutes! There were rows and rows of vendors offering free samples of all kinds of vegan deliciousness.

I immediately spotted my publisher peeps over at the Book Publishing Company table. They had a giant poster of my book cover, so I couldn't resist being a nerd and posing by it:

And Andrew and Liz from BPC were hard at work peddling books. They had all sorts of titles from classics like Tofu Cookery and the Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook to Miyoko's hot new Artisan Vegan Cheese cookbook:

My mom and I decided to walk around and try free samples and shop. One was the first tables we came to was for Dough Bakery/Gutenfleischers Deli, an Atlanta-based vegan bakery and deli (they have a vegan butcher, y'all!). I'll post more about this fab place tomorrow since we visited the actual bakery, but my first taste of their delicious treats were these vegan meats! There's roast beef, turkey, and ham!

As we made our way around, I noticed my favorite vegan potter Jeanette Zeis, the maker of VeganDish mugs, plates, bowls, and other ceramic kitchenware. I have several of her items already, and my mom bought me a couple more at her booth to put away as a Christmas gift for me:

You wouldn't believe how delicious these vegan dips by Judyfood were! Wow! Judy lives in Georgia, and she makes four flavors of delicious dip. They taste very Vegenaisey, but they don't actually contain Vegenaise. She makes her own blend using non-GMO canola oil, veggies, spices, and nuts:

I sampled a vegan scallop from Sophie's Kitchen:

And we got very generous sample scoops of Peanut Butter Gelato and Espresso Gelato from Revolution Gelatos. My mama raved about her PB gelato all weekend. She said it was her favorite thing she ate while in Atlanta:

After we filled up on samples, we watched Atlanta native/cookbook author Alicia Simpson (author of Quick & Easy Vegan Comfort Food and Quick & Easy Vegan Celebrations) talk about how to make vegan food lighter without sacrificing taste. Afterward, I bought her new book, Quick & Easy Low-Cal Vegan Comfort Food:

Next up, Terry Hope Romero showed us how to make Seitan Gyros with a cashew-based Greek sauce. Wow! The sample bite was soooooo delicious. Also, Terry is hilarious. During her demo, she actually forced someone in the audience to eat straight nooch. Anyway, I also bought her new book, Vegan Eats World:

Jenny Brown, founder of the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary was up next, but I had to miss most of her talk to prep for my own cooking demo, which started directly after her. I demonstrated how to make the Deviled Tofu Bites from Cookin' Crunk. I think this is a shot of me cheating and looking at my recipe:

And here are my lovely volunteers helping me fill a pastry bag with the "egg yolk" filling. They were so helpful! They even cleaned up my dishes while I signed cookbooks afterward!!!

I sold lots of cookbooks! And I met some amazing people ... including one guy who bought the book for someone named "Kyle" but he requested that I spell his name "Kale."

VegFest was a HUGE success! And the Atlanta vegans did such an amazing job keeping everything organized and on schedule. Here's Adrienne, who used her supreme organizational skills to manage the demo room:

I had a chance to chat with her more over dinner, and she is a truly amazing lady! Thanks Adrienne and Leigh and the rest of the VegFest folks!!!!

Hotlanta, Day One

I just arrived back home from my weekend in Atlanta for their first VegFest, and boy is my driving foot tired. But the six-and-a-half hour drive from Memphis was totally worth it. I have loads and loads of pictures from the fest and my cooking demo there. But I'm going to break this up into three posts. Tonight, I'm posting pics of our Friday night eats.

My mama and I left for the road trip from Memphis (well, she picked me up after driving an hour here from her home in Jonesboro, Arkansas) on Friday at 7 a.m. But we stopped for potty breaks, Taco Bell Cantina Bowls, and a little shopping in a random Harley-Davidson store in Alabama (my parents are bikers). So after the time change (we lost an hour), we arrived in Atlanta around 4 p.m., right in time for the busiest rush hour I've ever seen.

After sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic for well over an hour, both on the interstate and through town,  we checked into our hotel in Buckhead/Lenox Park. And then we braved the traffic again to get to Cafe Sunflower in Buckhead for dinner. It took us 45 minutes to drive four miles in crazy traffic from the hotel to the restaurant!!

But once we arrived and met our dinner dates, Andrew and Liz from the Book Publishing Company, the wait was totally worth it. Cafe Sunflower is an upscale vegetarian restaurant with mostly vegan selections. They do use cheese in a couple of dishes, but it looks like that's about it. The inside is decorated with these playful red Chinese lanterns, which cast a sophisticated glow on everything.

We started with these crispy Spring Rolls, which were filled with veggies and glass noodles:

I had a really hard time choosing my entree because everything sounded so good! The selections ranged from American comfort food to Thai to Italian. After much deliberation, I finally settled on Homemade Ravioli filled with tofu-spinach ricotta and topped with spinach, green beans, mushrooms, and a kabocha squash sauce:

Wow! I've never had pasta with a squash-based sauce, but I'm gonna have to work on making my own version of this recipe. I know from experience that ravioli-making is a pain in the ass, but it's so worth it.

My mom had an even harder time choosing what to eat from the massive menu. She finally settled on two items from the appetizer section. One was Pan-Fried Dumplings, which I somehow failed to photograph. But the other were these beautifully presented Fried Green Tomatoes topped with hummus and drizzled with a balsamic reduction:

Liz, who handles the marketing for Book Pub Co, went with a special-of-the-day, Wild Mushroom Risotto. It looked so very creamy, and it was topped cute little enoki mushrooms:

And Andrew, a photographer at Book Pub Bo (the guy who shot the pics in my book), chose what was, perhaps, the most creatively presented dish — the Garden Loaf:

That's a generous slice of veggie meatloaf, mashed herb potatoes with miso gravy, and asparagus shaped into a triangle! Here's another angle:

The meal was delicious, and though I'd hoped to save room for dessert (they had gluten-free Georgia peach cobbler!), I just couldn't eat another bite after polishing off the ravioli. Amazing!

Tune in tomorrow for pictures from VegFest!

Off to Atlanta!

If any of you lovely readers lives anywhere near Atlanta, come see me at Atlanta VegFest this weekend! I'll be demonstrating how to make tofu deviled eggs from Cookin' Crunk and signing cookbooks.

And I'm sharing a bill some awesome vegan celebs — Terry Hope Romero (I hear she's making seitan gyros!), Alicia Simpson, and Jenny Brown (founder of Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary!). Plus, lots of awesome vegan companies will be there with product samples and coupons. And there's an Atlanta Vegan Drink VegFest after-party!

It's Atlanta's first VegFest and my first too. I promise to share loads of pics when I return. But until then, all I have to offer is this humble Whole Wheat Buttermilk Biscuit with Vegan Sausage and Apple Butter:

The biscuit is from Cookin' Crunk. The sausage is Gimme Lean, and the apple butter is R.W. Knudson. Good stuff! I'll be eating this again in the morning before hitting the road to the ATL at 6 a.m.

Bluff City Vegan Eats: Derae Restaurant

Sorry I failed to post last night. I was out way too late celebrating Barack Obama's win!! And the gay marriage and recreational pot victories! It's the dawning of a new era, folks: A good one where folks are enlightened and rad.

But before I get all sappy and Age of Aquarius on you, let's get to the meat (or veggies?) of this post. About a week ago, my friend Leslie invited me to lunch at this new Ethiopian joint — Derae Restaurant.

I adore Ethiopian food (mostly because I love injera and eating with my hands). And not only was the food mind-blowing at Derae, the owner was super-sweet too. He hooked us up with free appetizers, soup, and even let me take a bite from his personal breakfast plate (a flatbread with sweet vermicelli). Anyway, we started with these Sambusas:

Much like its Indian cousin (the samosa), the Somalian sambusa is a fried, triangle pastry stuffed with awesome.  This one had lentils and spinach, but traditional sambusa can also have beef or lamb (apparently Derae doesn't do lamb though).

Next, the owner brought us some Marak, a Somalian vegetable soup. This savory broth was filled with green beans, carrots, and some other veggies that I can't remember. But it was delicious, especially with a squeeze of lime juice:

The owner also brought us a complimentary bowl of tangy Tabbouleh Salad!

Then it was time for our main course. Leslie and I split a Vegetarian Platter:

There's sauteed kale, sauteed cabbage, lentils (red and yellow), green beans, and an amazing eggplant and okra saute. It's all served over a bed of spongey injera bread. In case you don't know, you're not really supposed to use a fork to eat Ethiopian food. You tear off bits of injera and grab food with the bread. I love any opportunity to trade my fork for bread.

And of course, we had extra injera for scooping. I ate all of my mine, but Leslie has more self-control and managed to limit her injera intake.

Memphis has a few Ethiopian restaurants, but Derae is my new favorite. Delicious food + the best service ever. They also serve Ethiopian breakfast all day long, so I'll be trying that soon.

Derae Restaurant is located at 923 S. Highland. Call 901-552-3992 or visit their Facebook page.

Trader Joe's Lust

Memphis doesn't have a Trader Joe's. But I think I can speak for most Memphians (or at least Midtowners) when I say, there's nothing we'd like to have more. For years, there have been Trader Joe's rumors. So-and-so development is going up, and so-and-so heard a Trader Joe's was moving in. But they're always rumors. Sigh.

Sure, we have a Whole Foods. And it's nice. It's about to expand into the massive old Office Depot space next door, and it'll be a super Whole Foods. And that will be awesome. But that's all we have. No indie-owned health food shops. And no Trader Joe's. I know, I know ... first-world problems.

But the lack of a TJ's didn't stop me from reviewing Kris Holechek Peters' new cookbook, The I Love Trader Joe's Vegetarian Cookbook.

I've been following Kris' Nom! Nom! Nom! Blog for years, so I knew the recipes in this full-color book would be delicious. Now, because the book is for Trader Joe's, it's a "vegetarian" cookbook. But since Kris is vegan, every recipe has a vegan version. And since it's written from a vegan perspective, the vegan versions are never that far from the original. Even in the vegetarian recipes, you won't find any super cheesy or overly eggy recipes.

Because it's a Trader Joe's cookbook, each recipe calls for specific TJ's brand items. Some are items you can't find anywhere else, but you'll likely be able to find something similar elsewhere. Other items are pretty basic, like cans of chickpeas or firm tofu. Any brand will substitute just fine.

Since I don't have access to TJ's brand products, I picked a recipe that would work with any brand — the BBQ Bowl:

There's chickpeas sauteed in BBQ sauce, quinoa cooked with veggie broth, and roasted brussels sprouts, and it's topped with Parmela vegan aged Parmesan. I love bowls, and this one really takes the vegan cake. It combines my favorite grain, my favorite bean, and one of my fave veggies (I can't ever pick just one). Plus, that Parmela is some amazing stuff. If you haven't tried it yet, get some. Tastes exactly like dairy Parmesan.

I wanted a simple salad on the side, so I made the Massaged Spinach Salad:

It's like a massaged kale salad but with baby spinach. The simple olive oil and lemon juice dressing is worked into the spinach, wilting it into a tender, tasty green. I added garlic to this recipe because garlic is awesome.

Everything in this book looks amazing, and most can be made with substitute brands if you're not lucky enough to live by a TJ's. Next on my list is Roasted Carrot Risotto, Olive My Love Pasta (spaghetti with assorted olives!), Tahini Broccolini (tender baby broccoli with tahini sauce), the East Meets Midwest Breakfast Bake (a breakfast casserole with tofu, peppers, coconut milk, hash browns, and cucumber raita!), Tuscan Tomato Soup, and the Amazing Everything Cookies (peanut butter, chocolate chunk, walnuts, and banana chips).

Memphis may never see a Trader Joe's, but at least I can use this book and pretend. Right?

To India and Back

Okay, I didn't really go to India. But I did the next best thing: I went to Memphis' annual India Fest this weekend. Every year, the India Association of Memphis puts on this massive festival with food from every state of India, dance performances, vendors selling saris and jewelry, and lots of henna artists.

They really go all out with the decor. Check out this huge Taj Mahal!

My friends Cassi, Leslie, and her daughter Toya (all pictured here), and Stephanie, Richard, and their kid Peter all met up at the fest. And yes, I wore an Indian shirt and a bindhi on my head. I'm a nerd.

We immediately went in search of food, but we didn't have to go far since the fest has soooooooo much food. It's impossible to try even a smidgeon of what's offered. Every year, I try to vary what I eat. But I always, always order a Samosa (pictured here with a sweet tamarind sauce):

There are food booths representing the various states of India, so I like to order a small dish from several states so I can sample my way around India. After I downed my samosa, I found this Idli with Sambar at another booth:

Idli, the white things, are lentil and rice dumplings. They're like little soft pieces of bread, and they're served with a coconut sauce. That soup is sambar, a tamarind and pigeon pea stew. It's often served with idli. I like to dip my idli in the soup.

As I was walking to find a place to sit and eat my sambar and idli, I stumbled across a vendor selling my favorite Indian food — Vada!!

They look like donuts, but vada are actually savory. They're made with dal or lentil flour, and they're typically served with a sauce. This one was served with a brothy soup that had chunks of potato. So good!

Now, I had mostly chaat (street food that's typically served at roadside carts in India), but there were plenty of full meals offered too. I just didn't want to fill up in one place, so I stuck with snacky fare.

I was pretty full after all the chaat I'd eaten so far, but I kept seeing people walking around with plates of this puffed rice looking stuff. And I really wanted to try it! I'd had some before, but I had no idea what it was called. So I went from booth to booth, looking for this stuff. I finally found it when we were in line for henna tattoos. The booth next to the henna artist was selling this Bhel Puri:

Bhel puri is a spicy, savory street food snack made with puffed rice, veggies, and tamarind sauce. This plate had fresh onions, sev snack sticks, cilantro, peanuts, and some other stuff. It was so amazing. I savored every bite while Cassi and I waited in line for our henna tattoos.

Here I am getting my henna done:

And here's the finished product. This black stuff flakes off, leaving behind that brown henna dye that stays on your skin for a few days:

Plant Based Protein

You'd think a book called 250 Best Beans, Lentils, and Tofu Recipes would be vegan or at least vegetarian, right? Well, it's not. The new cookbook from Robert Rose Inc. actually features a combination of vegan, vegetarian, and omni recipes with legumes and tofu as the star ingredient.

It's rather interesting to see recipes for, say, a Cuban-Style Tofu Sandwich alongside recipes for Spicy Halibut on a Bed of Lentils or Easy Chicken Tacos. But at least the book does introduce tofu to meat-eaters. This book would be a great gift for someone looking to add some veg options without going full force yet.

But nonetheless, I found plenty of mouth-watering vegan recipes to choose from. After all, there are 250 recipes! I finally settled on Cajun-Style Tofu with Okra and Tomatoes:

The tomatoes are slow-simmered in a Crock Pot, and then the okra and corn is added toward the end of cooking. The tofu is lightly breaded with flour and Cajun seasoning and fried in a little oil. The meal was absolutely delicious. I loved the lightly fried, spicy tofu, and I'm always a fan of anything with okra. For this, I used some fresh okra that my Granny had canned this summer. I just washed off the salt and vinegar, sliced it up, and threw it in the pot of tomatoes.

There's a whole chapter of this book dedicated to Meatless Mains, and there you'll find recipes for the Indian dish, Bengali Khichri (a rice and lentil dish that resembles risotto), Cider Baked Beans, Penne with Creamy White Bean Sauce, and Moussaka with Tofu Topping (a Greek eggplant casserole). I don't think there's a single dish in the Meatless Mains chapter that isn't on my to-make wish list.

But there are plenty of vegan options in other parts of the book as well. I bookmarked a Curried Squash and Red Lentil Soup with Coconut in the Soups chapter, a Red Hot Hummus (with hot chili paste!) in the Appetizers, and Pumpkin and Black Beans in the Sides and Small Plates chapter. All the vegan recipes are clearly marked as "vegan," as are the vegetarian ones. And any vegetarian recipe can be easily made vegan.

If you're looking for a vegan tofu and beans book, this isn't it. But if you're looking for a book to help an omni ease into healthy eating, this is the perfect fit.