If you’re like us, you often feel nostalgic for things that maybe aren’t that awesome. But there’s a context, a larger experience that imbues them with something better, gives them a prominent place in our happy memories. The Olive Garden is one of those for us. For both of our families, it was one of the “going out to eat someplace ‘fancy’” defaults. When we (independently of each other) became vegetarian, it became an even better option, since there were still many things on the menu we could eat. Once we became vegan, though, things got a little dicier. Depending on who you ask, the minestrone, breadsticks, capellini pomodoro, and salad are or aren’t vegan. The pasta may or may not have eggs. The marinara may or may not have meat broth. The salad dressing definitely has cheese in it–there are no vegan dressings.

Since (a) we’ve never been able to get a straight answer and (b) we now live in an area with other family-suitable options (namely, Chinese), we don’t eat at the Olive Garden any more. But every once in a while, we get the hankering for the enveloping warmth of minestrone and hot fresh breadsticks–and a big ol’ vegan salad. So last night, we created some real “hospitaliano”–vegan style.

The minestrone was only slightly modified from this excellent recipe.

Olive Garden-style Minestrone

• 1 medium-sized white onion, diced
• 4 – 6 cloves of garlic, minced or pressed
• 1 stalk of celery, diced finely
• 1/2 medium-sized zucchini, cut into small one-inch pieces or half-moons
• 1 small carrot (or half of a large carrot), grated
• a large handful of Italian/Spanish-style green beans (the flat ones–you can sub normal green beans in a pinch), cut into one-inch pieces
• 4 large stalks of kale (the curly kind), cut from the stalk and chopped coarsely
• 4 cups (2 cans) of cooked kidney beans
• 2 cups (1 can) cooked cannellini beans or white beans
• 4 cups (1 large can or 1 large jar) cooked tomatoes, with their juice
• 4 cups veggie broth
• 3 cups water
• 1/2 cup small shell pasta
• 2 tbsp fresh parsley, minced
• 1.5 tsp dried oregano (1.5 tbsp fresh, minced)
• 1/2 tsp dried basil (1.5 tsp fresh, minced)
• 1/4 tsp dried thyme (1 tsp  fresh, minced)
• salt & pepper, to taste
• 1/4 – 1/2 cup red wine (optional)

As you’d expect, saute the onion, garlic, and celery in a large pot over medium heat–in the oil of your choice (I recommend choosing safflower). When the onion has gotten soft, add in the broth, water, tomatoes, carrots, and herbs/spices. Bring it to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes. In a separate pot, cook the shells. When they’re done–but al dente–remove from heat, strain, and blanch with cold water. This will help prevent them from getting as bloated and mushy in the soup. A lazier person may decided to add the shells directly to the soup. But you wouldn’t do that. This is hospitaliano.

Once the 20 minutes is up, add in the remaining ingredients and cook until the zucchini and green beans are tender. It’s this crucial step that allows you to trump the Olive Garden–you can add veggies in at the end, ensuring their crispness, a paean to non-flaccid vegetables.

Now let’s trump their bread.

We used this recipe, unmodified, but reposted here for your convenience.

Breadsticks

• 1 1/3 cups of water
• 4 tsp melted Earth Balance ™
• 4 cups of flour
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp yeast
• additional melted Earth Balance ™, for brushing on top
• additional salt, for sprinkling on top
• granulated garlic, for sprinkling on top

Combine all of the dry ingredients, minus 1 cup of flour, ideally in a mixer, using the bread hook attachment.

(We like to keep a giant thing of flour on hand so we can make bread any time we want.)

If you don’t have a mixer, you can theoretically mix by hand and then knead (we just got one for christmas and this was it’s maiden voyage–it was awesome). Combine the wet ingredients in a separate bowl/cup and then add slowly to the dry, while mixing. Now add in the remaining flour. Once the dough is mixed well (about 2 minutes in the mixer), roll out in to 16 long pieces. (We made about 12 and they were slightly fatter than the Olive Garden’s, but still awesome.)  Cover them and let them rise for at least 45 minutes. Preheat oven to 400 degrees, Fahrenheit. Brush the bread with Earth Balance ™ and sprinkle salt on top.  Bake for 15 minutes. When you take them out, brush with Earth Balance ™ again and then sprinkle with granulated garlic.

And finally, the salad.

The salad, to be faithful to the OG original, should have lettuce (obviously), croutons, purple onion, roma tomatoes, black olives, peppers, and shredded carrots. We didn’t have any fresh tomatoes or black olives (which I don’t like) on hand, so we had to make due with some sliced zucchini instead. We made the croutons fresh, from a piece of bread cut into squares, lightly doused on olive oil, salt/pepper/garlic-ed, and toasted. The original salad should also have some sort of cheesy mayonnaise vinaigrette dressing, which we didn’t deign to copy. Instead, we made this vinaigrette, slightly modified.

Italian Vinaigrette Dressing

• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 1/2 tsp fresh dill
• 1/4 tsp dried oregano
• 1/4 tsp dried thyme
• 1/4 tsp dried basil
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp agave nectar
• pepper to taste

Combine ingredients in a cruet and shake well.

When you’re vegan, you’re family!

There are two popular types of yellow dal–the heavily-spiced, tomato-y Indian version and the subtle, lemon-y Middle Eastern variety. At home, we tend toward making the Middle Eastern version–especially since our favorite Middle Eastern place Al Noor went out of business.

With the soup in mind, I need something else to round the meal out. Traditionally, this would be falafel or hummus & pita, but I’d just made hummus two nights ago and require substantial motivation to bust out the falafel. I was hankering, instead, for something more like pakora. I didn’t have any chickpea flour on hand, though, so I had to rethink things a bit. I came up with lightly breaded spinach-potato dumplings–to be eaten in the dal. Traditional? Nope. Delicious? Indubitably.

Middle Eastern Yellow Dal

• 1 large white onion, diced
• 4 – 6 cloves of garlic, minced or pressed
• 2 cups yellow lentils OR yellow split peas (not quite the same, but either will work; yellow lentils can be tough to find)
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander seed
• juice from 1/2 lemon (or more, to taste)
• 9 cups of water
• olive oil
• salt & pepper, to taste

As you can see from the ingredients, this is a pretty simple recipe. I’ve of the school that a dal should generally be simple, letting the flavor of lentils or split peas really come through.  All you want to do is accent this flavor, not cook on top of it.

In a large pot, saute the onion and garlic in olive oil over medium heat. When the onions are soft, add in the lentils/peas, stirring well. Let the lentils/peas cook for a few minutes, then add in the water. I like to add the water piecemeal–just enough to cover everything–and cover. This allows you to control exactly how thick or thin your dal is, but also requires a little babysitting. You can probably just add all of the water, cover, and occupy yourself with something else for a good 2 hours. Lentils/split peas take a while to cook.

When the lentils/peas finally get soft and are breaking apart, add in the spices and lemon. Cook for another 15 minutes or so.

Breaded Spinach-Potato Dumplings

• 3 medium-sized potatoes, peeled and cut into large pieces
• 1/2 lb spinach
• 1/4 cup flour
• 3 tbsp cornmeal/corn flour
• 2 tbsp almond meal
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground coriander seed
• safflower oil
• salt & pepper, to taste

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a medium-sized saucepan, boil the potatoes until they are soft–almost as soft as if you were making mashed potatoes. If you are using fresh spinach, steam it until it’s soft, then cut it into shreds. If you’re using frozen, you can boil it for a few minutes in the same water you used for the potatoes. I used frozen, but almost always prefer fresh. In a large bowl, mash up the potatoes with the spinach. Stir in the flour. You want the mixture to be thick enough to form balls. Add more flour if needed.

In a small bowl, mix the remaining dry ingredients. Form spinach-potato mixture into balls, roll in the oil, roll in the breading, then place on a baking sheet. This should make around 18 – 20 dumplings.

Bake 20 minutes to a side, or until nicely browned and somewhat crisp.

Serve in the soup:

Every once in a while, “Use whatever is about to go bad” isn’t an act of desperation, a culinary hail mary; it’s a reminder to your current self that your past self had BIG plans. Stop cooking like a jerk and use those Brussels sprouts, green and red peppers, onions, carrots, potatoes, mushrooms, tofu, and quinoa. So maybe this is a little extreme in that I used everything–but the result was a pleasantly awesome surprise: Roasted Veggies, Quinoa, & Teriyaki-Glazed Tofu.

We’ve had roasted vegetables on the brain since Amy’s birthday dinner at Eve and only now just got around to trying our hand at them post-Eve. We used a greater variety of veggies than she did, so ours turned out pretty different, but were still pretty tasty.

Roasted Veggies & Quinoa

Veggies

• 1/2 large green bell pepper, cut into bit-size pieces
• 1/2 large red bell pepper, cut into bit-size pieces
• 1/2 large white onion, cut into petals
• 1/2 large purple onion, cut into petals
• 1.5 heads of garlic, minced coarsely
• 4 medium-sized potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 1 large carrot, peeled and cut into disks
• 1 bag  (~4 cups) of Brussels sprouts, cut in half

Quinoa

• 2 cups quinoa
• 4 cups veggie stock

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Toss the veggies in a high-heat oil in a 13″ x 9″  baking pan/casserole dish. Salt and pepper. Toss some more. Salt and pepper some more. Pop it in the oven for 15 minutes. Remove and stir, adding oil if things seem dry. Pop it back in the oven for another 15 minutes and stir again. Finally, bake for a paltry additional 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare your quinoa. Bring the veggie stock to a boil (or bring water to a boil and toss in your bouillon). Add in the quinoa. Cook until the broth has boiled off and the quinoa is soft enough to eat, but still a tad crisp (unless like it mushy, in which case you can cook it as long as you like). Salt it, if need be.

Serve the veggies on or adjacent to the quinoa. Fantastic!

For some reason, I’ve also had a wild hare to make baked glazed tofu. I was finally spurred into action by Zoa at The Airy Way, who in turn was inspired by this recipe from Vegan Planet. I followed the marinade recipe exactly, but the tofu just didn’t have the zang I was hoping for when it was done. Maybe I didn’t marinade it long enough? Is 2 hours sufficient? So I decided to augment the remaining marinade and create a drizzly/dipping glaze, which did the trick nicely.

Teriyaki-Glazed Tofu

• 1 lb tofu, pressed and cut into thin triangles
• 6 tbsp soy sauce
• 6 tbsp orange juice
• 2 tbsp sesame oil
• 2 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 tbsp peanut oil
• 2 tsp cornstarch
• 1 tbsp soybean paste

Marinade

Combine half of all of the above ingredients, except the soybean paste, cornstarch, and peanut oil. Marinade the tofu in this. For a long time. 2 hours didn’t seem like enough to me. I’d recommend overnight, if you’re the kind of person that can start preparing a meal that far in advance (which I am not). Bake the tofu at 425 degrees, 15 – 20 minutes to a side–flipping when nicely browned. Like cookies, these will firm up once they sit out for a few minutes, so try not to overcook them (though even overdone, they’re still delicious).

Meanwhile, combine the remaining ingredients, except the soybean paste and cornstarch in a small saucepan over medium heat. Slowly whisk in the cornstarch, thickening. You can use a little less if you like the sauce more drizzly. Finally, stir in the soybean paste. Remove from heat and either drizzle on the tofu or pour into small dipping vessels.

Magnifico!

If we were honest with ourselves, we’d call this this VeganSoups.org. Every non-soup recipe is really just a holdover until we can make another soup. At least in the 6 month Michigan winter. So here is yet another in a long line of vegan soups.

I saw this amazing-looking Potato Turnip soup on Vegan Eats & Treats a couple weeks ago and was intrigued. ‘What is this “turnip” you speak of’, thought I. I mean, I’ve heard of turnips. I’m even lead to believe they’re in my veggie stock. But ne’er have I cooked a turnip. Nary a one. (Much like the parsnip, which my good friend Jeremy turned me onto.)

As it turns out, a turnip is like a crispy potato with zang!.  This is perfectly complemented by lots of pepper and a healthy smattering of fresh rosemary. This soup can be seasonal for quite some time, too. We’re still getting local potatoes and turnips at the coop and our rosemary is happy as a clam (which is happy why?) indoors over the winter.

Potato, Turnip, & Rosemary Soup

• 1 large white onion, diced
• 4 large-ish russet potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 3 medium-sized turnips, peeled and cubed
• 6 cups veggie stock
• ~ 1 tbsp fresh rosemary (or 1 -2  tsp ground)
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp granulated garlic
• salt & pepper, to taste

This soup is insanely easy. Saute the onion in a large pot over medium heat in oil of your choice (your choice would be awesome if it were Safflower). Add the turnips once you’ve finished peeling and cubing them. Ditto on the potatoes (they’re a bit softer, so they take less time to cook down). Once the onions are soft, add the veggie stock. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer covered until the potatoes and turnips are soft. Blend! If you’ve heeded past warnings, portents, and/or implorations, then you’ll use your immersion blender. Otherwise, do it the hard way and enjoy the $25 you’ve saved. I like to leave a bit of the potato/turnip intact, but you might like it smooth, like Barry White. Add the herbs and spices and you’re all set. That’s it! Easy!

Of all the soups on this Earth, the Thai Tom Kha is among my favorites.

We were introduced to it at the Thai Pavilion in DeKalb, IL–where I was introduced to Thai food in general. There seem to be lots of varieties of this tofu & coconut soup–some sweet and rich, others more savory–and the Thai Pavilion’s was sweet. Perhaps because that’s the Tom Kha I first loved, it’s the one I love best, and the one I’ve been striving for years to reproduce at home–with mixed levels of success. I had half an acorn squash and shloads of tofu on hand from the Indigenous Scramble, and a hankerin’ for soup, so this seemed like the perfect time to once again attempt a Tom Kha. This version is only slightly modified from Nancie McDermott’s Real Vegetarian Thai, a book I’ve been faithfully neglecting for years. Also, this version was pretty awesome.

Tom Kha w/Acorn Squash

• 2 cans of coconut milk
• 1.5 cups of veggie stock
• fresh ginger, cut into about 20 quarter-sized disks (the recipe calls for galanga, but we never seem to have that on hand)
• 10 peppercorns
• zest from an entire lime (in theory, kaffir lime leaves are more authentic, but also harder to come by)
• 1/2 lb extra firm tofu, drained and cubed
• 1/2 acorn squash, skinned and cubed
• 6 mushrooms, cut into fourths (or slightly smaller if they’re large mushrooms)
• 2 tbsp lime juice
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 4 stalk of lemon grass (we left these out and it was still delicious; you can also use lemon grass powder)
• 1 tbsp brown sugar (optional)
• green onions, chopped
• salt, to taste

In a medium to large pot, bring coconut milk and veggie stock to a boil. Add in the ginger/galanga, lime leaves/zest, peppercorns, and prepped lemongrass (if using) and reduce heat to simmer. We had leftover baked acorn squash, I just removed to skin and cubed it. For firmer squash, you’ll want it uncooked–which means that you’ll need to pare off the skin, then cube. Add the squash and mushrooms and bring back to a boil, cooking for 10 minutes. Add in the remaining ingredients, cooking until the tofu is heated through and has acquired some of the soup’s deliciosity.

This is best served (and we think traditionally) with rice on the side. Take a spoonful of rice and dunk it in the soup, occasionally grabbing some tofu, squash, or a mushroom. Place contents in your mouth. Rejoice.

We had this with a “Thai” salad–essentially a Western salad, but with a Peanut Sesame Ginger dressing, peanuts, sliced clementine, and a bit of wakame on the salad.

Thai Peanut Sesame Ginger Dressing

• 2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
• 2 tbsp peanut oil
• 3 tbsp water
• 6 tbsp safflower oil
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp freshly grated ginger
• 1 tbsp natural peanut butter
• 1 large carrot, peeled
• 1 tbsp red thai curry paste
• 1 tbsp chopped onion

Blend all ingredients in a blender until smooth.

No, this is not a hilarious dance performed by the natives to this continent–it’s a tofu scramble made with local ingredients, namely wild rice and acorn squash. I like to imagine this as the Thanksgiving Breakfast, pilgrims and natives alike feasting cruelty-free on tofu and native crops. No one gave anyone smallpox and everyone lived happily ever after. The end. Manifest Destiny only required that the food was delicious.

We made this for a brunch this morning (well, this afternoon). This being the Year of the Brunch, it’s been a real challenge to make a sufficient variety of breakfast foods without (a) repeating ourselves and (b) overlapping with what others are making. Remember that brunch where you all made potatoes?

This was inspired by a scramble we had some time back at Seva, a local vegetarian restaurant. It’s a little labor intensive for your usual breakfast, so it’s more ideal for a brunch-type scenario. Accordingly, this recipe is for a double batch–so be sure to halve everything if you’re only feeding a few people and/or don’t want a ton of leftovers.

Indigenous Scramble

• 2 medium-sized white onions, diced
• 2 lbs of tofu, drained
• 1/2 medium – large acorn squash
• 1 cup (uncooked) wild rice
• 2 cups water
• 1/3 cup nutritional yeast
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 2 tsp herbs d’provence
• salt & pepper, to taste
• high heat cooking oil

Preheat your over to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Cut the acorn squash in half and place on baking sheet in a small drizzle of high heat cooking oil (like Safflower). Bake for 30 – 40 minutes, until you can remove the skin, but the squash is still solid enough to cut into pieces. Don’t worry too much about overcooking it–it’ll still be awesome, but you’ll lose a little something in texture.

Meanwhile, in a medium-sized saucepan, heat 1 tbsp cooking oil over high heat. Add in the wild rice, tossing, and cook for about 3 minutes. Add in the water, bring to boil, then reduce heat and cover, cooking until the water is gone and the rice is done.

Meanmeanwhile, saute the onion in oil in a large pot over medium heat. Once the onions are soft, add in the tofu, crumbling. Now add in the nu yeast and the turmeric. When the squash is done, peel the skin off and cut it into bite-sized pieces. Add it to the tofu. When the rice is done, add that too, Finally, add in the spices, salt, and pepper. Mix it up. Eat it up.

I’ve been salivating internally ever since I saw Lisa’s Chik’n Club Sammich during Vegan MoFo. Wait. That seems kind of gross. I wasn’t literally salivating nonstop for three months. I would need an IV to maintain that level of salivation. And you might too.

As you’ve probably learned by now, we’re not super into processed stuff, so I’d really been meaning to make a version using all fresh, homemade ingredients. We used our famous chik’n almond bake breaded tofu (thought this would have been superb with breaded seitan strips too). It was after 9pm when we started, so homemade bread wasn’t in the cards for this incarnation, but also would have been awesome (we just toasted some sandwhich bread). What’s worse, I totally forgot Lisa’s coup d’grace: fakin. Fakin’s a little labor intensive, so the fresh homemade route won’t yield a quick sammich in a pinch. We did, however, make homemade baked fries (we cut these into fry shapes and left out the cayenne) to round this out as one of those perfect healthy “unhealthy” meals that we often crave.

Chik’n Tofu Strip Club Sammich

• 1 lb of extra firm tofu, frozen then thawed
• bread
• lettuce
• purple onion
• tomato
• fakin (optional)
• chik’n almond bake
• safflower oil
• Earth Balance ™ or Vegenaise ™

You’ll want to freeze then thaw a pound of extra firm tofu. This makes it a little spongy and more firm–a better texture for chik’n and also nice in some stir fries. We try to keep tofu in both states on hand. It’ll keep for a very long time in the freezer.

Preheat the oven 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Thaw your tofu. When it’s thawed, squeeze all the water out and cut into strips–you’ll probably want them to be about 2″ x 1/2″ x 1/4″. The strip size is really a matter of preference though. Coat each strip in safflower oil then in the chik’n almond bake. Place on a baking sheet  and cook for about 15 minutes on one side, flip, then cook for about another 10 minutes–until brown and crispy, but not burnt. They will crisp up a scosh upon cooling.

Toast some bread (or pull some fresh bread from the oven). Slather the sammich spread of your choice on said bread. Place as many tofu strips as will cover a piece of bread on once piece. Then add the fakin (if using), lettuce, tomato, and onion, in that order. Cut in half if it strikes your fancy. Serve with fries. Or not. It’s your meal.

Speaking of vegan pizzas…we ate out with some friends the other night at the Jolly Pumpkin Cafe & Brewery. Word had it that a person could get a pizza with soy cheese. While the word was correct, the word failed to mention that this was the bogus variety of soy cheese that’s made with…well…cheese. Can someone tell me why this product even exists?

Conventional wisdom would suggest that non-vegan soy cheese must be for either (a) people who want a marginally healthier cheese, or (b) folks who are lactose intolerant (non-vegan soy cheese typically has casein and sometimes even rennet, but not lactose). Unconventional wisdom, however, would suggest that non-vegan soy cheese exists to trick vegans. How many fledgling vegans have picked this up thinking–as any rational person would–that soy cheese  = vegan cheese? Or more likely, how many kindly friends and family members have picked this up for their vegans (this, I would argue, is probably the lion’s share of the non-vegan soy cheese market)? How many of us have been enticed and/or fooled by pizza with this crap? Now compare those numbers to the number of people how knowingly bought it.

At the very least, it seems reasonable to ask these companies to rename their soy cheese to something like 2% cheese or mostly not cheese (but just a little) or The Ultimate ‘Fuck You’ to Vegans ™. Why not just make it vegan and greatly increase the number of people who can consume it? Vegan cheese keeps getting better–Daiya melts just as well as the non-vegan varieties of faux cheese, tastes just as good–if not better, certainly won’t aggravate anyone’s lactose intolerance, and is probably healthier (at minimum it contains less cholesterol). The answer is probably that it would be either (a) more difficult, (b) more work, or (c) both.

I suppose it’s unreasonable to expect a company that presumably is enjoying some small profit to quit what they’re doing. The cost of changing their recipe may not be commensurate with what they’d get back. But I’d at least like to entreat restaurants who use this stuff to switch to a vegan variety. The minimal addition in cost greatly increases the number of people who can eat it. Additionally, it’s more honest. If we hadn’t made a point of asking, I’m sure the Jolly Pumpkin would have served us their not-quite-vegan pizza. What really burns me is that they’re clearly thinking of folks’ dietary needs; they even have gluten free crust! Why leave out the vegans?

This is what I e-mailed them:

Hello! My wife and I stopped in to the Ann Arbor restaurant last week–first off, let me say that the beer was excellent. The restaurant looks great too. We did have two small concerns, however. You offer a pizza with soy cheese–but this cheese isn’t vegan. This (a) excludes us vegans (and there are quite a few of us around here) and (b) is potentially misleading. If we hadn’t asked specifically (and a major thanks goes to our server for knowing the answer to this question), we may have eaten the pizza, assuming it was vegan. The great thing about vegan cheese is that it caters to the lactose intolerant, health conscious, and vegan alike. The other (very small) issue was that the soy cheese wasn’t on the menu; we learned about it from friends. Why not highlight this? I’d imagine beer and vegan pizza would be very popular with local vegans.

Daiya (http://www.daiyafoods.com/) currently seems to be the most popular brand of faux cheese (it’s soy-free too). Folks would probably be relatively happy with Follow Your Heart (http://www.followyourheart.com/products.php?id=25) as well, which has the advantage of being available in smaller retail quantities.

Thanks so much for your attention to this issue! Keep up the fine beers!

Thus ends my rant.

Okay. So it’s not really white; it’s more of a yellowish-brown. But you get the idea. This is a lighter, more savory, more mellow version of a normal chili, substituting light beans–like white beans, chick peas, and navy beans–for the traditional dark beans–kidney beans and black beans. Mild green chilis, seitan, and a smidgen of nooch give it body instead of tomatoes. Props to Amy for conceiving of this genius chili.

While it’s not strictly necessary, this is a great candidate for cooking using bulk items. You can pressure cook the beans together (for this batch we didn’t have navy beans on hand, so used 3 cups each cooked chick peas and white beans–about 1 cup each dry, pressure-cooked for 35 minutes). We used our old seitan standby–the PPK’s to magically convert wheat gluten into seitan. You’ll probably want to have this on hand in advance. Admittedly, we used frozen corn and canned green chilis…so this guy wasn’t totally package-free and local. But it’s worth noting that it probably cost about $6 to make this–one of the many superpowers of our friend the bulk item.

White Chili

• 1 can (2 cups) white beans
• 1 can (2 cups) chick peas
• 1 can (2 cups) navy beans
• 1 cup corn
• 2 4oz cans (1 cup) mild green chilis, diced
• 2 medium onions, diced
• 6 -8 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
• 5 small potatoes, peeled and cubed (optional)
• 1/4 cup nu yeast
• 6 cups veggie broth
• 2 cups water (optional)
• 1/2 batch (1 package) seitan, diced
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1/4 tsp cayenne
• salt, to taste
• pepper, to taste

In a large pot over medium heat, saute the onions, garlic, seitan, and chilis, adding them in order. Add in the potatoes if you’re using them. Once the onions are very soft–close to translucent–add in the beans and corn, then the broth, then the spices, and finally the nooch. Bring to a boil, then cover, cooking until the potatoes are soft–about 15 minutes. Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, until you’re ready for the supreme white chili action.

If you like your chili a little brothier like Amy does, add in the additional water.

Best served with fresh croutons, if brothy, or crusty bread, if thick.

I know what you’re thinking–”oh, another recipe for vegan pizza…” Incorrect! I’m talking about College Inn, a local family-owned pizzeria that serves vegan pizza–complete with vegan cheese and pepperoni. Score 1 for Ypsilanti, MI!

We don’t spend a lot of time celebrating restaurants here on IR, but I think it’s worth actually looking at this phenomenon for a moment. This is the kind of service and care you can generally only expect from a local business, not a chain. Think about it; why do all of our (and this will depend on where you live, I’m sure) local coffee shops offer soymilk but a corporate behemoth like McDonald’s ™ doesn’t? (I guess it could also be that most vegans wouldn’t touch McDo with a 10 foot pole.) With the exception of Starbucks ™, most coffee chains don’t offer soymilk. Similarly, you wouldn’t expect Pizza Hut ™ to offer vegan pizzas anytime soon. But what about someone like Papa John’s ™, who have actually expressed a modicum of concern for their potential vegan customers? Are they researching this? Probably not. How many of use would have to email them before they even looked into vegan cheese?

Conversely, how many people had to ask College Inn before they looked? One. One single person–our friend Matt. Matt works at a local screen printing  shop, VGKids, whose staff is probably at least 50% veg*n (score 2 Ypsilanti). So word could spread pretty quickly that a bonafied vegan pizza could be had. College Inn, because they genuinely–and personally–care about their customers, just scored the total devotion of an entire market. If you’re vegan in Ypsi, you wouldn’t think of getting pizza anywhere else. Take note business owners.

What’s really impressive, though, is that they haven’t rested on their laurels. They’re always looking for more vegan toppings, better vegan cheeses, and asking us for our feedback. They’ve switched cheeses a number of times–starting with Follow Your Heart ™, moving on to Teese ™, and currently using (we think) Daiya ™. If Daiya ™ is indeed what they’re currently using, then I recommend it whole-heartedly. Follow Your Heart ™ tastes great, but melts poorly. Teese ™ melted kinda weird and tasted terrible (sorry Chicago Soy Dairy!). When they made the switch to Teese ™ and we picked up our pizza, Annette (who is awesome) let us know they’d switched and asked us to call her after we’d eaten to give them feedback, which we did. For a while it seemed that the vegan community was mixed, slightly in favor of Teese ™. We weren’t having it, so the owner, Nick, actually brought out both cheeses and had us conduct a taste-test, concerned that we weren’t happy with his pizza. Just last night Annette asked us about other toppings, and I mentioned vegan sausage. She’s going to call me when it’s in. Who does this?!

A local family business that’s invested in its customers, that’s who. Praise of College Inn aside, I think there are some interesting lessons here:

• Because they’re small, local businesses can better respond to their customers and communities. It’s easy for College Inn to make a a menu or ingredient change, but hard for Pizza Hut.
• Also because they’re small, local businesses can build a personal relationship with their customers. It’s like Cheers; sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name (and they’re always glad you came).
• Sometimes, all you have to do is ask. It’s easy to lament your lack of vegan options, but sometimes just as easy to ask for them. Another of our favorite local establishments, Beezy’s, makes sure to have a vegan soup pretty much every day (and Bee even posts the soups to Facebook). Even if they can’t meet your needs right away, if enough folks ask, a business will realize (a) that it’s profitable to carry vegan stuff and (b) that we vegans can be very devoted if shown some love. If nothing else, it gets the word ‘vegan’ out there. Which is preferable, having to ask about dairy, stock, meat, fish oil, etc, or asking “Is it vegan?”

So buy local and speak up! Thanks College Inn! Thanks Beezy’s!