Vegetarian/Vegan Night at Fireside

I'm neither a vegetarian nor a vegan (nor am I one of the higher foodie entities listed above) but frequently both my husband and I choose items from the vegetarian section of a menu or follow a vegetarian recipe at home simply because we think a dish sounds good.

We found a recipe on Pinterest that combined orecchiette pasta, fresh pesto, roasted brussel sprouts, smoked sausage and parmesan cheese. We've made it twice now, once with vegetarian "sausage" and once omitting the sausage altogether. It was delicious, both ways. The nutty pesto worked really well with the slight bitterness of the brussel sprouts. The pesto could easily be made with or without dairy and the parmesan garnish could be omitted as well to make it vegan.

We also recently saw an episode of Diners Drive-Ins and Dives with a former garage turned restaurant in Hawaii that specialized in famous tofu black bean burgers. They took blocks of tofu,sliced them, and basically just set the resulting strips of tofu on a flat top with a press weighing them down for close to an hour to remove all of the moisture. Then, the tofu was torn by hand and put into a food processor with black beans and lots of roasted veggies, spices, etc. The mixture was then made into large patties and cooked on the flat top until almost black on both sides (seemed overcooked, but everyone commented on the fantastic char) then placed on a bun with a Sriracha vegan mayo, lettuce, tomato and onion. It looked fantastic. Even Guy, a notorious carnivore, said it was incredible. I'd love to try to recreate this recipe as well.

[Robin Garr]

higher foodie entities listed above

Please! There is no hierarchy here, and everyone's opinion is valued as long as they're not being a bully. Glad you piped up, and I'm mentally adding your name to my "higher foodie entity" list.

This is Lauren from the Fireside. I appreciate all of the interest and input on a possible Vegan/Vegetarian evening or menu at the Fireside. I have spoken to Marshall, and we are both strong advocates of creating seasonal options for not only vegans, but food lovers in general. I traditionally eat mainly vegetarian, so I can appreciate peoples desire for non salad, non pasta ( I am allergic to wheat) options made with a little creativity and care. As a restaurant who has thrived for almost 30 years on "meat and potato" eaters, having vegetarian options on the menu was not only unnecessary but not cost effective for a very long time. That being said times have changed and so has our business. I hope this isn't coming off as a ad for the restaurant, but I want to just be clear about how excited we are to do this. Currently, we have a few vegetarian options on our menu. We do a lentil patty platter with a home made lentil patty panko coated and pan seared with a spring mix salad. We have a spring berry salad, that upon request can be topped with grilled portobello mushroom, we have an pasta with home made marinara. That all being said, I would love to have a night where we have a menu with a larger selection of vegan options. Marshall has extensive experience in vegan/vegetarian cooking so we can make it happen. I will let Shane know, or if I don't forget my HotBytes password again. I will get on here and let you know myself when we can do this.

Thank you all again for your interest. I will work hard to make this happen.

higher foodie entities listed above

Please! There is no hierarchy here, and everyone's opinion is valued as long as they're not being a bully. Glad you piped up, and I'm mentally adding your name to my "higher foodie entity" list.

Yes Sara, thanks for speaking up. When it comes to foodie knowledge everyone is higher on the list than me. Of course there's no actual higher foodie entity list, but if there was one, you have ascended to it in my mind. That burger does sound tasty! How about with a poblano aioli sauce?

Cheers Sara!

[Robin Garr]

aioli

Not vegan.

aioli

Not vegan.

Ever heard of the accidental vegan? Do a google search with vegan at the beginning. Apparently just about everything can be vegan. Even aioli and pesto. Cheers Robin oh highest of the high!

Oops meant to add this link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrR7XRC3_ms

Silken tofu. Who knew?

And, coming back to the states, check out chef Ryan's amazing barbecue tofu at Feast BBQ before you dismiss that idea as ridiculous.

On the contrary, now that Ryan's place is up and running I think New Albany would make a perfect place for a pub crawl/safari supper. Start at Ryan's and end at Roger's. You could hit the Frenchmans, Habana Blues, River City Winery, and La Rosita in between.

One drink and a small plate/app at each. This would be fun in September/October. We reverse the order in the spring when Ian's place comes on-line.

Lauren - I always assumed the lentil patties were not vegan as they seemed to be likely held together with egg -- am I wrong there? Also, is your marinara free of any cheeses? I appreciate your enthusiasm for creating more vegan dishes on the menu and can't wait to try them.

Silken tofu is great, BTW...very versatile. I use the Mori-Nu shelf stable silken extra firm tofu to make a delicious peanut butter pie. We made a spinach dip with it for a recent Pampered Chef party and no one had any idea it was tofu, and we didn't tell them.

We recently spent the day in Asheville, NC, which seems to be a vegan mecca. I was so very happy to be able to walk into a restaurant and order almost anything off the menu.

A few things - at least among similar eaters that I've had discussions with - we get really tired of portobello mushrooms and eggplant. Why chefs always seem to go there is beyond me. There's a world of vegetables, fruits and grains out there. So anything without mushrooms and eggplant would be welcome, lol. And I actually like mushrooms, but I found out that I'm allergic to them, so I do have an ulterior motive.

And Daiya cheese is gross. I know some people love it. I haven't developed a taste for it.

I'd also love a few more typical "American" dishes. I'm thrilled that we now have a few vegetarian restaurants, but they're always Asian and heavily soy based. It really would be nice to have other options, you know?

We ate at one vegan place in Asheville where i had a delicious entree:
Spinach-Pesto Manicotti $13 (V, GF)Zucchini noodles stuffed with live sunflower-spinach pesto, cashew ricotta, and fresh basil served over
sun-dried tomato marinara with house-marinated olives.

I'm not a chef nor have I ever worked in restaurants (unless you count my brief stint at Taco Bell as a teen), but when I'm looking to start any project I find it helps to look at what others in similar situations have done.

You might find it helpful to look at the menus of other restaurants. The place where we ate was called The Laughing Seed: http://laughingseed.jackofthewood.com/i ... 1&Itemid=3

I really really wanted to eat at Plant, but we weren't staying long enough. Maybe next time. Here's there site: http://plantisfood.com/menu/

Anyway, I hope that helps.

Also, since you seem to be looking for specific menu items, I think this sounds super delicious. (It's on the "Plant" menu. Next time I got to Asheville I'm totally eating there!)

JERK* char broiled seitan · smashed sweet potatoes · sautéed kale · spicy serrano crudo · fried banana & celtic salt 16


You wouldn't even have to do the seitan. You could do something like this lentil loaf that I've made at home:

http://ohsheglows.com/2011/01/01/ultima ... lnut-loaf/

I just think it would be nice to have a more typical meal sometimes. Veg cooking can often be more of a PITA. It doesn't *have* to be, of course, but I find myself doing a heck of a lot of chopping. It would certainly be easier just to stick a chicken in the oven and boil some rice. A night off where I know I can get something delicious and not have to cook it would be very welcome.

Tina,
Thanks so much for the specific suggestions! This is the kind of input I was hoping for. As someone who loves vegetables but has never had any impetus to eat vegetarian let alone vegan I'm pretty unclear about the options that would be available.

I think the manicotti dish sounds really good. The picture of the meatloaf on the link doesn't inspire me much but if you've made it yourself and recommend it then I would try it for sure. This whole seitan thing has piqued my interest. I hope something like your char broiled seitan menu option from Plant makes the cut. Plant sounds like a great place.

Cheers Tina!

Shane - you are a missionary. Have you seen the Machine Gun Preacher? While you're not quite Gerald Butler, I can see some likeness in this post.

I'm not a vegan, but I eat like one a lot. First of all - scrap the seitan. I like seitan, but I question it's digestability and it is pure wheat gluten, so that writes off many potential dietary concerns. I'm not saying there should be a complete absence of gluten, but seitan is not a necessity. I made some for myself over this past weekend and it gave me a tummy ache.

I haven't seen any mention of tempeh, so I'll throw that out there. Tempeh makes a great substitute for crumbled ground beef in soups. If it were fall, I would resoundingly call for tempeh chili. Tempeh is a whole soybean product that can easily be terribly effed up, so buyer beware.

I would also hail BBQ tofu. Vegans (in my experience) typically like tofu, and the BBQ tofu I've made has beat the hell out of almost any meat I've ever put on a grill (I suck at cooking meat).

And I STRONGLY second ALL of Tina's suggestions to try to prepare "normal American" cuisine, as it's definitely a ethnicity that doesn't typically pander to Vegetarian/Veganism. Grean beans without ham hock, BBQ beans without pork, broccoli without butter, veggie burger with veganaise, tofutti-cheesecake, field roast loaf and soy creamed mashed potatoes.

Kari made a great point about the availability of ingredients in the kithcen, so it's possible that none of these things are possibilities, therefore making a great second point of her's that it's up to the chef to come up with a menu. The chef's are the ones with their necks on the chopping board, so I'm going to leave my suggestions at this for now unless otherwise solicited . I wish them well and hope this actually comes to fruition.

+1 for 'vegan night' !