Bay Area Vegetarians

Roasted Potato Salad

In support of the big veg outreach effort happening at SF Pride this year, Drew and Jeff hosted a Pride Veg Outreach Party at their home last month.

Chef Jeff made some fabulous food, including bruchettas, roasted potato salad, pasta with pesto and sun-dried tomatoes, quinoa artichoke salad, Moroccan couscous salad, cupcakes, cookies, and dips.

After eating, we all wanted his secret recipes.  He modestly said there wasn’t any secret at all, that he just found them on the web. Ah, but that is the secret, isn’t it — finding a good recipe out of the gazillions that exist.

Drew and Chef Jeff

Chef Jeff was gracious enough to share a couple of these recipes with us.  He also added that the roasted potato salad is just mixed potatoes roasted with onions and bell peppers with fresh herbs.

We hope you enjoy these dishes as much as we did, and thanks again to Drew and Jeff and their co-hosts, canines Reggie, Mindy, and Theo, for hosting the fabulous party for Pride outreach volunteers.

Even if you missed the party, there’s still time to get involved with veg outreach at Pride.  Remember, love and let live.

Quinoa Artichoke Salad

Quinoa Artichoke Salad

This recipe is very flexible and forgiving; feel free to add other ingredients you like or leave things out that you don’t care for.

1 cup quinoa
½ cup red quinoa
2 Tbsp. tahini
2 Tbsp. almond butter
2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
2 Tbsp. white balsamic vinegar
4 large artichoke hearts in oil (chopped into small pieces)
1 small red onion
4 green onions, chopped finely
1 red bell pepper, seeded and cut into ¼” pieces
½ cup pitted kalmata or other olives, chopped finely
1 Fuji  apple (seeded and core removed, and cut into ¼” chunks)
2 Roma tomatoes (seeded and cut into ¼” pieces)
handful of chopped cashew nuts
Salt and pepper to taste

Cook both types of quinoa in approx. 2 cups water.  Allow to cool slightly.  Mix tahini, almond butter, and balsamic vinegars.  Dilute with a bit of warm water if very thick.  Stir this mixture into the warm quinoa.  Add artichoke hearts, onion, green onion, red bell pepper, olives, apple and tomato.  Check seasoning and add salt and pepper as needed.  Sprinkle cashews over salad when ready to serve.

Adapted from recipe “Quinoa Artichoke “Special Mix” from vegweb.com.

Moroccan Couscous Salad

Moroccan Cous Cous Salad

3 cups cooked Couscous.
I medium yellow or white onion, chopped finely
4 Tbsp. olive oil
½ tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. ground coriander
Pinch of saffron (optional)
¾ cup white wine
¾ cup dried currants
4 chopped green onions
½ cup toasted blanched almond pieces

To make couscous: Bring 1 2/3 cup water to boil in wide pan with ½ tsp. salt.  Add 1 1/3 cup dry couscous. Immediately turn off heat.  Allow to sit for 5 minutes.  Fluff with fork.

Heat olive oil in sauté pan over medium high heat.  Add onion and cook approximately 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Lower heat to medium if onions start to scorch.  Add cinnamon and coriander; stir approximately one additional minute.  Add white wine and saffron; cook over medium high heat until wine is reduced by half.  Add currants and cook an additional minute.  Add this mixture to the warm couscous.  Add green onions and almonds.  Serve at room temperature.

Alex and 16 foot flatbed truck

Veg volunteers and supporters from around the Bay Area and beyond are marching with Bay Area Vegetarians in the approaching San Francisco Pride Parade on Sunday, June 28th.

“Lettuce Lady”, nurses, cows, chickens and other costumed, compassionate  leafleters will be distributing free recipes and vegetarian information.  To hold the literature needed, we’ve got our very own 16 foot flatbed truck.

Here’s where the wishlist comes in:

1) Place to park the truck on Saturday night
2) Volunteers to help decorate the truck (either Saturday evening or early Sunday morning)
3) Any sound techies who can help with music sound system

Here’s where you come in – email Alex B if you can help!

Chick Pea’s: The Falafel Place opened on May 14th in Berkeley. Their specialty is, of course, falafels, and they have a condiment bar with 12 different choices.

Ultimate Guide – Read it, Rate It, Review It: Chick Pea’s

Two kids ask Julie about vegetarianism

Bay Area Vegetarians hosted an information table at the 2009 Maker Faire held at the San Mateo Expo Center on May 30th and May 31st.

We had hundreds of people visit our booth and gather vegan information, and ask questions about vegetarianism. It was fun to meet the BAVeg members who came by to say hi, including Ajay who helped us with leafleting. Elizabeth, Ajay, and Tammy distributed 750 Vegetarian Starter Kits via leafleting.

Thank you to

– PETA, PCRM, Farm Sanctuary, Vegan Outreach, and UPC for supporting our outreach by providing materials
– the volunteers who made this possible: Julie, Mila, Mike, Lissy and Ashley, and booth organizers Elizabeth and Tammy
– Maker Faire for inviting us to participate
– Everyone who accepted vegetarian information from us.  We hope this starts you on the path to compassionate and healthy living.

Maker Faire Photos in the BAVeg Gallery

Reading her new Vegetarian Starter Kit

The Ultimate Guide now has a page on Facebook! Become a fan and help promote vegetarian dining and services to all of your friends.

Loving Hut had its grand opening ribbon-cutting ceremony on May 24th for its newest location in San Jose’s Oakridge Mall.  This is Loving Hut’s 4th location in the Bay Area, joining Milpitas, Palo Alto, and San Francisco.

Thanks to Leron for this update.

Thanks to Lisa for sharing this information with us from Cafe Gratitude’s weekly gratitude mailing:

Our cafe in the Sunset of San Francisco (on 9th avenue) is closing its doors in order to open the possibility of new and growing visions for Cafe Gratitude.  Our last day open in the Sunset district of San Francisco is Sunday, June 14th.

With closure of this location, Cafe Gratitude will still be operating raw foods restaurants at its inaugural SF location in the Mission, Berkeley, and Healdsburg.

The new business alluded to in the Cafe Gratitude update is a vegan Mexican restaurant (cooked foods) in the Mission .. and we’re all waiting for more news on that!

Cafe Soulstice, a raw foods restaurant that operated within the Equinox Gym in San Mateo, and subsequently expanded to Palo Alto, has closed both restaurants.  Thanks to Judy for the update.

There are now only three vegetarian restaurants on the Peninsula:

Que seRaw seRaw – raw foods “to go” in Burlingame
Loving Hut – Palo Alto cafe with soups, salads, sandwiches
Annapoorna – Indian restaurant in San Mateo

Other Peninsula vegetarian restaurants that have closed in recent years include Stoa’s (Palo Alto; they switched from being vegetarian to non-veg before they closed), Bay Leaf Cafe (Palo Alto) and Vegetarian Gourmet (San Mateo).

Bay Area Vegetarians is returning to the 2009 Pride Celebration.  This will be our 7th year participating in PRIDE!

Pride weekend is June 27th and 28th.  We will have an information booth on both days, and will march in the parade on Sunday.  Our parade theme is “Love and Let Live”.  To volunteer for one or both activities, please use the links below.

Booth / Leafleting Veg outreach / Education – SF
Walk/Leaflet with us in the Pride Parade: Love and Let Live – SF

New volunteer opportunities! Please check ’em out here (added 6/15)

Meet Michelle:  Michelle is coordinating the volunteers for the outreach at the booth this year, and shared a bit about herself with us. 

For those who don’t know me, I’m a recent college graduate dedicated to spreading the message of compassionate eating.  In college I was president of the Case Animal Rights & Ethics Society and more recently I’ve been working on a new website, www.veganbreak.com, featuring short videos about veganism in an effort to make veganism more accessible to the general public. I’m eager to get involved in Bay Area veg outreach and can’t wait to meet all of you!

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