Vegan Comfort Food

I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend so far. We’re actually getting a smattering of rain today, which is big news for this area since that hasn’t happened in months. I had to laugh watching the news this morning while in the gym, they were featuring exciting close ups of rain drops running off of cars, slightly wet pavement and giving locations people could go if they wanted to see more rain. A pretty big difference from our years living in Florida where rain was hardly anything news worthy since it happened everyday this time of year and many times a day in some cases.

Yesterday I embarked on my longest run yet, 1 hour and 20 minutes of running and I got through it better than I thought I would. Such a run burns a lot of calories and turned my appetite into a raging monster, so I figured a little post-run vegan comfort food was in order. One of my favorite vegan restaurants, Sugar Plum Vegan, was having a grand opening of a vegan shop upstairs and it seemed like a perfect time to make a trip back for lunch, dragging my hubby and mom with me.

We arrived about 1 PM and they were packed, apparently many others had the same idea which is great. But they were out of a lot of the items on the menu. That was fine though, what we ended up getting was wonderful and we had plenty of time to check out the shop upstairs while waiting for the food. It carried a lot of cute vegan theme t-shirts, belts, accessories, pet toys and even dog food. But I didn’t buy because I didn’t need anything and they didn’t have vegan shoes … yet.

When our first plate arrived – the nachos, we were so starved we dug in before I could get a decent picture. :-)

This was amazing and different from the nacho plate I got on our last trip. Those had melted Daiya style shreds while this round was smothered in a spicier, cashew nacho cheese. Being spice lovers, hubby and I really dug that. But, my mom is not quite the spice fan we are and complained that it was a little too spicy for her.

Hubby got the bean ball sandwich plate with was a ton of food for the money.

The “meat” balls are a seasoned mixture of kidney beans with a smooth marinara sauce and melted Daiya style mozzarella shreds. One half had the bean balls piled on, the other was a toasted piece of french bread with tomato sauce and mozzarella shreds for a yummy pizza bread and could be eaten as open-faced sandwiches. The side salad had a wonderful smoked caper dressing.

We also got the taco plate which was a ton of food too.

3 small tacos, mozzarella topped black beans and a beautiful side salad. The tacos were very crisp and fresh with a chipotle kick I adored, though my mom complained that was also a little too spicy. :-P

We all arrived with huge appetites and tried and tried to finish everything, but we couldn’t.

Everything was wonderful and an impressive amount of food for the price. Because Sugar Plum Vegan bases their menu off mostly local ingredients, the menu is always changing, each time I go is a new adventure. I also like the eclectic mix of mis-matched utensils, plates and glasses and the neat feel of the old house they’re located in. If you’re ever in Sacramento, I recommend checking this place out. My hubby and mom aren’t vegans, but were very impressed by the dishes. Feel free to drag your non-vegan loved ones.

After a huge lunch of not-so-raw comfort food, the only thing I wanted for dinner was a monster salad.

I threw in broccoli, sprouts, pea shoots, carrots, sauerkraut, tomatoes, dulce and zucchini ribbons and dressed with fresh minced ginger, toasted sesame oil and lemon juice. I made this salad big enough for 3 meals to cover today’s lunch and probably tomorrows lunch since so much effort was put into it and the oil and lemon juice seems to preserve it nicely in the fridge for a few days.