Baagan & Local Tofu

Sometimes I can be an idiot, like not knowing there’s another fabulous high-raw vegan restaurant in the area until over a year after it opens! Really! My sister came across Baagan while she was looking into local places to eat and emailed me about it last week. Thanks sis! Today my mom and I finally made it there for a late lunch and were greeted with a simple menu offering great dishes.

The atmosphere is very casual and clean, very clean, with a light, bright, and open atmosphere and yoga-ish music at a low volume making me feel like I was at a spa.

The light green and orange walls give an airy and relaxing vibe to the atmosphere.

I ordered the curry panini and my mom the spicy veggie wrap which we split up and each had both. After previous dining experiences at Cafe Gratitude, The Fix, and Green Boheme, I expected the fresh, vegan cuisine to take a little more time for preparation before arriving at our table. But it only took about 5 minutes, barely enough time to grab water and peruse the yoga accessories and raw vegan snacks for sale in the dining room.

My panini looked and smelled wonderful and came with a spicy chutney for spreading or dipping.

It had a warm and rich curry potato salad packed with other fresh veggies between two slices of whole wheat bread. For under $7, it was very filling.

The veggie wrap was another pleasant surprise because it had a daring level of spice from a spicy pepper sauce and spiced sunflower seeds.

And plenty of visible fresh veggies making a great flavor and texture party. Also very filling for $6. I’m thrilled to have found this place and will be going back loads more for cheap and fast high-raw, vegan, organic meals!

For dinner, I tried another Whole Foods splurge – local flavored tofu from Tofu Yu in Berekely, CA. Karen of Just the 2 of Us recommended their tofu to me at the Foodbuzz Gala Dinner and it’s taken me this long to track some down. :-)

This tofu is pre-pressed to a firm and hearty texture, ready for a tofu scramble, baking, etc. I decided to chop it for a simple marinara skillet dish. The flavors and seasonings are distributed nicely through the tofu, lots of black pepper visible.

I sauteed the cubes with chopped broccoli and cauliflower over medium heat until the edges were golden. Then poured in a fresh marinara sauce I whipped up in the Vitamix.

Making a very simple and fast dinner, perfect. :-) The tofu has a firm and chewy outside with a moist and flavorful inside, much more moist than plain pressed tofu I’ve worked with. And the garlic and pepper flavors were present, but not too strong, I picked up the black pepper more, not a bad thing to me at all. I like that minimal salt was added to the tofu and that it didn’t meed more added to the dish.

I would buy this flavor again and try other flavors from Tofu Yu.