This is a vegan, gluten-free smoothie recipe that I do not believe will change your life. Or will it? Just make sure you follow the directions.

Ingredients

• 1.5-inch ginger root
• 录 cup raw pumpkin seeds
• 鈪� cup hemp hearts
• 1 apple
• 1 cucumber (sub 1 large carrot during winter)
• 2 cups frozen chopped spinach
• 2 cups flax milk
• 1.5 cups water

Directions

1. Get out your blender and assemble your ingredients.
2. Break or cut off a chunk of ginger root and put it in the blender. You can peel it if you鈥檇 like, but the whole thing is edible…and it鈥檚 going in a blender. (I just rinse it with some water.)
3. Measure the pumpkin seeds and hemp hearts and dump them into the blender.
4. Cut the cucumber into chunks, cut the apple into fourths, and remove the core and stem. Put them both in the blender.
5. Measure your frozen spinach, flax milk, and water, and pour them into the blender.
6. Turn on the blender on a low setting at first, then higher. As you watch the blender pre-digest all those healthy ingredients for you, think about what this smoothie represents: a commitment to clean eating and living, a promise to yourself to make better dietary choices, and unlocking the secrets to longevity and eternal youth. It could change your life. Or maybe you like your life? Or at least enough of it that you don鈥檛 need to change the whole thing and become a completely new person? Things are OK, for the most part, right? You鈥檙e good at some stuff, some people like you, maybe some things could be a little better, but that鈥檚 true with everyone, probably. You鈥檙e doing just fine in the grand scheme of things. (Some fruits and vegetables and fiber and micronutrients and vitamins can鈥檛 hurt, though.)
7. Split the contents of the blender between two 32-ounce jars, one for today and one for tomorrow. It makes a lot. But then you only have to wash the blender every other day.

Nutrition Info:

440 calories

25 grams fat

28 grams carbohydrates

11 grams fiber

11 grams sugar

25 grams protein

527 mg calcium

9.8 mg iron

527 mg calcium

824 mg potassium

Want more of听国产吃瓜黑料鈥檚 Health stories?听.

The post Try This Vegan, Protein-Powder Free, Whole-Food Smoothie Recipe appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

Steer your cart through any supermarket and they are everywhere 鈥� packaged foods of every imaginable kind. Universally, these can be considered 鈥減rocessed鈥� and it鈥檚 a term you鈥檝e likely heard bantered around for years. But recently, new terminology has emerged to define certain foods and beverages that are processed and then some 鈥� in other words, ultra-processed foods.

Experts estimate that falls under this ultra-processed category 鈥� and that鈥檚 concerning to health experts. According to the American Medical Association, consuming ultra-processed foods (UPFs) regularly increases a person鈥檚 risk of health complications, including cardiovascular disease, certain cancers, obesity, and type 2 diabetes.

Most endurance athletes tend to think of food as fuel, and as such try to steer clear of unhealthy picks. But when it comes to gels, chews, and electrolyte drinks, that鈥檚 a tough order. After all 鈥� most sports nutrition, by definition, is an ultra-processed food. So what does that mean for athletes? Should we go back to the days of eating bananas on bike rides?

What Are Ultra-Processed Foods?

While there is no universally-agreed definition, an ingredient list that reads like a chemistry quiz is a tip-off for something being ultra-processed. These foods go through multiple processing steps, from stripping away nutrients to mixing in sweeteners, fats, salt, artificial flavors, and emulsifiers to alter taste, texture and shelf life. This flavor and texture manipulation is the reason why ultra-processed foods are tasty 鈥� and why we keep coming back for more.

Items that often fall into the UPF category include frozen meals, baked goods, soft drinks, hot dogs, boxed cereals, ice cream, white bread, fast food pizza, and potato chips. This designation also applies to most performance-oriented foods like gels, chews, and bars. Even the most casual sports fan has seen athletes gulping down neon sports drinks on the sidelines and during post-game media interviews, and gels and chews are at every aid station during a race. They鈥檙e small, shelf-stable, portable, and formulated to fuel your workouts, which is why it鈥檚 easy to overlook their ultra-processed characteristics.

What the Science Says about Ultra-Processed Foods

Some degree of processing is nothing to fret about 鈥� after all, a bag of frozen blueberries can be considered a processed food but certainly not something that should be avoided. But eating too much food that has been powerfully manipulated by manufacturers .

A in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine associated the highest consumption amounts of UPFs with a 17% increase in the risk of cardiovascular disease-related mortality and a 16% increase in the risk for all-cause mortality. A in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition links UPFs to accelerated biological aging, noting that factors beyond the poor nutritional content such as the addition of non-nutrient components like emulsifiers and preservatives might largely contribute to the accelerated aging effect.

More data shows that UPFs can impact everything from brain to bone to microbiome health. Dyslipidemia, hypertension, weight gain, and insulin resistance are why going heavy on UPFs can be bad news for longevity. Truly concerning is that now 听the daily calories in the typical American diet come from UPFs.

Is My Sports Nutrition an Ultra-Processed Food?

Let鈥檚 take a look at the makeup of a few types of popular sports nutrition products.

Vanilla gel

Ingredient list: Maltodextrin, water, fructose, L-leucine, potassium citrate, sodium citrate, citric acid, calcium carbonate, L-valine, sea salt, natural flavor, green tea (leaf) extract (contains caffeine), gellan gum, L-isoleucine, sunflower oil, sodium benzoate (preservative), potassium sorbate (preservative)

Is it ultra-processed? Yes.

Strawberry energy chew

Ingredient list: Organic tapioca syrup, organic cane sugar, water, pectin, potassium citrate, citric acid, natural flavors, Vit B3/B6/B12, fruit blends of apple, blueberry, pomegranate

Ultra-processed? You bet.听

Lemon-lime sports drink mix

Triple source energy blend (maltodextrose, dextrose, fructose), citric acid, silicon dioxide, natural flavors

Are you drinking a UPF? You know the answer.

It鈥檚 almost impossible to argue that the above food, like the vast majority of packaged sports nutrition products on the market, are not ultra-processed based on the somewhat loose definition of this food group. So is this something to be concerned about if you frequently fuel your exercise sessions with these products? Or is it possible that ultra-processed gels and drinks are the right nutritional choice for triathletes and do no harm?

Let鈥檚 dig into what we know about the benefits and risks.

Yes, You Can Still Use Some Ultra-Processed Sports Nutrition

There is a reason why rely on the various guises of packaged ultra-processed sports nutrition products to get them to the finish line: because they work. We have that purposefully using a UPF around training and competing can be helpful for performance. Sports foods are specially manufactured for athletes to provide the nutrients they may need during training or racing. (Imagine running for many hours with a sack of bananas.)

Sports nutrition is processed to create fast-digesting carbohydrates in the form of gels, chews, and beverages to keep your muscles adequately fueled. As we increase the intensity of what we鈥檙e doing, we need more and more carbs (and calories!) as a fuel source. Ultra-processed sports foods use a mix of simple sugars to help with the digestibility and use of those carbs, while added citrusy or chocolatey flavors make them desirable to consume. That鈥檚 something most people don鈥檛 think about until they encounter an unflavored or unpleasant-tasting gel: If you don鈥檛 eat or drink something, then you can鈥檛 fuel the machine.

Athletes have special nutritional requirements to maximize their performance, and ultra-processed products can have a place in helping fulfill this. From a health perspective, we don鈥檛 yet have any convincing data that when UPFs are consumed in the context of long-duration or vigorous exercise they will have a deleterious impact on well-being. It鈥檚 easy to argue that getting a load of heavily-processed sugar from ultra-processed gels and drinks during a century ride is better than not getting fuel at all.

The vast majority of research linking UPFs with poor health has looked at the diet as a whole, and also involved a population of non-athletes. of basketball players found that a high intake of ultra-processed foods led to no noticeable detriment to performance or cardiovascular health. So there was no spillover effect in this aspect. However, a high intake of UPFs affected their microbiome negatively, the consequences of which are unknown. No other studies have specifically looked at ultra-processed foods in endurance athletes.

Consuming ultra-processed foods sporadically in a sports-nutrition context is likely not detrimental to overall health. It might only become problematic if you start leaning on bars and sugary sports drinks too heavily when you鈥檙e not working out. If using UPFs to boost your workouts helps you increase your overall cardiovascular and muscular fitness, perhaps this benefit can counteract any disadvantageous characteristics of these items.

But There Might Be a Limit

With all the bad news about them, it鈥檚 understandable why about UPFs. We should not dismiss the notion that there will be some degree of detrimental impact on health with heavy ultra-processed sports nutrition product use over the weeks, months, and years due to the nature of their production and formulation. These days, many pro triathletes are pumping in more than 100 grams of carbs for each hour of activity, and most, if not all, of those calories are hailing from ultra-processed products. But perhaps what you eat for performance is not necessarily the best for your health.

In showing that athletes can tolerate more than 100 grams of carbs hourly and that this amount increases carbohydrate oxidation, there is some concern that not all this sugar gets used up during exercise. It could then sit around in your system afterward, resulting in a downturn of metabolic and microbiome health. We just don鈥檛 know for sure, and we don鈥檛 have the answers to this dilemma. As more athletes increase the quantity of use of high-sugar UPFs, we desperately need research to address this.

using continuous glucose monitors found even athletes with high rates of energy expenditure can spend long periods with blood sugar levels that would be classified as pre-diabetic. Perhaps some of that can be attributed to high-sugar consumption from UPFs during workouts. Even in endurance sport, you鈥檙e not fully protected from the adverse effects of added sugar intake pumped into UPFs, no matter how many miles you are cranking out.

There is also the concern about the health risks of eating non-nutritive ingredients added to ultra-processed foods, such as emulsifiers and artificial flavor. While hard-charging athletes have more room for 鈥渄iscretionary calories,鈥� has shown there are health risks from eating UPFs, regardless of whether a person has an otherwise healthy diet. That means that eating too many UPFs 鈥� which can include fueling products 鈥� may be risky even if you normally also eat lots of whole, fresh foods.

suggests that endurance athletes that use whey or beef protein powder long-term may have a detrimental impact on the gut microbiome, which might not necessarily be because of processed protein, but instead the emulsifiers that are in so many of these products.

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Some of the most hardcore athletes in the world are elite race walkers. Moving faster than most people can run, their sport pushes the limits of endurance, pain tolerance, and fueling.听Canadian race walker Evan Dunfee was looking for any edge he could get when he signed up for an experimental nutrition study in Australia. He immediately became one of the world鈥檚 best. But not for the reasons everyone thought.

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We鈥檙e not saying we have a beef with regular old jerky. We鈥檙e just saying our relationship has gotten a little, well, dry. Plus, nitrates, which are added to many meat jerkies, are getting a worse and worse rap due to correlations with听 and now听 for people with bipolar disorder. Sure, you can buy nitrate-free jerky, but you could also try something completely new: alternative beef jerky.

As the ever-shifting听diet pendulum has swung from paleo to vegan,听the jerky market has followed.听(Check out this fun mapping the two eating styles over the past five years.) Of course, you can still find 鈥減rimal style鈥� dried-meat strips and bars, but alternative beef jerkies made from听mushrooms, bugs, seaweed, and even coconut are also in the mix.

Are these even really jerky? We say yes.

The term jerky comes听from , which originally referred to dried meat鈥攎ost likely alpaca. The livestock industry may take issue with us expanding the definition to include other dehydrated options the way it reacted to听nut milks branding themselves as milk. But these products are shelf-stable, savory, nutritious, and give us something to chew methodically as we march down the trail. That ticks all the jerky boxes in our field guide.

We tried the new options and picked the best for every jerky enthusiast, from the veggie curious to the hardcore vegan. Here are our favorites.

Best For: Pescatarians

Fishpeople听Lemon Zest and听Herb Salmon Jerky

It鈥檚 impossible to make a fish jerky that isn鈥檛, well, fishy. So听we鈥檙e going to suggest you have something potent鈥攇um, toothpaste, a few wild mint leaves鈥攖o wipe the fish flavor from your mouth听after the fact. That being said, Fishpeople鈥檚听lemon zest and herb flavor tastes less like French kissing a merman than other iterations we鈥檝e tried. It has a nice toothsome texture听but is more tender than a traditional slab of dried beef flesh. Like all Fishpeople听products, you can trace exactly where your wild-caught salmon came from by typing in a code on your package, a nice feature that keeps sustainable seafood companies honest. $8 per bag, available .

Best For: Keto Hikers

Cocoburg听Coconut Jerky

When you take your first bite, you will decry this being included in a jerky review, even if it is a beef jerky alternative roundup. The听texture is too firm鈥攊t鈥檚 almost more like a firm cracker than a slice of dried meat. But stay with it. As you chew, the coconut flesh goes from hard to pliable. We promise you鈥檒l see why this totally counts as jerky. Even though I think of coconut as leaning toward听the sweet side of things, the three flavors offered by Cocoburg live in the savory realm. This was the only product I tried where I liked the original flavor the best, though the ginger-teriyaki and chili-lime ones are pretty darn good, too. I had to put the bag in another room to stop myself from devouring all of it while I typed this up. $17听for a three-pack sampler, available .

Best for: Spice-Lovers

Jack & Tom Jackfruit Jerky

Jackfruit is always a go-to for some plant-based eaters because it has a stringy, chewy texture similar to pork or beef. When unripe, jackfruit absorbs the flavor of whatever is put into it. Which is why Jack & Tom Jerky is extra spicy, because it holds the heat of poblano peppers, savory tomatoes and a spice blend. It’s a bit on the chewier, softer side, but the spicy kick might make you forget everything and anything about this jerky except for: “WOW. THIS IS HOT!” $44 for a five-pack, available, .

Best For: Sustainable Eaters

Akua听Kelp Jerky

In case you haven鈥檛 yet heard, kelp is the new kale:听it鈥檚 high in vitamins and听minerals and has a negligible ecological footprint, requiring no feed, fertilizer, or fresh water. However, the downside is that kelp tastes remarkably like licking a barnacle. Fortunately, Akua has solved this problem by flavoring its kelp strips with seasonings that have enough backbone to stand up to that saltwater flavor. The maple and听BBQ offering was my favorite, and while it doesn鈥檛 completely mask the vegetal taste, it definitely helps. $20听for a three-bag sampler, available .

Best For: Plant-Based Eaters

It鈥檚 Jerky Y鈥檃ll Prickly Pear Chipotle

Made from non-GMO soy, this had the best texture of the three soy jerkies I tried. Each serving has seven听grams of plant-based protein, and a portion of every sale supports , a refuge听for cattle run by vegans in Texas. All three flavors鈥攂lack pepper and听sea salt, prickly pear鈥搕eriyaki, and prickly pear鈥揷hipotle鈥攁re good, but my favorite was the sweet and smoky combo of prickly pear and chipotle. $21听for a three-pack sampler, available .

Best For: The Jerky 国产吃瓜黑料r

EntoLife Chirpy Jerky听Original Roasted Cricket Jerky

To be fair, even though this is billed as a jerky, it鈥檚听more of a crispy protein bark than anything else. Still, I鈥檓 including it because it鈥檚 delicious and, with crickets in it, unique. A pemmican-style jerky, the recipe follows the Native American听tradition of mixing protein and dried fruit together to make one nutrient-packed power food. It鈥檚 nutty and sweet, and if no one ever told you otherwise, you鈥檇 never guess there were bugs in it. $6, available .

Best For: The Apprehensive Yet Veggie Curious

Shrooms Splits Filet Mignon and Portabella Mushroom Jerky

Maybe you鈥檙e not ready to dive fist first into a bag full of mushroom jerky. That鈥檚 fine. (But if you are, Shrooms听makes that, too.) This will听meet you where you鈥檙e at. A听mix of soft beef slivers听and dried mushrooms, it delivers tons of umami flavor. If you grab a handful at a time without looking closely, it can be hard to tell what鈥檚 meat and what鈥檚 鈥檚hroom. Pretty soon听you may find yourself graduating to nothing but a bag of fungi鈥攍ike the company鈥檚 teriyaki-mushroom-jerky offering. $7, available on .

Best For: The ‘I-Need-It-Easy’ Snacker

Beyond Meat Jerky

If you’re the kind of person who likes their snacks where they can see them – no extra scrounging around gas stations and supermarkets – Beyond Meat Jerky may be for you. You can find this beef jerky alternative in most popular grocery stores no problem. Made with pea and mung bean protein, this jerky has 2g of fat, 8g of carbs, and 10g of protein per serving. $5, available .

The post 6 Beef Jerky Alternatives That Are Actually Good appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

It鈥檚 no surprise that what people eat has an impact on their health, but trying to pinpoint exactly what diet out of the hundreds out there is most optimal for a long, healthy life can be overwhelming. A new study reports that there is no one optimal diet for longevity, but several general eating patterns that can shift life expectancy.

Published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, the found that one can reduce their risk of an early death by nearly 20 percent by eating foods from one of four healthy eating patterns: A , , the Alternative Healthy Eating Index and the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (more on those below). All four eating patterns emphasize whole grains, fruits, vegetables and legumes.

Professor and chair of Harvard鈥檚 Department of Nutrition, Dr. Frank Hu, said in a statement, 鈥淚t is critical to examine the associations between DGAs鈥� recommended dietary patterns and long-term health outcomes, especially mortality.鈥�

Hu says there is a lot of flexibility when it comes to eating healthy and dietary choices can be tailored to individual preferences as long as they adhere to the basics of any of the four healthy eating styles. This means that even if you get tired of eating one way, you can switch over to another dietary plan.听

The study followed the eating habits of 75,000 women and 44,000 men over 36 years. Every four years, the participants would fill out questionnaires about what food they ate, and each person was scored based on how much they adhered to one or more of the eating patterns.听

Participants who remained consistent with their healthy eating patterns could reduce their risk of dying from respiratory disease by 35 to 46 percent, cardiovascular disease by 6 to 13 percent and dying from cancer by 7 to 18 percent.听

Most people are familiar with the Mediterranean diet and a plant-based diet, but what about the other half of the recommended four healthy eating patterns?

Alternative Healthy Eating Index

Developed by Harvard researchers, the (AHEI) assigns ratings to foods for how well they prevent chronic diseases and illnesses including cancer, diabetes, heart attacks and strokes.听

Some AHEI food choices include a variety of vegetables with a focus on leafy greens, four servings of fruit a day, whole grains, nuts, and vegetable proteins like tofu, fish and healthy fats like olive oil. In following this eating pattern, it鈥檚 suggested one avoids potatoes, refined grains, fruit juices and saturated fats.听

Participants of the study who followed the AHEI eating pattern reduced risk of death by 20 percent.听

Recipes that adhere to AHEI:听听

Dietary Guidelines for Americans听

is a metric designed to measure diet quality by how closely one follows its recommendations: Focus on variety, nutrient density and portions, limit added sugars, saturated fats and sodium and avoid sugary beverages. The guidelines are less specific on what foods to eat, rather an outline on how to customize nutrient-dense meals, meeting dietary needs and staying within calorie limits.

Within this study, participants who followed this eating pattern had a 19 percent lower risk of dying.听

Recipes that adhere to DGA:

The post Want to Live Longer? One Study Says to Eat Like This. appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

When I say 鈥渂ratwurst,鈥� what do you think of? Do you envision a long, skinny Thuringian sausage? A stout Wisconsin-style oozing with cheese? A beige, flaccid supermarket thing flecked with too few herbs? Or maybe, because you鈥檙e vegetarian, you don鈥檛 think of them at all. With Oktoberfest just behind us, I admit that I, a vegan, have been thinking about bratwurst a lot. And not just any bratwurst. For me, it鈥檚 Bavarian or bust.

My mom is from Bavaria鈥攕pecifically from just outside of Nuremberg.听Lucky child that I was, I spent a few weeks in Bavaria every couple of years, and during each visit, I absolutely housed a cool thirty to forty of these perfect, porky delicacies. The thing about Nuremberger bratwursts, you see, is they鈥檙e very small鈥攗sually three to four inches long, less than an inch across. As street food, they鈥檙e typically served three to a bun, adorned with a generous pump of mustard. Ordered in a restaurant, they鈥檒l be served on a metal plate splayed atop a bed of sauerkraut braised with apples and juniper berries, mustard and maybe potato salad, a soft pretzel, or dense rye bread served alongside. There are also Franconian bratwursts鈥攍onger, thicker sausages with similar seasonings to Nurembergers. While I scarfed the mini ones on trips to downtown Nuremberg, romping among medieval churches and castles, drunk on pork, the latter were what my uncle most often grilled to perfection in his backyard.

I visited Germany in 2005 knowing it would be the last time I would eat either of those brats. I had already known for some time that my eating habits no longer squared with my ethics, and I was trying to learn to cook better veggie food. In 2004, I fell in love with a vegan, which not only underscored my actual beliefs but caused me to up my vegan cooking game as I strove to impress. But though I ate less meat that trip to Germany than I ever had before, the last night of my visit I hoovered bratwursts the way in that bizarre old cartoon鈥擨 wanted to overdo it, get sick of them for good. I probably ate ten brats in one sitting, some finger-sized, some large. But rather than turn me off of bratwurst for good, that final herculean feat of pig consumption, for better or worse, imprinted the tastes and textures into my memory for life.

My Journey to a Vegan Bratwurst

There were, in fact, commercially-made vegan Nuremberger bratwursts available in Germany in 2005, and I even smuggled a few home in my suitcase for my boyfriend to try. But they were weird and bready and frankly left me cold. While I didn鈥檛 know much about making seitan at that time, I knew wheat gluten magic was possible due to frequenting Bo De Duyen (RIP), a Chinese Buddhist vegetarian restaurant in Toronto鈥檚 Chinatown. My boyfriend had eaten at Bo De for years, and when he introduced me to it, I tried as much of the vast menu as I could, marveling at the tastes and textures the chefs achieved with soy, mushrooms, and wheat.

As things got serious with my boyfriend, so too did my studying of vegan cookbooks. I first learned to make seitan the old-school way鈥攚ashing the starch out of a flour-and-water dough by hand until only the stretchy protein, the gluten, remained鈥攆rom Peter Berley鈥檚 The Modern Vegetarian. I did this with glee a couple of times a year, ending up with rather spongey, vaguely beefy chunks that nonetheless pleased me greatly, until I at long last learned of the existence of vital wheat gluten flour鈥攆lour that鈥檚 already been mechanically washed, leaving only the protein behind鈥攆rom Isa Chandra Moskowitz鈥檚 website. It was there, too, that I found my first recipe for a steamed seitan sausage and it absolutely blew my mind. The now-iconic process of mixing some sort of legume ingredient with gluten flour, wrapping it into a sausage shape, and steaming was actually developed by Vegan Diner author Julie Hasson, and cited in Moskowitz鈥檚 Vegan Brunch. Over email, Hasson told me that her inspiration came from veggie legend Bryanna Clark Grogan who 鈥渉ad steamed a seitan burger or something, which made me wonder if I could create a sausage and steam it. I added chickpea flour to soften the texture, so it wasn鈥檛 rubbery. It took a lot of experimenting to get that recipe.鈥�

Thanks to Hasson et al鈥檚 innovations, I steamed many a solid sausage throughout the 2010s. Still, though I consulted with my mom and struggled through countless YouTubes made by Bavarian butchers to get my seasonings right, the right texture and, uh, porkiness remained missing from my brats. Then, in 2017, I joined the a Facebook group full of seitan masters hailing from Albuquerque to Zimbabwe that鈥檚 easily my favorite place on the internet. The experiments of these thousands of intrepid home cooks, business owners, and YouTubers took my sausages to the next level. I began to play with new flavoring ingredients and thought through texture in a whole new way. I even learned about making vegan casings, which has forever changed my sausage game.

Thanks in large part to YouTuber and author of Making Vegan Meat, Mark Thompson, many home cooks are now attempting Beyond Meat-style sausage with pea protein, methylcellulose, and a casing made from a, uh, chemical goo? I鈥檓 all for it, and if that kind of thing floats your boat, head over to . But for these brats, my vision was to go less for full-on verisimilitude, and instead celebrate the satisfying textures produced by humble ingredients like buckwheat, lentils, and wheat protein, as well as the meaty flavors made possible by umami-rich ferments.

I鈥檝e been working on this particular iteration for a couple of years now, and when I recently grilled my latest batch up for two friends鈥攐ne vegetarian, one not鈥擨 knew I鈥檇 finally nailed it. The former called these brats 鈥淵our best fake meat yet!鈥� while the omnivore, not always a seitan fan, said, 鈥淚t鈥檚 a bit crumbly and not all one texture, just the way a sausage should be. Very flavorful. It鈥檚 great.鈥� Mission accomplished.

To all the sausage makers who came before me, from medieval Bavarians and Chinese Buddhist monks, to the innovators of the nineties, and the food scientists of Facebook, I raise a glass to you and say 鈥淧rost!鈥�

The Vegan Bratwurst Recipe

I admit this recipe looks a bit long and involved, but it鈥檚 really just a matter of gathering your ingredients and mixing them together, no special techniques required. You can divide up the work if you like: whip up the dough on day one, wrap and steam on day two, then fry or grill when you鈥檙e ready. These also freeze well, so feel free to make a double batch to ensure you鈥檙e ready for the next Oktoberfest. You can also quadruple the spice mix (minus the breadcrumbs), keep it in a jar, and add five teaspoons of the mix per batch of sausages.

On casings:听The casing is notoriously the hardest part when it comes to vegan sausage. I have tested many, and have been happiest with but it is sometimes hard to find. Frozen beancurd skin works well too, just be sure to soak it for a few minutes before wrapping. Japanese soy paper used for sushi comes in third鈥攊t doesn鈥檛 seem to fry or grill up as crispy as the others, but it鈥檚 still a good edible option if you prefer not to use foil.

That being said, these brats are delicious when fried or grilled without a casing, so don鈥檛 let lack of access to soy papers or skins hold you back! The seitan and lentils and buckwheat on the outside get toasty and browned, and the casing won鈥檛 be missed. Plus it鈥檚 way easier to make shapely, round sausages with foil.

As noted above, you can also dip your foil-steamed sausage into a Beyond Meat-style casing per YouTuber and cookbook author Mark Thompson鈥檚 instructions .

On shio koji:听If you鈥檙e not familiar, shio koji is a popular seasoning in Japan made from fermented rice and salt. You can learn more about it . You can buy it ready-made at many Japanese supermarkets and online; either the liquid or creamy version work well in this recipe. Once you have shio koji, you can marinate tofu, tempeh, and mushrooms in it to great effect, add it to soups and stews for added umami. If you can鈥檛 find shio koji, miso mixed with water makes a perfectly fine substitute, your sausages will still be great.

Equipment:听For this recipe, you鈥檒l need some kind of steaming apparatus. If you鈥檙e not using a casing, you鈥檒l also need cheesecloth or tin foil.

Vegan Bratwurst

Makes four Franconian (large) or six Nuremberger (small) bratwursts.

Ingredients

For Seasoning Liquid

• 录 of a medium onion (tennis ball-sized), grated on the large holes of a box grater
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely grated
• 1 tbsp brine from a jar of sauerkraut or white wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp shio koji or 1/2 tbsp miso and 陆 tbsp water
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tsp marmite
• 陆 tsp liquid smoke
• 录 cup + 1 tbsp water
• 陆 tsp vegetable bouillon powder or 录 teaspoon salt

For Sausage

• 戮 cups vital wheat gluten (120 grams)
• 1 tsp white pepper
• 陆 tsp ground ginger
• 录 tsp nutmeg
• 录 tsp allspice
• 2 tsp marjoram
• 陆听 tsp garlic powder
• 陆 tsp onion powder
• Several grinds of black pepper
• 1 tbsp panko or breadcrumbs
• 2 tbsp buckwheat groats
• 录 cup cooked green, brown, or French lentils, either canned or cooked from dried
• 2 tbsp olive oil

For Casing (Optional, See Notes Above)

• 4-6 sheets of soy paper or beancurd skin (see notes), cut into rectangles about 8 inches square, give or take, and depending on how large you want your sausages to be
• 1 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 2 tbsp water

Instructions

1. In a dry pan or pot (I use the pot I鈥檒l steam my sausages in) toast the buckwheat groats over medium heat, shaking the pan occasionally, until they are fragrant, crunchy and tasty when you eat one, about five minutes. Watch carefully in the last couple of minutes so they don鈥檛 burn. Set aside.
2. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix together all liquid seasoning ingredients. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, mix vital wheat gluten together with all dry seasoning ingredients.
4. Add lentils and toasted buckwheat to the gluten mixture and stir with a fork until the lentils and buckwheat are coated. Now add the olive oil and stir until it鈥檚 absorbed (adding the oil before the other liquid helps prevent it leaking out later).
5. Add the seasoning liquid to the gluten mixture and mix until no dry spots remain and a dough has formed. Knead lightly with your hands a few times until the mixture is cohesive. If some of the buckwheat is falling out, don鈥檛 worry. It happens. Set the dough aside to rest while you set up your steamer and casing station.
6. Set up your steaming apparatus. (I fill the pot I toasted my buckwheat in a third of the way with water and put my steamer in.) Bring to a boil over high heat. Once it鈥檚 boiling, turn down to medium low to hold the water at a simmer.
7. If using either edible casing, prepare the glue by mixing the all purpose flour with the water in a small bowl with a fork until it鈥檚 a smooth paste. If using beancurd skin, fill a medium bowl with warm tap water and soak your squares for about five minutes. If you鈥檙e using foil, tear off 4-6 squares of foil, depending on the size of sausages you鈥檇 like to make.
8. Break off a chunk of dough and form into a log-like shape of your preferred size on top of your casing of choice or square of foil. It may take a few tries to see what size your casing can hold and what you prefer. Be patient and practice a little. It gets easier as you go. Roll the dough up in the casing, creating a sausage shape as best you can. Tuck the ends in as if wrapping a gift or making a burrito, sealing the seams with the flour and water glue. If using foil, simply roll up in the foil, quite tightly but with a bit of wiggle room, and twist the ends to seal them up. The buckwheat sometimes likes to fall out of the dough during shaping. You can press some of it into each sausage before wrapping, but if some of it remains in the bottom of the bowl, that鈥檚 okay.
9. Place your wrapped sausages in the steamer, cover, and steam for 45 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool for a few minutes. Transfer to a plate and allow to cool 15-20 minutes, flipping to allow the casing to dry a bit if you used one, or unwrapping from the foil and allowing the outsides to dry a bit.
10. Fry or grill immediately or refrigerate up to three days before frying or grilling. To fry: heat 2 tbps of olive oil in a skillet and fry until well browned, turning frequently, 5-10 minutes. To grill, rub each sausage in olive oil and grill on medium heat until well browned. Serve in a bun or alongside side dishes with mustard!

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Gone are the days when the best bet for an 鈥榚gg replacement鈥� was a sad tofu scramble served by a patchouli-scented hippie. Now, chefs and food scientists have created so many new vegan eggs that it can be confusing to decide which ones to buy, and for what uses.

I decided to test out a variety of vegan eggs available at my local supermarket and share which I think is the best for four popular breakfast dishes.

Best for an Omelette: Follow Your Heart VeganEgg

This might have been the first vegan egg I saw for sale. They come in an egg carton-style package, and each one is a powdered replacement. I was blown away the first time I tried it out.

When testing it out for this story, I considered scrambling it, but found it worked even better for an omelette. The texture came out smooth and I was able to flip it with ease, allowing both sides to cook well. Note that these come perfectly seasoned already, so you鈥檒l want to hold back on adding extra salt.

Best for a Breakfast Sandwich: Just Egg Folded Plant Eggs

Just Egg seems to be the most-adopted egg alternative in the vegan community鈥擨鈥檝e noticed that most cafes with vegan egg options use this brand. As I was searching for the liquid Just Egg bottle in my market, an employee who was also a fellow vegan pointed me in the direction of these pre-made patties. I bought both to compare.

Surprisingly, there was quite a bit of a difference between the two. I made a sort of mini omelette with the bottled version and folded it, similar to the egg patty. The patty was simply seared in a pan, flipping halfway through the cooking time. The patty came out much airier and fluffier compared to what I made from the liquid. And, because it was pre-cooked, it was able to brown a bit on the pan, which I really liked. Overall, I thought the patties had a better taste, too.

All this makes them the perfect choice for a breakfast sandwich. The patty stays intact with every bite鈥攖here is nothing worse than taking the first bite of a sandwich and stuff falls out from the sides.

Best for Avocado Toast: Vegg Vegan Egg Yolk

When I went vegan in 2011, I would never have imagined that we would be here talking about a vegan egg yolk. The first time I saw such a thing was at a restaurant in downtown Los Angeles, where it was considered super novel鈥揳nd for years that was the only place I knew of that you could try an egg-free yolk. Now, you can purchase a packaged one and make it at home.

Look, I鈥檓 not someone who thinks the runny yolk of a fried egg makes everything better. But one food that really benefits: a thick slice of toast, piled with avocado. If done right, avocado toast can be pretty satisfying on its own. But adding a nice fatty egg on top of it will only make it better.

Best for a Classic Scramble (and Breakfast Burritos): Tofu

I know I started by telling you how far we鈥檝e come from our tofu scramble days, but the original vegan breakfast still has skin in the game. In fact, I find that a scramble with tofu and black salt has the most 鈥渆ggy鈥� taste out of anything I tried out.

Black salt has a strong sulfur taste to it, which recreates a flavor similar to an actual egg. Depending on the tofu brand, I go for a soft or medium firmness. We鈥檙e looking for something that has a light crumble but doesn鈥檛 fall apart too much, like a soft scrambled egg texture.

Once you鈥檝e made your tofu scramble, I recommend wrapping it up in a breakfast burrito. It鈥檚 exactly the thing to scarf down when you鈥檙e starving or hungover.

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Whether you鈥檝e just finished a strenuous hike or have been working in the heat all day, you鈥檙e probably reaching for a sports drink to rehydrate. There are two prominent varieties of the drink: electrolyte sports drinks and sugar-free sports drinks. Here鈥檚 what electrolyte sports drinks and sugar-free sports drinks are made of, their differences, and which is best in a given situation.

What鈥檚 the Difference?

鈥淲hen strictly comparing, you may just notice a difference in overall calories, carbohydrates, and sugar amounts,鈥� says , MS, RD, CSSD, LDN, Board Certified Sports Dietitian. Electrolyte sports drinks contain electrolytes as well as simple carbohydrates that provide energy to the user.听鈥淭hese options are much higher in carbohydrates and calories than the zero sugar sports drinks,鈥� Ehsani says.

Sugar-free sports drinks are made with artificial sweeteners, such as sucralose, and are generally lower in calories and carbohydrates than regular sports drinks. However, this doesn鈥檛 mean they鈥檙e completely void of electrolytes. 鈥淶ero-sugar sports drinks are often intended for individuals who need added sodium, such as in humid weather where sweating is increased, but may not need additional calories,鈥� says , BCDC. These drinks also have added potassium.

When to Choose Electrolyte Sports Drinks

Reach for electrolyte sports drinks in situations where you need to replenish nutrients, like after intense exercise.鈥淚 would never want a marathon runner to choose a sugar-free sports drink when they are in the middle of a marathon because they need those simple carbohydrates contained in the regular sport drink to give them energy and fuel for their race,鈥� Ehsani says.

However, strenuous exercise isn鈥檛 the only way your body loses electrolytes. If you鈥檙e sick and throwing up a lot, for example, it鈥檚 best to rehydrate with a drink that will replenish what you鈥檝e lost. The same goes for illnesses that cause dehydration. In addition to rehydrating, electrolyte drinks will also help restore any depleted fluids.

When to Choose Zero-Sugar Sports Drinks

If you simply need to quench your thirst or cool down, a sugar-free sports drink may be the better option. 鈥淚f an athlete is in their off season and just doing very light workouts a few times a week, they likely don鈥檛 need additional calories and can use a zero sugar option, which will give them the electrolyte they need to replace from sweating,鈥� Ehsani says.

Artificial sugars in these drinks aren鈥檛 harmful, as long as they aren鈥檛 consumed in large doses, which can cause gastrointestinal issues such as bloating, diarrhea, nausea, and an upset stomach.

What鈥檚 the Best Way to Recover After Exercising?

Sports drinks are an easy solution to post-workout energy and fluid loss, but even they aren鈥檛 the most optimal option. First, rehydrate with water. Ehsani also recommends with a 3:1 ratio of carbs to protein within 60 minutes of finishing your workout: a smoothie made with a variety of fruits and soy milk, topped with fruit and granola, or pretzels and peanut butter. To replace lost electrolytes, eat foods rich in sodium, chloride, potassium, magnesium, and calcium, which are all lost through sweat, she adds.

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I love making an elaborate meal from scratch, but that鈥檚 not in the cards every night of the week. Sometimes you鈥檙e in more of a quick stir-fry or one-pot-meal type of mood鈥揵ut just because you want to make something speedy doesn鈥檛 mean you should settle for bland or basic.

A wave of听 great sauces and meal-starters have hit the market lately, made by brands with a commitment to using natural ingredients to create flavorful, sophisticated products. Several of them come in portable little pouches and packets鈥攇reat for making a nice meal in an Airbnb kitchenette or on a camping stove鈥攁nd all will help minimize the dreaded food waste of buying a whole basket of ingredients just to use a pinch to make one sauce. Most of the brands we included on this list are entirely vegan across their product range; where that鈥檚 not the case, I鈥檝e specified which specific sauces are vegan-friendly.

Haven鈥檚 Kitchen

 

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You鈥檝e probably spotted these pouches in your supermarket鈥檚 refrigerator case (my store conveniently stocks them right above the tofu), and this is your sign to grab one the next time you鈥檙e there. Everything Haven鈥檚 Kitchen sells is vegan, gluten-free, and certified kosher. Instead of using any preservatives, these sauces are 鈥渃old processed鈥� for shipment. That means you鈥檒l have to keep them in the fridge 鈥� but they鈥檙e good in there for about a month if left sealed, so you don鈥檛 need to cook immediately. The flavors are all dynamite and can be used in a variety of ways; I鈥檓 especially partial to the Golden Turmeric Tahini (potatoes! warm salads!) and the Red Pepper Romesco (roasted cauliflower! tofu scrambles!). If you need some inspiration, the brand鈥檚 website is loaded with recipe ideas.听

Our Pantry

 

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After becoming a mom, Carolyna De Laurentiis found herself relying on jarred sauces and condiments a lot more than she had in her pre-baby life 鈥� but she wasn鈥檛 happy with the quality of what she was buying. Her solution? To found Our Pantry, a new brand that turns to acclaimed chefs to create the recipes, and then produces those recipes using transparently-sourced, worker- and planet-friendly ingredients and processes. The brand launched in August, 2022 with a range of four sauces: sunshine yellow Cherry Tomato Arrabbiata and Cherry Tomato Sauce by听Chef听Silvia Barban (LaRina Pastificio, Top Chef); Sweet Ginger BBQ by Chef听Adrienne Cheatham (Le Bernardin, Red Rooster, Top Chef); and a Columbian hogao-inspired Roasted Tomato Onion Salsa by award-winning cookbook author and Chef Mariana Velasquez (Prune,听Michelle Obama鈥檚 鈥淎merican Grown Project鈥�).

Omsom

 

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Sisters Vanessa and Kim Pham founded Omsom 鈥渢o bring loud, proud Asian flavors to your fingertips any day of the week.鈥� Inside their colorful packets are sauces that draw from cultural traditions of Southeast and East Asia, presented with pride and joy. Not everything Omsom makes is vegetarian, but several are 鈥� and they even sell a curated all-vegan kit if you want to sample all the options. Plant-based eaters will find themselves reaching for Filipino Sisig, Japanese Yuzu Miso Glaze, Korean Spicy Bulgogi, or Chinese Spicy Mala Sauce. If you have one of these, some tofu and/or vegetables, and a bit of rice, you鈥檙e only a few minutes from a meal that will taste shockingly good for how fast and effortless it was to cook. These sauces are great building blocks for getting creative, too. Check their website for recipe ideas including air-fried bulgogi mushrooms, crispy rice pancakes, and rice paper flowers. Extra bonus: While most food costs seem to be going up with inflation, Omsom recently added 33 percent more product to their packages at the same price. Incredible.听

Brooklyn Delhi

 

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For at-home Indian cooking, Brooklyn Delhi is my go-to brand. The Vegan Tikka Masala Simmer Sauce and (also vegan) Cashew Butter Masala Simmer Sauce are staples, great for, as the name implies, simmering with some vegetables on the stovetop 鈥� but recently I鈥檝e been taking inspiration from trendy L.A. restaurant Pijja Palace and trying them out on pasta and pizzas, too. There鈥檚 also a rich and cozy plant-based Coconut Cashew Korma simmer sauce that is so good with some of their multiple-award-winning Tomato Achaar or a dash of their Guntur Sannam hot sauce made with peppers sourced by Diaspora Co. Brooklyn Delhi鈥檚 products are all developed by chef and cookbook author Chitra Agrawal, who started making batches of her own achaar after returning from India and realizing the spicy, pickled condiment was in short supply in New York City. In 2014, she founded the company to produce them at a larger scale and has since rolled out the rest of the fully-vegan product line.

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Each year, 国产吃瓜黑料鈥檚 sister publication, Vegetarian Times, celebrates the best new restaurants in the U.S. serving the plant-based dining community. This year, the list contains 11 fantastic examples of culinary craft, innovation, and resilience.

But, for those of us who have put up with countless restaurant meals where we find ourselves with no plant-based options, ordering an uninspired salad (鈥渉old the cheese鈥�) or plate of fries as a main course, opening the menu at a restaurant that鈥檚 fully meat-free can feel like stumbling on a treasure chest. 鈥淪o you mean I can have anything?,鈥� we ask our server, amazed. It feels like we鈥檙e being welcomed to the table鈥攖he very essence of hospitality.

The 11 restaurants on this year鈥檚 Best New Restaurants list all embody this sense to the core. Places on our list come in all different shapes and kinds, from cozy neighborhood cafes to ambitious fine dining. There are elite, big-name chefs and first-timers still working day jobs on the side. But every one of them invites diners of all kinds to enjoy meals that are beautiful, delicious, and carefully crafted. And each takes a stand in their own way for a way of eating that leaves the planet a little bit better.

鈥撎�Brittany Martin, Editor,听Vegetarian听Times

Vegetarian Times鈥� 2022 Best New Restaurants

Restaurants are listed in alphabetical order. For consideration on this year鈥檚 list, we looked at vegan and vegetarian restaurants that opened to the public between August 1, 2021 and August 1, 2022.听

Before dining at , I probably would have thought fish was an essential component to a great bake and saltfish sandwich, but eating here proved that wrong. Their take on the classic Caribbean dish is created with hearts of palm saut茅ed in tomato and spicy peppers, and made me feel like I was oceanside, not in Flatbush, Brooklyn. The all-day cafe, bar, and store was opened in fall 2020 by Nicole and Michael Nicholas, and the space is outfitted in pleasant millennial pastels and wood paneling. But it鈥檚 the bursting flavors on the menu鈥攆rom cauliflower with spicy peanut sauce, to a medley of green vegetables with pesto, and a tequila-pineapple craft cocktail鈥攖hat create an experience that feels brand new.鈥�Marisa Kabas

Sunny Santa Monica has no shortage of all-day caf茅s鈥攂ut few of them come close to . The all-vegan menu blends Ethiopian flavors and techniques with California staples in ways that are at once creative and deeply comforting. The house breakfast burrito nestles tofu scramble, teff injera firfir, greens, tangfaye sauce, and roasted potatoes with Berbere spices inside a whole wheat tortilla and easily stacks up as one of the best takes on the dish anywhere. Start your day with one, along with a fresh-pressed juice or rich Ethiopian coffee. If you鈥檙e the type to say camera eats first, and mean it, you鈥檒l be ordering Eat the Rainbow, a bountiful platter of red lentils, purple cabbage, bright saut茅ed greens, golden turmeric garbanzo beans, and perfectly-rolled tubes of springy injera to scoop it all up. The airy dining room and sidewalk dining area have a welcoming, family-like feel, which makes sense: Berbere is the project of married co-owners (and the T&T of the name) Tezeta 鈥淭ete鈥� Alemayehu, who serves as executive chef, and Tsega-Ab 鈥淏icko鈥� Fenta, who manages operations.鈥�Brittany Martin

There was a time where bar with vegan food implied a space with tattered booths and a local punk band on stage. at D.C. Vegan elevates the all-vegan nightlife concept to something else entirely. Stepping inside Botanical Bar, you鈥檙e transported to a whimsical, all-night garden party. The decor has an Alice in Wonderland feel, from the checkerboard floor to the floral-patterned walls, with lush green plants dangling from the ceiling beams and everyone sipping colorful cocktails that emphasize seasonal fruits, vegetables, and herbs. The food menu focuses on comforting Italian-American fare with Mid-Atlantic notes; the hearts of palm-based Chesapeake Fritters are a local fave, but you鈥檇 be remiss to skip the focaccia topped with house-made almond ricotta and sauced with marinara made according to co-owner Leah Curran-Moon鈥檚 grandmother鈥檚 recipe. Curran-Moon and her spouse and co-owner Michael Jantz-Moon started with a vegan catering business that became so popular they decided the time was right to make the jump to add a restaurant鈥攁nd based on the response, it seems they were right.鈥�Whit Bailey

Guy Vaknin, the face behind New York鈥檚 vegan sushi conglomerate Beyond Sushi, launched the Italian-inspired in February 2022. In addition to being vegan, the restaurant is also kosher, a nod to Vaknin鈥檚 Israeli roots. Indulge in the 鈥渃heesy鈥� pizzas from their custom brick oven or the decadent pasta dishes. Can鈥檛 miss meals include the rich mushroom truffle pizza or the eggplant lasagna. In addition to the extensive cocktail menu, the restaurant offers housemade sodas in strawberry lemon mint and raspberry grapefruit basil. Plus, the plush stools and cool tones, accompanied by custom murals done by New York artist Lia Ali, offer a calming respite from the city. Celeb-spotters take note, Coletta鈥檚 become known as a place where you might spy a plant-based star at the next table over.鈥�Ellen O鈥橞rien

The original Crossroads Kitchen in Los Angeles has been a pioneer in vegan fine dining since opening nearly a decade ago. Now Chef Tal Ronnen has taken his luxurious approach to plant-based cooking to the epicenter of luxury, Las Vegas. Tucked inside Resorts World, the first new complex to be constructed on the Strip in over a decade, this new edition of feels glitzy and celebratory from the moment you walk through the restaurant鈥檚 private entry corridor. That feeling extends to the menu, which mixes items beloved from the L.A. location鈥攍ike the signature handmade rigatoni in spicy vodka sauce鈥攚ith new dishes that befit a Vegas level of decadence. Chestnut 鈥榝oie gras鈥� with Cabernet demi-glace or a service of potato chips and kelp caviar go well with a glass of Champagne (or one of several thoughtful non-alcoholic cocktail options, should you prefer). High-rollers can skip the a la carte menu entirely and go for 鈥淭he Crossroads Experience,鈥� a seven-course tasting dinner that changes with the seasons.鈥�Brittany Martin

Like their first restaurant Somebody People (which appeared on VT鈥檚 2021 list), Sam and Tricia Maher鈥檚 pizza-, pasta-, and 鈥渄isco bites鈥�-focused second spot has been a massive hit since opening its Denver doors. The vibe is loud and busy with a riot of pink and orange, emerald green, black and white, and tables cheekily set with red-and-white checked napkins. It鈥檚 a perfectly modern take on a pizzeria, and with the wild plant-based offerings, the spot feels thoroughly of the moment. Order the Que Sera cocktail, a bitter, appetite-inducing sip of citrus vermouth, gin, and Av猫ze, followed by the mole-spiced tripoline studded with corn and zucchini, and the falafel pizza with almond tzatziki, fried beans, tomato, cucs, and pickled onions. Bonus, in addition to being 100 percent vegan, most items can also be made gluten-free.鈥�Amanda Faison

If you find yourself in Bristol, Rhode Island鈥攁 quaint, waterside New England town about 20 minutes from Providence鈥攄inner at is a must. Chef and owner Peter Carvelli oversees this classy Italian restaurant that would appear pretty traditional to anyone unaware that it鈥檚 entirely vegan. (If you鈥檝e ever hesitated to take your meat-eating parents to a vegan restaurant, trust that they鈥檒l feel entirely comfortable here.) Carvelli honed his techniques over years of pop-up dinners around the region before committing to his own permanent place, opening in July of 2022. Menus rotate weekly but there are always luscious housemade pastas, recently including cashew cacio e pepe spaghettini and a ruby-hued beet ravioli, plumped with cashew ricotta filling and topped with pickled fennel. The move is to put yourself in Chef Pete鈥檚 hands and opt for a five- or seven-course tasting menu. Every colorful, artfully-plated dish is a treat and there鈥檚 always something surprising.鈥�Brittany Martin

Kyle and Katina Connaughton are husband-and-wife, chef-and-farmer, and partners in two restaurants in Healdsburg, in the heart of Sonoma wine country. The duo are well-known for their three-Michelin-star restaurant SingleThread, so when they came on to operate , just a few blocks away, fine dining lovers globally took notice. The complex鈥攃ontaining restaurant, cafe, bar, music venue, and farm shop鈥攊s a collaboration between the Connaughtons, vegan activist owners Laurie and Jeff Ubben, and Ken Fulk, an award-winning designer who heads the Saint Joseph鈥檚 Arts Foundation, an organization dedicated to revitalizing historic buildings into art spaces. Little Saint鈥檚 entirely plant-based menus prominently feature produce grown using regenerative and sustainable practices on the Little Saint farm and the SingleThread farm, overseen by Katina Connaughton. Then the kitchen, directed by Kyle Connaughton and helmed by chef de cuisine Bryan Oliver, takes that produce and serves everything with an unexpected twist. Think: cauliflower biryani littered with rose petals and crispy shallots, or Nantes carrots, charred until black, dressed with vegan XO sauce and contrasted with crunchy red cabbage and puffed rice. The complex hosts live music performances too; you might catch Phoebe Bridgers or Lucy Dacus playing an intimate set while you sip a glass from wine director Alexandria Sarovich鈥檚 thoughtfully-curated list.鈥�Amber Gibson

Eating in Los Angeles is exciting because you get flavors from everywhere in the world. , the colorful Koreatown stripmall spot from restaurateur Danny Oh and chef and co-owner Mario Alberto, incorporates aspects of Korean, Filipino, Mexican, Peruvian, and Cal-Italian cuisines into a veggie melange they鈥檝e termed 鈥淎ngeleno food.鈥� Alberto has worked in a litany of notable L.A. restaurants, cooked with many of the city鈥檚 top chefs, and recently served as executive chef of vegan Mexican restaurant Gracias Madre. In the tumultuous summer of 2020, he linked up with his friend Oh to organize efforts to cook and deliver food to people in need鈥攁nd the pair found they liked working together. Their commitment to community and culture imbues every aspect of Olivia, from the genuinely warm service to the creative, delicious food. You might be eating a mushroom steak with smoked yams, a burrito with coconut rice, jackfruit, and salsa verde, or a pizza topped with roasted eggplant, macadamia feta, and kimchi. Somehow, it all goes together harmoniously.鈥�Brittany Martin

Nestled within NoMad鈥檚 Plantbar NYC, offers an interactive dining experience that puts a plant-friendly spin on Japanese omakase. SimpleVenue鈥攖he same restaurant group behind the fish-based Sushi by Bou鈥攍aunched the vegan concept in May 2022. If you find yourself stricken with indecision when it comes to menus, you鈥檒l be happy to know the spot has only one offering: a 15-course omakase experience. The innovative Truffle Avocado Oshizushi and Watermelon Tartare Nigiri are among my favorite courses. Pro tip: You鈥檒l want to make a reservation in advance, as the restaurant is only open Wednesday to Saturday and offers just a few slots for the omakase experience per night.鈥�Ellen O鈥橞rien

No stranger to the Philly restaurant scene, Mark McKinney pivoted from head chef at several iconic spots to opening up his own restaurant in 2021. A vegan since the 1980s, he created to, as he puts it, 鈥渄o no harm to any living thing鈥濃�攚hich for him means an entirely animal-product-free kitchen and one where nothing is fried and everything he serves is market-fresh and locally-sourced. Set in the hip Fishtown neighborhood, the restaurant has a laid-back vibe and serves up eclectic comfort food, from mushroom-and-eggplant burgers to masa ball soup, a combination of matzo ball soup and pozole. One of the most-popular orders is a crispy kimchi pancake that comes topped with roasted celery root sashimi, chia seed caviar, and a brush of spicy gochujang mayo.鈥�Ashley Graef

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