It's been an interesting ride since last may. There was a vegan road trip across Amercia, that was interesting...Easter feasting, new LA eatery discoveries, cookbooks, and an expo.
Let me wind it on back to February when we took a little (not really) road trip from the east coast to the west coast. Only three thousand miles of finding gluten free and vegan food, and actually it was a breeze. I can attribute the magical Happy Cow app. This saved my life..or saved me from a week of eating protein bars. The app either looks up where you are or any city and shows what vegan, vegetarians, v-friendly, or restaurants /natural markets are close to you. We tried our best to book hotels close Whole Foods, where we could just hit that up for smoothies and coffee in the morning. Some of the cities we went through obviously did not have whole foods, but I quickly found out that many small towns have a local organic markets (often with a resturant). There were a couple sad nights where there was truly nothing, so for those I brought protein powder + almond milk.
Let me take you through a visual journey of all the different meals I got to experience:
Knoxville, Tennessee - Sunspot Restaurant
First stop was a little veg-friendly restaurant. They had vegan and gluten free menus, so I knew I would be good. These, my friend, are curried tacos on corn tortillas with roasted veggies.
Note: Be careful when going to restaurants with separate vegan and gluten free menus. Not all vegan items will be gf and vice versa. Usually, your server will know what subs to make, but if they seem like they're guessing or just plain dumb...run. These people knew exactly what to do.
Jackson Mississippi - Rainbow Co-op+ High Noon Cafe
This was my first co-op of the trip. I soon found out I freaking love co-ops. They are the old school health food stores that predate Whole Foods. Locals own a percentage of the joint and often hang out there (plus a lot of them have restaurants). I liked the fact that the servers in a lot of the co-ops I went to were very knowledgable about their ingredients, and therefore knew exactly what was gluten free. At this vegetarian cafe, I got the black eyed pea burger gluten free style (over brown rice) with a vegan Caesar.
Midland, Texas - Natural Foods Market + Strawberry Fields Cafe
This was another place we went for acai bowls, protein smoothies, and wraps.
Tip: If you get breakfast at one spot, get lunch to go, so you will have something for later. That saves time looking for restaurants and searching a random unknown areas at night (cause that's just creepy).
Las Cruces, New Mexico - Mountain View Market Co-op + Kitchen
I found that the farther west I went the more wraps there were on the menu. By the end of the trip, I was done with them, but it was a great option on the road. This was the best wrap of the trip and probably my life. Pictures are of the vegan Caesar and hummus on gluten free wraps.
Tuscon, Arizona -Urban Fresh and Food for Ascension Restaurant
Both of these were real winners. I stayed in Arizona for a couple days with family. One of the bet things about driving so far is seeing people along the way.
Urban fresh is an awesome mostly raw + vegan restaurant that also gives cooking classes. The vegetables are in so fresh. I got their veggie burger over greens with guac, cole slaw, and chili. I also had the pleasure of trying their raw chocolates, and I have been obsessed with raw desserts since. The taste is more intense than non raw chocolate.
Food for Acension was also great. It's a vegan restaurant with a large gluten free selection. I actually got their soup with gf bread, but I ate it before I remembered to take a photo. Their dessert selection is fab. The cake was no joke, and I took home a biscotti to go with my morning coffee.
Since we stayed a while, I was able to hit up a WF and make vegan enchallidas with tofu sour cream (picture with the avacado). As I've mentioned before, the Real Food Daily cookbook is a gem. I've never had a bad recipe from them, and that's really saying something. Some of Anne Gentry's recipes are a little spicy, but I was raised by Louisiana folk so I love it.
Palm Springs, California - Palm Greens Cafe
I discovered this place last time I was in Palm Springs, and it's my go to every time I'm there. It's not full vegan for your carnivore friends, but mainly it's insanely good.
Pictured below is the curry tempeh bowl, raw salad, and cherries jubilee. All vegan + gf. I did have a little debacle once when I asked a waitress if one dessert had oats (even gf oats bother me) and she said no even though there was. In the future, direct any questions to the chef.
Happy travels and look forward to more LA resturant posts and recipes.
