A Memorable Meal at Greens

I love cooking so much, and enjoy inventing recipes at home, that lots of what passes for a vegan entree in restaurants is simply not that appealing... but sometimes it's really worthwhile to go, because truly great places make things I would not take the trouble to replicate at home. Last night, happily, was such an occasion! I met with friends at Greens, the wonderful vegetarian restaurant at the Marina. Since it was Saturday night, we ate their prix fixe dinner.

Greens is a phenomenal restaurant if you're a lacto-ovo vegetarian; less so right off the bat if you're vegan. But there are some vegan options too, and many of their dishes can easily be made vegan without the cheese. Their fennel salad was terrific, as was my appetizer - a little salad of grilled artichokes, radicchio and a cleverly sliced delicata squash with warm Italian butter beans. They simply served it to me without the cheese!

The entree I got was a filo roll stuffed with savoy spinach, yellow finn potatoes, English peas, ginger, chilies, and cilantro, and drizzled with coconut tamarind sauce and grilled serrano salsa verde. They served it with coral lentil dal, roasted carrots and cauliflower. It was a sophisticated and layered dish, certainly way more complex than I would make at home.

For dessert, I ordered the coconut rice pudding and a vanilla rooibos. It was delicious and came with a quince compote that reminded me of my grandma's cooking.

It was really good times, but a bit too rich for me; I started this morning with tea and a soymilk smoothie (bananas, strawberries, raspberries). For lunch I'll simply steam some asparagus, beets, carrots, and zucchini over some brown rice that I'll cook with a bag of Numi savory tea. I'm trying to use up all of our still-good produce for things I can pack and take with me to work Mon through Wed. On Wednesday afternoon we're getting our first box from Albert and Eve!