Flea glorious Flea

I’m so happy to announce that we have staked permanent residency at the Bklyn Flea in Ft. Greene. We’ve been selling our Faux Gras, of course, but also have broadened our horizons to include wine & garlic sauced Kale, Faux-filled Vietnamese Banh Mi sandwiches, and coming soon – Kale chips. Let’s get our groove on together. Fabulous food will fill you up and leave you feeling – better. Flea runs Saturdays 10am-5pm, on the schoolyard on Lafayette btw. Clermont & Vanderbilt.

Mention your Favorite way to Faux Gras and you could win one of our sassy totes.

In fact, I just signed on to do a seasonal class with the squad. It was so great to cook and eat with all the gals who came to the “Beyond Salads: Preparing Mouth-watering Veggies” class. My favorite quips were – “Those are the best Brussels Sprouts I’ve ever had” and “I’ve never enjoyed Fennel before today.” Fennel, please don’t be upset. She loves you now. (Fennel is one of my all time faves).

Sweet Kaoru wrote, “i went to your beyond salads class last night with urban girl squad, and i had so much fun! thanks so much for the new recipes and introduction to new veggies (never had tasted fennel or parsnips before)and products (no gluten soy sauce and coconut oil). i’m far from being vegan or vegetarian, but its always nice to just add on to my repertoire of recipes. also can’t forget how good your faux gras is! ”

So, when are we all cooking again?

Thanks also to Amanda Hofman, the fabu organizer of the event and Leslie Shultz. You gals make it fun to work with you.

Much love,
Ella

I had the best time at Williams Sonoma last Saturday. Teaching a quick little demo in how to use Collard Greens as wraps and then turn them into little Sushi-like rolls. So easy, and so many uses. We did a cashew cream and butternut squash filled roll with grated beets. But frankly, it got me thinking, we could have put just about anything in the pantry in there!

I asked some people what they would have put in there… my favorite answer was greens. yes. A greens filled wrap made of greens. She might be on to something!

In other news, one of my private clients that I cook for came back with wonderful news. It seems that her recent blood work showed a remarkable improvement in her albumin levels. Which means her nutrition is getting back on track and that her liver function is improving. Well if that isn’t music to a healthy chef’s ears, I don’t know what is.

Wishing you lots of love and warmth this season,
Ella

Breathe in. Breathe out. Repeat.

This was my mantra this week as our labels for Faux Gras packaging ran out and our reorder mysteriously disappeared. So what do you do? Just blame it on the snowstorm. Or the Snowpocalypse. Or, the Snolacaust. Yes, I had some frustration, and guess what? We just used our old labels from when Faux Gras was just a baby. Problem solved.

Sure, they have the wrong serving size (It’s doubled on the old labels) but the info is the same. Just divide by two for an actual serving size. Unless you’re like many of our fans, who claim to “eat the whole tub in one sitting.”

Bah.

I hope the Faux is treating you well this week. It’s a snowy, snowy paté season, and I find that it’s tasting AMAZING on Rye wasa crackers, with spicy sprouts, and – get this- pickled eggplant. Eat your heart out winter!

Much love,
Ella

Holy Mack. We discovered a new taste sensation! Faux Gras Banh Mi Sanwiches are officially, the bomb. We got a vegan Banh Mi Sanwich from a place near the Holiday Market called Saigon. The bread was crusty. The carrots and daikon where tangy. The cilantro was refreshing -  but something was definitely missing. Back at the Regal Vegan pop-up show an idea spread over us. FAUX GRAS. Hello. In Vietnam, a traditional Banh Mi often includes nasty duck liver. Today, I think we officially bested the competition by spreading our vegan paté all over this sandwich. This was the most satisfying discovery of my day, other than the fact that construction has finished on our street.

I’ll be posting a recipe soon to show you how to make your very own.

With much love,
Ella

Dear Friends,

It’s cold out there – which is why I’m delighted to announce something to truly warm your heart: Hester Holiday Market. Between crafts, gifts and artisinal food, you couldn’t be in better company. I’ll be sharing my table with good friend and slamming kimchi artist SkimKim . We’ll be having a blast – hope to see you there anytime from Dec 17th (TODAY!) to Dec 23rd, 11am to 8pm.

What’ll be good? Well, we’re launching new products, selling Pizzette, our own version of pizza that’s naturally, gluten-free, healthy, and – BY GOD – delicious. Flavors include: Basicliaux and Tomato Concasse, Curried Cashew Cheese with Cilantro Chutney, Faux Gras with Pear & Jalapeno Chutney. Be prepared to get addicted. That’s all I’m saying.

We’re still doing tons of events – you may have seen us at the In Good Company Party, at Greendrinks, at the Vegan Cooking for Dummies booklaunch party, or at Get Your Dance On- which we’re doing again this Saturday night. It’s a great party with soulful people, live drumming, the didge and saunas. Did I mention dancing? And Faux Gras?

Come January, we’ll be back to cooking classes, health coaching, and catering all your affairs, large and small. Please let me know how I can make your life better, tastier, healthier. How about a healthy cooking class to start your year off with the right angle?

I can’t end this communication with you, without mentioning some prose that has really inspired me lately. It’s about how everything is perfect right now – all the chaos, the stress, the great things, the friends, the parties, even the traffic. So perfect. Meant to get you where you need to be. I’m sharing a small piece of it, below. Hope it inspires you as it does me.

If you would like to know more joy, seek that place inside yourself where joy comes from.

The world around us is perfect. Do you see it?

With love, respect, and other nutrients,
Ella

Dear friends,

It’s taken me a little while to get back on the horse with blogging, but it’s happening. What with tweeting and facebooking and actually meeting you guys in person, I kinda forgot about the whole other world out here on the interweb. Not everything is Mark Zuckerberg-spawned after all.

So, it’s been busy here at the Regal Vegan – lots and lots of Faux Gras is going out to the people, and it seems to be getting a rave reception. If you have q’s or comments, raves or reviews – please let us know! I’ve been experimenting with some new dishes, and was proud to be one of the guest chefs at the last First Sinner’s Club dinner. Special shout-outs to chefs Noel and Joe of soon-to-be restaurant the Carmine Club. I think we’re going to get some fabulous vegan options on that menu! We also took part in supporting the Eco-Fashion folks at the NOW showcase (photo below courtesy of NOW), the great gals at Our Hen House, my lovely extended family up at the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary for their ThanksLiving event, and did a Gluten-Free Guest Chef night at Union Square’s Whole Foods.

We’ve got lots of exciting things coming up too – namely, the final weekend at the Edible Garden at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens this Sunday! We’ll be doling out lots of yummy Faux Gras and our special Fall Pear & Jalapeño Chutney. We’ll also bring our favorite standby, the Fennel Confit and will be serving on lovely crostini for your tasting pleasure. We hope to canoodle a bit with celeb chef Mario Batali and Todd English who will be in attendance at this crazy cool event.

What else? This week we’ll be doing a tasting at Lifethyme Natural Market on 6th ave and 8th street on Wednesday from 4-7pm. Then Perelandra in Brooklyn Heights hosts us this Thursday – from noon-3pm.

We are super excited to be a sponsor of Integral Yoga’s Day for Health – with free craniosacral massage screenings, meditations, samples and snacks – it’s whole day holistic.

We’ll also be supporting the NY Coalition for Healthy School Food this Thursday, get your tickets soon! The time is nigh. And give a big heads up to healthy school in food. Do you even remember what we used to eat?

Oh, and last but not least, we’ll be offering up our samples this Saturday night at Get Your Dance On. Dancing and Faux Gras? Absolutely. Because food that fills you up, gives you clean energy, and tastes delicious is the perfect thing to pair with your groove.

Phew! It’s a busy week. Can’t wait to see all you lovely people. Please drop a line or come see us at one of our many events.

With love, respect and other nutrients,

Ella

Dear Friends,

With Spring right around the corner, it seems the perfect time to say goodbye to the old and bring in the new. For nearly 3 years, The Regal Vegan has been delivering healthy meals to your home, and I have been so honored to have the opportunity. Thank you for taking this culinary journey with me.

As most of you know by now, I have launched “Faux Gras” in stores and it has allowed me to honor the Regal Vegan mission of bringing food made with love, respect and other nutrients to more people. With this product launch comes also the opportunity to bring even more Regal Vegan foods to stores near you. This has also brought the difficult realization that our boutique dinner delivery service would have to cease. At least for now.

Of course, that doesn’t mean the food you love is gone. Oh, I’m still cooking up a storm! In fact, I am pleased to announce the new Regal Vegan personal chefing services, by appoinment only. Your home, your personal dietary needs, your week of meals, your favorites!

I’ll also be doing cooking classes, health coaching, and as always, I am available for catering all your affairs, large and small.

I hope you enjoy this week of dinners. They are filled with an extra dose of love, and gratitude.

With love, respect, and other nutrients,

Dear Friends,

Flavor needs not fall into any one genre of cooking. In fact, it needs to be infused wholeheartedly and distinctly into every genre. I remember a friend from the Midwest telling me that growing up, his mom would take a chicken out of the package and put it in the oven, straight from the package. No seasoning, no attention, just in the oven. This bothered me on many levels, and haunts me to this day. Meanwhile, in my house, my mom was busy putting every spice in the house, on every item of food in the house – so we had am overkill yet nondescript flavor to everything. Too little vs. too much.

It makes me wish I could go back in time and tell our mothers that the most important aspect of flavor is the balance between the 5 tastes (salty, sweet, sour, bitter, umami) and the textures. Sometimes also the temperature. A concept that would have been difficult to explain, and difficult to attain. But we here in NY don’t suffer the limitations of the Midwest. We have been exposed to new flavors/preparations and spices and the stores where we can find them. From Turkish spices like Aleppo pepper, to Asian aromatics like lemongrass, Italian standards like capers to French treatments like confit – we have it all in NY.

This week, as you taste your food, try to remember how lucky we are to have a passion for food, a sophisticated enough palate to differentiate between flavors, and the means to enjoy it all. After all, isn’t variety the spice of life?

With love, respect, and other nutrients,

Ella

Dear Friends,

In honor of Valentine’s day, i thought I would talk a little about love. If you go back and think about why you love, who you love, it’s often about the way they make you feel. It’s the same thing with food. If you love ice cream, then you feel good when you eat it. But we all know the ideal relationships are those where you feel love back, and continue to feel it even in their absence. I suspect ice cream is just too cold to feel love.

But what about blueberries? Pomegranates? Do they love you? I would venture to say that once they are picked, fruits no longer have the capacity to feel or react, however, the nutrition profile of fruits and vegetables is such that the love goes on long after the food has been digested. Food becomes you – your tissues, your blood, your cells even your thoughts. The relationship lasts long after the food has been digested. The anti-oxidants continue to fight free radicals, the energy is boosted for significant periods of time, and the other benefits are the kind that shape your eyesight, your immune system, and your overall well-being.

So, the next time you go for food you love, make sure it loves you too.

With love, respect, and other nutrients,

El”love”a