Browsed by
Author: Nicole

Vegan In: Paris

Vegan In: Paris

Whether you love veganism, love food, or love love – we have got some French classics and some Paris recommendations for you in this month’s installment of VeganIn.

Up first, a review of four restaurants offering vegan options in Paris, courtesy of Vegeeter:
image1 (9).JPG
Read about Cafe Ginger, Brasserie Lola, Hank Vegan Burger, and Vegan Follies.

Next, Lyra has been playing with cashew cheese for a while and has made this simply stunning blue cheese:

Go give her all the compliments @herb.cuisine so she shares her recipe!

SBE Paris

The lovely Jenny over at Spice Box of Earth was in Paris back in 2015 and ate all the good food!  Read all her Paris travel trips, and find out about Le Potager du Marais, Cafe Ginger, Un Monde Vegan, Hank Vegan Burger, Las Vegans and Vegan Folie’s.  Doesn’t her photo of these delicious cakes make you want to book a flight to Paris right now?!

paris-brasserie-lola-2

A lot of the same restaurants are reviewed over at Herbivores’ Heaven, along with Brasserie Lola, Gentle Gourmet and a pet cemetery, for all the animal lovers! Vegan croque monsieur? Yes please!

Paris

MoFo regular Jojo over at Vegan In Brighton has a number of Paris-related posts, the most recent from a weekend trip last year.   Check out her thoughts on Brasserie 2eme Art, Ara Chocolat and Cloud Cakes, amongst others.

And April lived many people’s dream by going to Paris for her honeymoon. Just look at all the food she and her new husband devoured!  (For more food inspiration from April, check her out on Instagram.)

Cafe des Deux Moulins, 15 Rue Lepic, 75018 Paris, France

Les Deux Moulins

I really wanted to check this place out on my honeymoon to Paris – I mean, it’s Amélie’s cafe! Unfortunately, they don’t have much for vegans, and the waiter seemed a bit exasperated with me when I tried to hand him my “I’m vegan and I don’t eat these things” card. My husband and I ended up with a baguette, some jam, fruit juice, and espresso. It was still tasty, for all that it was simple.

It was also our first foray into the world of Paris coffee – a few places have non-dairy milk (especially the 100% vegan restaurants), but nobody orders cafe mochas here. You get espresso. Everywhere that serves it generally gives it to you with a packet of sweetener (raw sugar and/or agave nectar at the fancy places, plain sugar elsewhere) and some kind of sweet (usually a small square of chocolate or a cookie, which was often a vegan Speculoos!) As for the cafe, it’s adorable and they know it – there’s a few pictures of Amélie throughout, but don’t expect to see the clear board where she writes the menu backwards; it’s not there.

 

Le Potager de Charlotte, 12 Rue de la Tour d’Auvergne, 75009 Paris, France

Le Potager du Charlotte

My husband and I decided to go to Le Potager de Charlotte for weekend brunch. If you decide to do the same, COME HUNGRY. I can not stress this enough. There’s a ton of food, and it’s all delicious. We started with several types of fresh bread and a few different spreads, all made in-house. I also got fresh juice and hot chocolate, pancakes with fruit, a breakfast chia oat pudding, and an avocado spinach salad. It’s a good thing we were walking so much while in Paris!

 

Hank Vegan Burger, 55 Rue des Archives, 75003 Paris, France

Hank

Cozy, comfy, and quick – that’s Hank Vegan Burger. They have a bunch of inventive topping combinations for their burgers, as well as sides, drinks, and desserts. The majority of the dining area is upstairs from where you order. We loved our burgers, fries, cookie, and cake!

 

Cafe Ginger, 9 Rue Jacques Cœur, 75004 Paris, France (Inside the Grand Appetit Macrobiotique produits naturels)

Cafe Ginger

We ended up at Cafe Ginger after an attempt to go to a vegan restaurant down the street that wasn’t open. It’s a tiny macrobiotic cafe inside Grand Appetit, which is a macrobiotic and natural foods store. When you go, pay attention to their hours – we got there towards the very end of their open times, and they had pretty much stopped serving their main menu, and we were left with ordering something out of the case. That being said, we ended up with a couple slices of delicious vegetable tart, side veggie salads, and hot tea. Lucky for us, there was a customer in the restaurant who was happy to explain to us what the owner was telling us (the owner had no English, and my French wasn’t quite up to the task). Interestingly, the customer turned out to be an employee of the restaurant down the street to which we had originally tried to go!

 

Veg’Art, 123 Rue Oberkampf, 75011 Paris, France

Veg'art

All vegan pizza, all the time! This was, by far, the smallest restaurant we went to while in Paris, consisting of only 4 or 5 tables, and barely enough room to walk between them. All of the pizzas are personal size and have some very inventive toppings, and they had a delicious strawberry cake while we were there (not sure if that’s a regular menu item or not; my French wasn’t up to the task of communicating with the gal behind the counter.)

 

Cafe Pinson, 6 Rue du Forez, 75003 Paris, France

Cafe Pinson

The ordering system at Cafe Pinson was a bit confusing to us, and we ended up sort of pointing at things in the case while the gal behind the counter tried to explain what we could get. For one price, you get an entree and main dish, or main dish and dessert. They also have fresh juices and coffee. Luckily, the gal behind the counter had enough English to catch that we were vegan, and was able to point out which things were vegan and which were just vegetarian. The salads and main dishes were fresh and healthy, and I was happy to get hot cocoa with vegan whipped cream on top.

 

Vegan Folie’s, 53 Rue Mouffetard, 75005 Paris, France

Folie's

Vegan Folie’s is mainly a bakery with punny names for their sweets (the James Brownie, Rosa Pinks, Red Astaire, and Choc Norris, for example). They also have giant sandwiches, which are probably enough for most people to split (though my husband wanted a whole sandwich to himself – again, I was glad for all of the walking we did!).

 

Gentle Gourmet Café, 24 Boulevard de la Bastille, 75012 Paris, France

Gentle Gourmet

This was, by far, the fanciest restaurant that we went to the entire time we were in France. Also, the priciest, but for a splurge, it’s a great choice. Gentle Gourmet goes for quality over quantity, and their plating is exquisite. We experienced all sorts of complex flavors and textures. For dessert, we got the sampler plate, which was the first time in my life I’ve ever eaten French macarons! These were made with aquafaba and were little bites of absolute heaven. Reservations are very important here – if you don’t have one, you might not be able to eat there that day.

 

La Verrière, 24 Avenue de Tourville, 75007 Paris, France

La Verriere

We weren’t quite sure what to expect from this restaurant, and found a sort of buffet set-up. We spent some time foraging amongst the offerings, and came out with all sorts of fresh veggie dishes, as well as tasty savory and sweet tarts. The ambience is spare and modern (makes me think of IKEA a bit).

 

Crepe de la Joie, 4 Rue du Fer À Moulin, 75005 Paris, France

Crepes

Seriously, y’all – vegan crepes! My husband and I each got one savory crepe (galette) and one sweet crepe. They were delicious, and we also got hot cocoa with non-dairy milk to go with.

 

Un Monde Vegan, 64 Rue Notre Dame de Nazareth, 75003 Paris, France

Monde Vegan

Not a restaurant; this is Paris’ only 100% vegan grocery store. They had *two whole cases* of vegan cheese, which was quite exciting. My husband and I stocked up on vegan cheeses, “meat” sticks, drinks, and chocolate to snack on at our apartment and on the train to Angers. We also got a vegan paté that was quite tasty!

Le Potager Du Marais, 24 Rue Rambuteau, 75003 Paris, France

Le Potager du Marais

This restaurant is larger than some of the others we visited in Paris, but not by a lot, and diners will be seated in fairly close quarters with others. Also, reservations are important here. This was one of the fancier places we went, and the flavors in the dishes were interesting and fun. This was another place where I got super-fancy vegan hot cocoa (yay!) and delicious pudding.

Facebook friend Donna (whose son created the Is It Vegan? app)  agrees with this recommendation, and notes that reservations are essential here as she saw people being turned away.  She also shared a few notes on a couple of her other favourite places in Paris:

Loving Hut, 92 Boulevard de Beaumarchais, ParisFrance,75011

We ate at Loving Hut a couple of times. It was economical and close to the metro stop. Their food was better than the Loving Huts I have been to in the US.  The appetizers were all so good.

Veget’Halles, 41 Rue des Bourdonnais, 75001 Paris, France

We also liked Veget’Halles, a vegan/vegetarian restaurant  near Le Centre Pompidou with a lot of options.

 

Are there any places we’ve missed? Have we motivated you to book a trip to the city of love and vegan macarons?  Let us know, and stay tuned for the announcement of next month’s VeganIn destination!

VeganMoFo 2017

VeganMoFo 2017

Happy New Year! We hope that your December and holiday season was filled with happiness, laughter, and really great vegan food.

In early December, we asked for your feedback on VeganMoFo 2016 and what you’d like to see from us in the future. As a thank you, we set up a drawing for all survey respondents and we would like to congratulate Lou of Louzilla Lovegood Letters as the winner! Lou has chosen The Taco Cleanse as her prize and we’re so excited for all the taco cleansing in her future.

In your survey feedback, you also told us that you’re interested in VeganMoFo being more active year-round, you like the MiniMoFo challenges, and you also want to see vegan food blogs and bloggers get more of a spotlight. Ask and you shall receive!

This year, we’re planning on:
Monthly MiniMoFo themes: Anyone can participate, as many times as you like!
Vegan Blogger Spotlights: Profiles and recipes from vegan bloggers, PM us if you would like to be featured!
Vegan In _____: Guest posts from vegans all over the world about the local vegan scene, restaurants, and products.
VeganMoFo 2017: The main event! This October! You told us you like the flexibility of daily prompts, weekly themes, and individual participant selected themes, and so do we! We’ll have more details as MoFo gets closer.

We are always open to hearing your input and feedback, so please don’t hesitate to get in touch and let us know what you’re thinking about VeganMoFo and how we can keep growing and connecting the vegan community through fun and really delicious vegan food.

This January
The MiniMoFo theme is NEW! From now until the end of the month, share new food, new cuisines, new kitchen equipment, new techniques, or wherever your creativity takes you. Use the hashtag #minimofo to share your adventures, and we’ll put together a round-up post at the end of the month.

Stay tuned for more on this month’s blogger spotlights and Vegan In posts, too!

We’re so excited to share another year of vegan food and friendship with you.

The VeganMoFo 2016 Survey

The VeganMoFo 2016 Survey

Thank you all for participating, commenting, liking, and sharing posts this past November! We love seeing your creativity and we’re so glad to see the vegan community grow stronger as well as larger.

We want to keep growing and improving VeganMoFo, too – and we need your input to do it! Please take a few moments to fill out this 10 question survey and let us know what you think about things we’re doing well, things we could do better, and new features you’d like to see added. You can also place your vote for which month VeganMoFo 2017 should be!

We’d like feedback from anyone and everyone! If you didn’t participate in VeganMoFo but follow us on social media, if you officially or unofficially participated, or something else. It’s all good! We are interested in any and all ideas and perspectives.

As a thank you, we will randomly select one respondent to win a cookbook of your choice. This prize is open internationally. If you are under 18, we’ll need your parents permission to mail you the prize. You can choose any in-print vegan cookbook, not just the ones pictured here.

The survey is open from now until 6pm EST on Sunday, December 18th. A winner, as well as the month for VeganMoFo 2017, will be announced on January, 1st 2017.

Thank you again for making VeganMoFo such a special and awesome part of the vegan community!

Week Three Round Up 2016

Week Three Round Up 2016

 @HappyLittleLunch

Week three was all about ROYGBIV, and boy did you get creative!

 

Monday, November 14th: Monochrome

@pepajobo
If you’re going to go monochrome, purple is a lovely way to do it!

@clare.burgess
And this all green sandwich has such a serene (and most certainly beautiful) quality, doesn’t it?

@myzoetropeeats
This Raspberry Chia Jam is so lovely I want it as a paint color. (And also in my mouth! The jam. Not the paint.)

 

Tuesday, November 15th: Multicolor

@danielle.marie.atkins
I will go to any cookout where there are rainbow veggie kebabs. Invite me, I will show up. Let’s make this happen.

theveganfoodnerd
Pizza is always an excellent opportunity to get in all the colors you can!

@sophigramme
It may not have ALL the colors, but I love the care and style in presentation of this delicious Broccoli “Cheddar” Soup!

 

Wednesday, November 16th: Complementary Colors 

@veggiessavetheday
There is so much going on here! The beautiful contrast of red on green – and there must be a lot of interesting flavor and textural contrast too.

Plant Based Living
The orange and green in this looks so bright and inviting. And this vegan vegetable scampi sounds absolutely delicious!

@lisarturner
These homemade vegan gumdrops look like such a special treat. And those colors!

 

Thursday, November 17th: A Rare Color

My Apologies for the Novel
Maybe we’d all be happier if we had cheery yellow dinners like this more often!

@whoawren
Lauren didn’t identify any of the colors here as rare, but savory waffles certainly are… by the looks of this they shouldn’t be.

@degroenekeuken
Who cares what color it is, these mushroom and caramelized onion burgers look ah-MAZE-ing!

 

Friday, November 18th: Greyscale

Deer Run B&B
How amazing do these black and white aquafaba meringues look!? I am blown away!

@dauliflower
Danielle has done an excellent job of highlighting the universal appeal that is a vegan donut.

justbloggs
We would be remiss not to enjoy some lovely, and naturally B&W sushi!sushi-bw1

 

Saturday, November 19th: Goth Day

@veganistamama
I love the commitment to goth in these tamales: black beans, blue cornmeal, and blueberry mole.

@rubbercowgirl
This purple and blue curry is seriously moody and darkly beautiful.

@nicolearciello
I feel like there is something inherently goth about coffee, and these Coffee Chip Cookies fill the depths of my dark, cold, soul with a tiny flame of happiness. Or something. Whatever.

 

Sunday, November 20th: It’s Easy Being Green

@emmholmess
Green + smoothie bowl? It was meant to be. Em does an amazing job with this one!

Chunky on Chia
Raw Chocolate Mint Ice Cream Cake? Uh, YES.IMG_20160310_093954

@tessalita
Kale chips! Because, vegan. (Also because delicious.)

Now we’re getting all ready for the holidays in Week 4! Food memories and traditions are on deck!

Introducing #MiniMoFo

Introducing #MiniMoFo

minimofo

If you’re like us and November can’t get here soon enough, then we have something exciting in store for you. Throughout the rest of September and October, we will be issuing three MiniMoFo challenges – these voluntary missions will get your VeganMoFo wheels turning and get us all ready for the big event!

How it works:

  • We’ll share a challenge, you’ll have two weeks to make and share a dish using the #MiniMoFo tag on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or comment here with a link to your blog. That’s it!
  • We’ll feature your signature dishes as we go and do a round-up at the end of each challenge.
  • You don’t have to do the MiniMoFo challenges to participate in VeganMoFo.
  • You can participate in MiniMoFo and not in the full month.
  • No sign-ups are required!

Challenge 1: What is your signature dish?
September 13 – 27

Interpret the challenge prompt any way you like! What would “You on a plate” be like? What is your best dish? Make something with food that has your initials!

Don’t forget to use the #MiniMoFo tag when sharing your creation!