U.S. restaurant equipment and supply sources
By Jay Lyon
©2007 Maiden Name Press LLC
Hear the word "vegetarian," and what comes to mind?
Forget the old notion of the sandal-wearing, tree-hugging hippie eating a dandelion salad out of a wooden bowl. Vegetarians are far more common today than chefs might think —and impossible to pick out from a crowd.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has reported that younger Americans are following vegetarian diets more than ever before. Some 20 percent of American college students report they follow a vegetarian diet, and the number of those following the stricter vegan diet is on the rise as well.
Today's vegetarian is knowledgeable, educated, and —most importantly for restaurants —looking for dining out options to meet their dietary needs.
In fact, more than 55 percent of Americans will occasionally order a vegetarian meal at a restaurant, according to the Vegetarian Research Group.
Why the change? Chefs say consumers are taking a hard look at how food is grown and cooked (as well as its effect on the environment).
"I have a 16-year-old and a 13-year-old who are more health-conscious when it comes to food than teenagers used to be," explains Tina Avila, co-owner of Casa Tina Mexican Grill in Dunedin, Fla. "Our kids see the impact of what we've created in the U.S. They are growing up more knowledgeable about the environment. As a result, they are making wiser choices when it comes to food."
Avila herself has been a vegetarian since 1990. When she and husband Javier were planning to open Casa Tina, they sought to address the challenges Tina faced trying to find vegetarian menu options when traveling.
The result is a Casa Tina's menu that's about 75 percent vegetarian. How do they do it?
"We start by making all of our rice and beans vegetarian from the start," Avila explains. "When we need to add beef or chicken to a dish, we can add the meat and some stock when we need to —never before. For people ordering vegetarian dishes, we add vegetable stock."
Among Casa Tina's vegetarian offerings is Los Dos Moles —soft tacos filled with diced, seasonal vegetables including corn, mushrooms, spinach, zucchini and chayote, then topped with two mole sauces. One is the traditional mole poblano made with Mexican chocolate, poblano chiles, raisins, almonds, sesame seeds, ginger and cloves.
The other, Mole Verde, contains roasted pumpkinseeds and sesame seeds mixed with onions, garlic, tomatillos, cilantro and a touch of jalapeño. "The verde gives a nutty, garlicy flavor," Avila explains.
Casa Tina's Chayotes Rellenos features a steamed chayote (a small, buttery-flavored squash). Avila scoops out the center "meat", fills the squash with a mixture of toasted almonds, onion, garlic, parsley and seasoned bread crumbs, and bakes it in a oven. The chayote is covered while baking to retain moisture, she notes.
Traditional dishes like refried beans are given a new take at Casa Tina's, too. Refried beans are usually re-cooked in lard (taking them out of the vegetarian category). Lard is traditionally used as a filler, allowing families to feed more people and stretch meals.
To compensate for the absence of lard, seasoning is critical, Avila explains. "You have to put enough spice in it so that it has a lot of flavor. We cook the beans with onions, garlic, salt, pepper, and cilantro, and then use a hand emulsion blender to get a similar consistency without using lard," Avila says.
The Avilas tweaked their recipes by using fresh vegetable stock and adjusting the spices to compensate for the absence of beef or chicken stock. The resulting food has more flavor, the Avilas say, because there's no filler and only natural flavor.
Eric Wright, executive chef at the three Cactus! restaurants in Seattle, Wash., agrees, adding that preparing vegetarian food isn't as easy as people might think.
"Old-school chefs typically had a disdainful view of vegetarian items, but all of that's changing," he comments. "An open-minded chef understands that creating vegetarian food that tastes good is a real
challenge."You can pay $15 for a very nice piece of salmon, and you don't have to do a thing to it but grill it. With vegetarian food, there's definitely more of a challenge. Making it taste good takes more ingenuity and creativity."
No matter what today's chefs think about vegetarian food, Wright says they had better get used to it.
"First of all, we see more vegetarians at our restaurants than we did before. Secondly, even people who aren't vegetarians are looking to eat less animal protein," he explains. "A lot of vegetarians are very discerning. They're more aware of what they are putting in their bodies."
Cactus! added one vegetarian item more than two years ago as a special during the winter months, Wright recalls. "It was a Roast Butternut Squash Enchilada, made with roasted squash, sautéed spinach, caramelized onions, jack and goat cheese in a mole rojo sauce, topped with guacamole.
"When we went to take it off the menu in the spring, there were howls of disapproval —and not just from vegetarians!"
Today, Cactus! sells an average of 100 of the Butternut Squash Enchiladas daily among its three locations. "More than 10 percent of our customers order that one item, making it what we call a 'home run' on the menu," Wright says.
The Cactus!' Chile Relleno —which hasn't been made with meat for years —is another popular vegetarian item on the menu. "We don't fry it anymore. Instead, we stuff the poblano with seasonal vegetables (currently, asparagus, artichoke hearts, roasted peppers, and chayote squash) and then we grill it."
Wright has included a vegetarian option for fajita-loving customers: a portabella-vegetable version served in a sizzling skillet with Spanish rice, cumin black beans, and caramelized onions. "The portabella mushroom is very meaty, and you can almost treat it like a steak," he says.
His Navajo Torta is an Indian fry bread layered with annatto beans, jack cheese, lettuce, guacamole, sour cream and pico de gallo.
In all, vegetarian dishes account for about 25 percent of the Cactus! menu, and Wright expects that percentage to rise. "We didn't consciously decide to add these items at any one time. We looked at the menu to see what we could improve on, and we saw an opportunity to take our vegetarian items more seriously, so we did," he explains.
Avila and Wright say margins on vegetarian dishes are comparable to those delivered by their other menu offerings.
"The margin on some dishes, like a traditional bean burrito, may be higher, but on a cactus salad with papaya and more expensive ingredients, the food cost is higher," Avila notes.
One interesting point about vegetarian dishes is that, while the margin per plate may be comparable to non-vegetarian items, food costs can improve with vegetarian options on the menu.
"Vegetables don't spoil nearly as quickly as meat or fish, so you're able to keep them longer," Wright says.
In the end, the fact that more diners are asking for health-conscious meals wins the day. "We've asked people for comments on our menus, and they've told us they are glad we're taking it seriously," Wright says. "It's not just the vegetarians, either —people are really taking health-conscious dining seriously today."
Avila says many restaurateurs do things backwards —they start with sauces, rice and beans that are already made with beef or chicken broth. "That way, they can never create a vegetarian dish," she notes.
"Lots of restaurants start with a bean that's already not vegetarian-friendly. "If you make your bases vegetarian from the beginning, then you can cater to everyone," she explains.
Education is im-portant for chefs thinking about ways to add vegetarian options to their menus.
"Read some vegetarian magazines," Avila advises. "A publication like Vegetarian Times often features lots of ethnic dishes. Vegetarians are very 'into' beans, so Mexi-can food lends itself perfectly to vegetarianism."
Once you've added vegetarian items, make sure you market them heavily. Casa Tina prominently says it serves "Mexican and Vegetarian Food," both on its menu and even on the restaurant's awning outside.
"We also advertise in local publications, the ones that are read by the younger population, because they are often the ones looking for flavorful food with the health benefits that vegetarian cuisine provides," Avila says.
One thing to remember in marketing vegetarian Mexican dishes is that there's a misconception that Mexican food is unhealthy. "Why do people think that? Because Americans shaped the way we eat Mexican food, meaning there is far more meat and cheese in your typical Mexican dish in the U.S. than there is in the authentic Mexican cuisine," notes Wright. "Authentic Mexican food is typically very healthy, actually. It's locally foraged, and doesn't have a lot of meat and cheese."
So, in a way, when chefs introduce more vegetarian items to their menus, they're essentially going back to basics.
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