Red Lentil

On Monday, I had a wonderful evening out with a group of veg friends at Red Lentil in Watertown, MA.  It is an all vegetarian restaurant, with a menu full of vegan options (clearly labeled) as well as vegan-izable options (clearly explained).   My group consisted of four ovo-lacto-vegetarians and two vegans (myself included), and we were all very happy at the end of the night!

What follows is a rave review and a more photo-heavy post than I normally do, so enjoy!

The interior of Red Lentil (love the bright green color!)

We started with appetizers…

Sesame Encrusted Seitan Strips (with miso horseradish dipping sauce)

Gobi Manchurian

Grande Nachos (not vegan)

Then the entrees…

Vegan Shepherd’s pie

Salad with mango, avocado, and grapefruit (it was on the specials menu so I’m  not sure what else exactly was in/on it…vegan though, I think)

Mexican Pizza (not vegan)

Lasagne (also from the specials menu…not vegan)

Three Bean Burrito (not vegan)

And obviously, dessert!

Peach Almond Cake

Choco-Banana Cake

Carrot Cake (with one bite out of it…someone couldn’t wait!)

Whew!  I’ll start with the appetizers.  The Gobi Manchurian was awesome; I am sure that I could have eaten two plates of it by myself.  I also was a big fan of the seitan strips; the texture was dense and chewy, and I loved the complement of the scallions and especially the dipping sauce.  I didn’t eat the nachos but the others said they were pretty good.  (I think they all preferred the vegan appetizers though!)

Earlier in the day, I checked out the menu online, and when I read the description of the Shepherd’s Pie, my jaw dropped.  I knew I had to have it.  The other vegan in our party actually ended up ordering the same thing, and we both LOVED it.  Look at that picture.  No, seriously, scroll back up for a second and soak it in.  It was gorgeous.  And huge–I got two meals out of it!  But most importantly, it was delicious.  There were so many complex flavors and textures…I was in heaven.  It took alot of self-control to stop eating and save enough to take home for dinner the next day…

All of the desserts on the menu were vegan.  We decided on the three slices above to share around the table.  My favorite was the Peach Almond, second favorite was the Carrot Cake.  The Choco-banana one fell a little short of my expectations.  It seemed a little dry to me.  Also I think I just really, really liked Red Lentil’s  “cream cheese” icing, which topped both of the other slices.  Sorry for the less-than-stellar pictures of dessert…the table was so full of stuff by the time it arrived that photographing them was sort of awkward! 

I wish I lived closer to Red Lentil.  It is a little on the pricier side (for this little student’s budget) so maybe it’s good that I don’t.  I would really like to eat there again some time though!

A Lovely Evening

Sorry I’ve been MIA for a few days…I’m finally up in Boston and getting settled in!  I love it so much here already and I’m actually really excited about starting classes next week! 🙂

I wanted to post about a wonderful meal that I shared with E, J, and J’s girlfriend a few weeks back.  It consisted of the following:

Sauteed Seitan with Mushrooms and Spinach  and Fresh Rosemary Focaccia, both from Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero

Sunny Pineapple Yogurt Cake with Orange Glaze from Eat, Drink, & Be Vegan by Dreena Burton

I was so proud of making the focaccia; it was my first time making bread!  I used fresh rosemary from our neighbor’s garden and it was pretty good.  Eaten with olive oil, it was divine.  (And it smelled like heaven of course…I love rosemary!)

Focaccia

Seitan

The Whole Meal (this was the night after I made the tomato basil sauce shown in this post, so I served the leftover sauce–which was even better the second day after the flavors further melded overnight–with pasta.)

And of course, dessert!!

All in all, it was a fantastically fun night with some of my favorite people, and I was happy with the way the food turned out.  E especially loved the seitan dish, and J’s girlfriend was a big fan of the tomato basil sauce.  J liked the focaccia and I even got him to try a bite of seitan (he’s not a terribly brave eater normally). 

On a side note, I am happy to report that my stove in my apartment in Boston is highly satisfactory (though it gives off alot of heat!).  I spent most of today cooking up stuff to put in the freezer that I can eat throughout the semester.  And just for fun, I would like to share a photo from earlier this evening, when I baked Dreena’s Chocolate Chunk Spice Cookies (which I’ve made before and which I love intensely).  Here they are, pictured with a magical sign that was a gift from my mother, and that is highly appropriate and relevant to my life.