The restaurant: WaterCourse Foods
837 E. 17th Street
Denver, CO 80218
(303) 832-7313
www.watercoursefoods.com
You can view their full menu, hours, and locations on their website. If I convince you to try it out, please note they are doing renovations and will be closed May 30th at 8pm until June 2 at 3 pm.
The verdict: I don't even know where to begin. The location is beautiful. Their restaurant is small-ish but comfortable with a laid-back atmosphere. The servers were friendly and fast. But the true highlight is the menu/food. This restaurant is technically vegetarian, however it is very vegan-friendly. They serve breakfast, lunch and dinner 7 days a week. As an added bonus...your wallet wont feel significantly lighter after you leave ; )
NOTE: I'm sorry I don't have pictures, I didn't plan well...but just trust that the presentation was as wonderful as the taste.
Amanda and I had a tough time making a decision on what to order, but we decided to split an appetizer and an entree. The vegan options were vast, but we finally decided on the Sweet Chili Egg Rolls made of tofu, cabbage, portobello mushrooms, carrot, and green onion; all in a vegan wrapper and served with a sweet chili mango sauce. Drool. The egg rolls tasted just like the ones I'm used to...except fresher and the outside wrapper was better than the regular kind. The sauce was absolutely to-die-for...I must recreate it!
Our entree was recommended by our waitress (conveniently a vegan!). She suggestes the Sweet Potato and Black Bean Tacos and we gladly went with her choice. We also added tempeh for 50 cents (!) extra. The dish consisted of three tacos, each with 2 soft corn tortillas, plus pico de gallo and guac on the side. Besides the obvious (sweet potato, black beans, and tempeh), the filling had bell peppers, onion, and an extremely flavorful cilantro lime slaw. I asked Amanda if she was missing meat, sour cream, or cheese, and she said "not at all".
Our meal was very filling so unfortunately we didn't get to indulge in one of their desserts (they also have a bakery AND a coffee shop/bar located only blocks from the restaurant) or a vegan milkshake (yummm). I look forward to returning and trying out more of their wonderful vegan eats and I would strongly encourage you to visit if you're in Denver.
You could even make a fun night out of it and go see Forks Over Knives (a documentary about veganism) in Denver as well! (I have yet to see the movie but I look forward to doing so...)
Sorry if that made your stomach growl. Here's a recipe you can whip up for dinner if you can't make it to Denver...
No slimy tabbouleh for you! This version is just the way I believe tabbouleh should be: light but satisfying with a punch of pepper and parsley. Yummyyy.
The first time I had tabbouleh was in Georgia last summer...as soon as the recipe popped up on OSG...I knew I had to try it for myself. Unfortunately that version didn't work out for me. I taste tested Whole Food's version and decided to make a few changes.
This turned out absolutely fantastic.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!