Seattle VegFest: The Food
While in Seattle, we were so excited to hop into an Uber yesterday morning and head over to Seattle VegFest. The spring sunshiny weather was absolutely stunning and Seattle’s VegFest was just as impressive.
We paid $12/person at the door, visited every booth in the packed exhibition hall, and ate every single (gluten-free) vegan sample we could get our hands-on.
Just when we thought our two-hour veggie lunch was over, we looked at the clock and saw that we had actually spent nearly SIX hours eating at this event.
We enjoyed juice samplings as well as a taste of a Cookie Dough bar. They were delish.
We are so grateful for Urban Greens and Mama In the Raw’s tasty food.
And I want to tell you about this dear QuiCurry entrepreneur, who has worked so hard to create this brand new masala curry mix, which can help support a healthier world. She is the kindest soul.
A versatile product, plant-based cooks can use water (no oil) and add plant-based ingredients (not animal). It’s understandable that this versatile product is not yet certified GF, but give it time!
Nomad Food Co blew us away with their Cilantro + Lime Hummus and their Baba Ghanouj Hummus. If you can believe it, there was no added oil. We hope they didn’t notice that we went back for seconds, possibly thirds. I look forward to the day when ingredients everywhere are certified organic and packaged plastic-free, but we know it’s a process, so we’re grateful they use reusable packaging (not single-use).
It was such a delight to discover that the men manning the Celest Cafe booth personally understood celiac disease and are providing a healthy menu that can feed just about anybody. Theirs is a 100% dedicated gluten-free kitchen, they use 100% organic produce, they make 100% plant-based food which is also soy-free. When you see this much enthusiasm and kindness from others, you want to find ways to support them.
Where do I start with the TOCHA tea booth? We learned that they use certified organic ingredients, biodegradable/recyclable packaging, and support clean water projects that help prevent children from dying. This means no mysterious “natural flavorings” in their product. As someone who reacts allergically to mysterious ingredients, it was wonderful to learn about their organic tea.
A certain someone also tasted Blue Lotus Chai, as chai is one of his favorite beverages. He loved every single flavor he tasted. Most importantly, Blue Lotus Chai is organic and Blue Lotus Chai can be purchased in reusable tins. Meaning, there is no sachet involved in Blue Lotus Chai. Just a little scoop of powder to mix with hot water. It doesn’t get any easier or any more ecological than that.
We were so happy to see delicious Crofter’s Organic gluten-free, vegan, and sugar-free fruit spread in glass jars. Yes, it’s organic. It’s gluten-free. It’s vegan. And it’s sugar-free! If grocers do not yet have this, I would immediately request it. You would never know the sugar is missing! (This brand also makes products with sugar, so one must ask for their sugar-free organic spread).
We also learned about Namaste Foods’ gluten-free, vegan, and sugar-free Egg Replacer (for those who don’t like working with flax eggs), Pizza Crust Mix, and Macaroni and Cheez. A certain someone has a parent who loves to cook and bake with healthier ingredients, too, so we’re super excited to get these to her test kitchen, so she has easy things on hand to work with.
There are terrific plant-based recipes that call for just a tad maple syrup as a sweetener. So it was great to see these glass bottles and learn about Maple Valley Cooperative’s 100% organic maple syrup and the new maple syrup grading system.
We also bumped into Seattle Elderberry’s Organic Elderberry Syrup with Maple. And they’re also packaged in glass bottles! While I don’t have any experience at all using elderberry syrup, I now want to check out their products.
TIPs:
We arrived one hour after doors opened, which meant…
the ticket line was able to dissipate before we arrived, so we didn’t have to wait in line
we enjoyed generous samples and coupons (before the crowd caused the samples to shrink a bit later in the day)
we had time to make at least one round to every single booth
About 95% of the products were presented as vegan (but not necessarily certified).
About 95% of the products were presented as gluten-free (but not necessarily certified).
We know sugar and miscellaneous other ingredients not considered vegan (nor plant-based) might be found in these products, but we saw so much progress on this front that we found this entire event worth celebrating.