Vegan Vacation: Boulder, CO II

Is it Monday already? Geesh, the weekend went fast! It was The Husband’s birthday on Friday so I planned a weekend trip to Boulder for us. After an online search, I found two restaurants that we hadn’t eaten at before and quickly made reservations.

Black Cat

Black Cat is an all-organic, farm-to-table bistro that offers a vegetarian/vegan 5 or 7 course tasting menu. They had me at vegan. I immediately booked the reservation on Open Table and specified that we were interested in the 5-course vegan tasting. Black Cat is located at 1964 13th St., just off of Pearl St.—a great location. We had no idea what to expect, but judging from various online recommendations, it promised to be a great dining experience.

The cozy restaurant also features a bar and you have a full-view of the kitchen as well. Unlike many restaurant kitchens, it didn’t emit loud noises from the chefs yelling at one another, or dishes and pots clanging together—the kitchen staff seemed to have everything down to a science. It was enjoyable to watch. We were then greeted by our server (and fellow-vegan) who (thanks to our vegan-note on Open Table) requested to be our server for the night. Her name is Zina, (Warrior Vegan Princess, as I think of her) and whether you are vegan or not, make sure you request this lovely, engaging and delightful server who showed such a genuine interest in us and our experience in the restaurant.  Of course, the rest of the staff were just as friendly–you can’t go wrong! We learned from Zina that 80% of the food comes from Black Cat’s organic farm in Niwot, CO—just a few miles from Boulder. The owner and chef, Eric Skokan, even offers tours of the farm, something I’d love to take advantage of. He also was a vegetarian/vegan chef for about 6 years prior to opening Black Cat, so we were in good hands. Zina said that everything that comes out of the kitchen is made with such care and tastes as if they made it just for you. She was right. With that in mind, we also had no idea what to expect, as the menu is constantly changing. So as planned, we ordered the 5-course (plus dessert) vegan tasting. The Husband and I figured we’d spend the dinner chatting about life while lovingly staring into one another’s eyes (which we did a couple of times), but instead, we could only talk about the food!

Carrot soup made with coconut milk, spices, and topped with green onion.

I could have eaten this soup the entire night and been happy. It was absolutely delicious; like vegetable velvet. I’ve never made carrot soup before, let alone eaten it before, and I certainly plan on trying my best to replicate this soup.

Arugula-fennel salad with grapefruit, pickled beets and pistachios

This salad literally tasted as if it had just come off the farm truck, washed and arranged on the plate. The freshness of it was unlike any salad I’ve ever had before.

Tempura mushrooms (I believe shiitake) in a kombu broth with green onions

Absolutely outstanding. I’ve never had anything remotely resembling this dish before and was instantly smitten. Full of flavor!

Roasted cauliflower with carrot puree, asparagus puree, and radish flowers

The Husband swooned when he saw this dish; he loves cauliflower. If you’re wondering what a radish flower is, it’s those long green spear things—the shoots of the radish. They have that spicy radish taste and ideal for salads. The purees were the perfect accompaniment to the cauliflower.

Risotto in a tomato-based sauce with arugula, English peas, flowers and fresh herbs

This was one of my favorites. I love risotto and like the previous dishes, this tasted incredibly fresh and full of flavor. I had to refrain from licking the bowl.

The palate cleanser: Passion fruit-pineapple with coconut sorbet

Awesome.

Strawberries and kiwis with a strawberry-rhubarb puree over a lemon sorbet, topped with fresh mint

For the final dish of the night, we received this amazing dessert. Those little tiny strawberries on top came from the farm that day. It was the perfect end to a perfect dinner. In fact, we both agreed that in all honesty, this was the best dining experience we’ve ever had. Between the food, service and atmosphere, it is our favorite restaurant to date. It was hugs all around with Zina with an invite to come visit us for vegan eats up here in Fort Collins. You can visit Zina, a yoga goddess, at Zina Diva Yoga.

Dushanbe Tea House

We always make time to stop at this popular local favorite. It’s usually pretty darn busy, so be prepared to wait, but it’ well-worth it. The Dushanbe Tea House offers breakfast, lunch and dinner, but we have only ever eaten breakfast there. In fact, it’s just a great way to start the morning, particularly because of their vast tea menu. It’s located at 13th and Canyon, just down the street from Black Cat. We ate from the brunch menu which states that not all available ingredients are listed on the menu, so ask your server for specific ingredients, like tofu. There are a few vegan and vegetarian options so I went with the Szechuan Tofu Scramble with red onion, peppers, broccoli, Szechuan sauce served with rice. I forgot to ask for no won-tons, as they most likely contain egg, but I just pushed them to the side.

This was so delicious! The Husband went vegetarian with the Indian Masala Dosa, a cumin and fennel crepe filled with curried potatoes, cauliflower, onions, tomato, peas and dahl with raisin chutney, cucumber yoghurt and an onion fritter.

The tea house is such a visual treat as well with it’s hand-carved and hand-painted ceilings. If anything, drop in for some tea and enjoy the views.

We spent the day walking Pearl Street, browsing the shops and people watching. We didn’t want to fill up too much before dinner, so we stopped at Paradise Bakery and Cafe where we split the Paradise Vegetarian, a sandwich loaded with roasted red peppers, lettuce, tomato, cucumber and guacamole. I took the cheese off my portion. It was quite good and hit the spot.

Leaf

For dinner the next night, I had made a reservation for Leaf Vegetarian Restaurant.

Much of the menu is also vegan. In fact, one night a week (I think it was Tuesday . . . can’t remember) is vegan pizza night. Soooo many of the menu items sounded incredible, including the vegan enchiladas.

The quaint restaurant has a fresh and airy atmosphere—loved it. I had my eye on those vegan enchiladas until our server tempted us with their Summer Solstice Menu. It happened to be the last night they were offering this 3-course menu and it looked to good too pass up. First up, they served us some homemade vegan foccacia bread. It was soft and delicious.

For the first course, I went with the Three Leaf Farm Salad with field greens, radishes, green apples, pecans, and a raspberry vinaigrette.

The Husband went with the other salad choice of grilled white Asparagus and vegetables, served with creme fraiche. He loved the asparagus.

For the main entree, I went with the Pistachio Tempeh with fingerling potatoes, broccolini in a red pepper saffron sauce with crispy apples. Outstanding! The tempeh had a horseradish-mustard flavor that was incredible. Paired with the potatoes, it was the best tempeh dish I’ve ever had.

The Husband went with the vegetarian option again with the Mushroom Strudel: wild mushrooms, risotto, leeks, greens wrapped in filo dough. It came with marinated tomatoes and a truffle garlic oil. Again, he loved it.

For dessert, I went with the grilled fruit served with soy pound cake croutons. I couldn’t have asked for a better dessert!

The Husband had the other dessert option: a vegan Almond Panacotta with almond extract and a basil strawberry coulis–another winner.

From start to finish, this meal was outstanding. I highly recommend Leaf Vegetarian Restaurant. As you can see, the presentation was amazing. The other dishes coming out of the kitchen were nothing short works of art. You could tell  a lot of care and pride went into the meals.

For our final day, we stopped at Whole Foods and spent a small fortune on food for a lakeside picnic. We decided to hit up Boulder Reservoir, a place we’ve never been.

It actually didn’t have a lot of grassy/tree areas for a picnic, but we managed to find a great spot along the shore under a tree. We packed our handy-dandy picnic basket . . .

. . . with lots of vegan goodies: crackers, seaweed crackers, and tortilla chips . . .

. . .and hummus, salsa, fruit, vegan cheddar spread, a wheat berry and quinoa waldorf salad, an edamame-orzo salad, and an edamame succotash.

So good!

Thanks for hanging in there with me for my vegan Boulder vacation!