Eat Your Words This Earth Day

Earth Day is coming up this week, and one of the most impactful ways to celebrate is to try eating vegan for the day. Luckily, eating vegan is getting easier and tastier all of the time. I’ve highlighted a few of my go-to vegan friendly spots in and around Chicago’s South Loop neighborhood below, all of which are very accommodating of the gluten-challenged (like myself). Whether or not you are vegan, these restaurants are a must-try if you live in or are visiting Chicago.

Yvolina’s Tamales and Grocery

Located in Pilsen, Yvolina’s offers meat-filled, vegetarian, and vegan tamales. They are set apart by the fact that they use olive oil (rather than lard) in their dough and wrap their tamales in aromatic banana leaves (rather than corn husks). The tamal dinners come with rice and beans, with everything being served on the banana leaf that was used to steam your tamal. It’s equally beautiful and tasty, and it feels so special every single time I eat it. The cherry on top is the mole, which won the local Mole de Mayo Festival's mole competition.

Yvolina's offers a variety of mole flavors. I would love to try them all, but I simply can’t pass up the opportunity to have their red mole every time I go. It just might be the best thing ever. They sell it by the jar, and I gave one to all of my family members last Christmas.

What we order:

Rick loves their lentil and quinoa tamal dinner with red mole. My go-to is the kale tamal dinner with red mole and a kale lemonade. Go early if you can, because they are a popular place and they do run out of vegan flavors sometimes. I usually call ahead to see what flavors are available that day and then I walk over to place my order.

Veggie House Chicago

Veggie House is located in the Chinatown Square Plaza and is the newest restaurant on this list. They offer both vegan and vegetarian dishes. I started grabbing lunch here last fall because it was convenient to my workplace and is always spot-on delicious. It quickly became a major habit.

Their attention to detail is unmatched. They use high quality ingredients and they always get our special requests right, which is rare in my food pickup/delivery experience. What I love most about Veggie House are the variety of mushrooms on their menu: trumpet, lion's mane, shiitake, white, oyster, black, king. It is mushroom heaven!

What we order:

Rick orders their pistachio fried rice with no squash/zucchini and adds soy pork (yes, they always get the special order right!). I love their three cup sauce lion’s mane mushrooms, which comes with: bamboo, ginkgo, cinnamon, angelica, fried ginger, and three cup sauce. Several of those ingredients were new to me, and I’m so glad I took the chance on them. We usually share their orange tofu as a starter, and I like to get a fresh juice with the meal.

Majani South Loop

Majani is a fully vegan southern comfort food restaurant that focuses on local ingredients. They have three locations on Chicago’s South Side. According to their website, ‘Majani’ means ‘Green Leaf’ in Swahili.

Rick and I used to bike 18 miles roundtrip from our South Loop home base to their South Shore location, which is conveniently situated just past the southern end of the lakeshore trail. In fact, picking up Majani for dinner two years ago helped me convince Rick that vegan food can taste amazing, and now we are living the elevated vegan life together.

Luckily, they opened up a South Loop location this year that is just as good as their South Shore spot, but I think we will still bike down to the original location once it warms up so that we can really work up our appetites for the occasion.

What we order:

Rick always gets the black eyed pea fritters or a gyro. I usually get the dinner special (which always comes with lots of tasty sides) or their jerk tofu taco. I always order a side of collard greens and sorrel lemonade for the both of us.

Find me on instagram @britaplantbasedbruxa for more tips on incorporating plant-based meals into your routine. Try eating plant-based for your health, the animals, or the planet. Whatever your motivation, it is all connected, and we all benefit when one person tries to do better!