Ordering vegetarian

Try these three for fine meatless fare

Stacee Sledge

Apr 10, 2003 — Whatcom County vegetarians have oodles of options for buying fresh produce, organic offerings and vegan items. Just wander the aisles of the Community Food Co-op and, increasingly, the more mainstream grocery stores.

But many area restaurants haven't been as quick to catch up to the health food trend. You can get a green salad most anywhere, of course, but imaginative vegetarian items aren't always available.

I asked my vegetarian friends to recommend their favorite eatery destinations. The most popular suggestions — aside from Colophon Café and Swan's Café, both of which I've touted often in this column — were India Grill, Pepper Sisters and Terra Organica Café.

India Grill

Included in the prestigious Best Places Northwest listing, India Grill serves traditional Eastern Indian cuisine with a menu that includes an extensive vegetarian section.

Indian food is all about exquisite spices: coriander, nutmeg, cinnamon, fennel, ginger, cumin, cloves, cardamom and a variety of peppers — all combined and roasted to create complex flavors.

Start with vegetable samosa, a crisp, flaky crust stuffed with spiced potatoes and peas or vegetable pakoras, fried vegetable fritters.

I've had only a limited experience with Indian food but have enjoyed it enough to know my favorite dish: matter paneer. A homemade Indian cheese cooked with fresh green peas and sauteed with a sauce of tomatoes, onion, garlic, ginger and other herbs, India Grill's version of matter paneer is served in a polished copper pot. Like the majority of India Grill dishes, it's accompanied by a heap of aromatic basmati rice on the side.

Vegetarian fare

India Grill Location: 1215 Cornwall Ave.  Phone: 714-0314 Hours: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday 12 to 3 p.m., Saturday and Sunday 4:30 to 9 p.m. daily  Serving: Authentic, vegetarian-friendly East Indian cuisine.  Menu items sampled:   Matter paneer $7.95  Aloo baingan $7.95  Nan $1.95   Terra Organica Café Location: 929-A N. State St.  Phone: 647-9270  Hours: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.  Serving: Vegetarian and organic offerings that range from smoothies and salads to ravioli and risotto.  Menu items sampled:   Sweet potato ravioli $8.32  Yogurt parfait $3.70  Tempeh sandwich $4.85  Spicy tuna sandwich $4.85   Pepper Sisters Location: 1055 N. State St.  Phone: 671-3414  Hours: 4:30 to 9 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday  Serving: Imaginative Southwest-style cuisine that won't induce guilt, only pleasure.  Menu items sampled:   Black bean burrito $6.75  Red chili pesto vegetable burrito $8.75

Another tasty vegetarian option at India Grill is aloo baingan, eggplant and potatoes cooked until tender with fresh tomatoes, a delicate blend of aromatic spices and a touch of ginger.

Two vegetarian rice dishes are also tempting. Peas pullao is a simple scrumptious dish of long grain basmati rice mixed with fresh peas. Vegetable biryani offers long grain basmati rice cooked with fresh vegetables and saffron, then embellished with exotic nuts.

And no Indian meal would be complete without nan, a splendid white flour flat bread traditionally made in a brick and clay tandoor oven and served hot with warm, clarified butter for dipping.

India Grill also serves a whole wheat bread, tandoori roti. And the white or wheat bread can be ordered stuffed with mildly spiced potatoes, called aloo paratha and keema nan, respectively. Onion kulcha — nan stuffed with spiced onions, is yet another tasty twist on the leavened bread.

Pepper Sisters

Peppers Sisters is a popular place for vegetarians and carnivores alike. Open for only a few hours each night (except Mondays, when they're closed altogether), the place is a favorite for many of my friends and always seems to be packed with patrons pining for their satisfying Southwestern cuisine.

Its menu is chock full of vegetarian-friendly fare, including side dishes of rice, posole, and beans. All vegan items are called out in the menu with a "no dairy" symbol. And if you dine at Pepper Sisters with a meat-eater, chicken and pork can be added to any entree for a nominal fee.

I always order the same dish at Pepper Sisters; I love its black bean burrito so much, I simply can't deviate.

Encased in either a whole wheat or flour tortilla, the black beans are flavorful and guilt-free. Adding additional zing is jack cheese, cooled down with silky sour cream. Topping it all off is a choice of red chili, green chili or ranchero sauce. My personal favorite is the mild ranchero. The plate is then finished with generous servings of rice and posole as well as a large helping of crisp cabbage salad covered with a dollop of creamy dressing and a few black olive slices.

My friend Kate enjoyed the red chili pesto vegetable burrito during a recent visit: crisp, baked burrito on a whole wheat or white flour tortilla with red chili pesto, sauteed mushrooms, grilled onions, green chilis and cheddar cheese. This dish can also be served with cilantro pesto in place of the red chili pesto and offers black beans and rice on the side.

Among many menu items that are worth your attention is the vegan grilled eggplant tostada, a crisp flour tortilla wrapped around black beans, smoked gouda, grilled eggplant, chipotle pico de gallo, lettuce, and herbed sour cream.

And each meal at Pepper Sisters is topped with its steamy hot sopaipilla, crisp, puffed pillows of pastry served with an exceptional honey butter.

Terra Organica Cafè

Terra Organica Café, just down the road from Pepper Sisters, is still finding its footing, but several visits have made me a fast fan. Opened under new management in December, the humble café offers smoothies, salads, pasta dishes, desserts and more.

My first lunch hour visit found me perusing its hand-written menu and chatting amiably with the employee behind the counter. After careful consideration of several tempting entrees — from rosemary red wine risotto to veggie crepes — I settled on the sweet potato ravioli. Four beautiful pillows of pumpkin pasta dough were brought to me a few minutes later, filled with a smooth mash of sweet potato and served with sage brown butter sauce. Garnished with three fresh sage leaves and a dusting of parmesan cheese, the dish was exceptional, flavorful and filling.

A variety of sandwiches are also available from a refrigerator case holding a bevy of beverages and an assortment of desserts.

In a handful of visits to Terra Organica, I sampled three different sandwiches: baked tempeh, spicy tuna and rye and cheddar.

Tempeh is a soybean cake made by fermenting cooked soybeans and forming them into a firm, dense chewy cake with a yeasty, nutty flavor. It may not sound appealing to most nonvegetarians, but this meat-eater is a fan. Terra Organica Café's baked tempeh sandwich is all organic, built of layers of tempeh, shredded carrot, tomato, lettuce, sprouts and vegan mayonnaise, resting between an Ezekiel sprouted grain bun.

For those vegetarians who eschews red meat but enjoy seafood, there's the spicy tuna sandwich, a dollop of tuna mixed with minced jalapeno, chili, lime juice and red and yellow bell, topped with sprouts, shredded carrot, spinach leaves, sandwiched between slices of Terra Organica Café's own lemon dill focaccia bread.

Its rye and cheddar sandwich is a mammoth affair, held together between great slabs of their own 100 percent rye bread, encasing a thick slice of cheddar cheese, mayonnaise, tomato, carrots, stone ground mustard and clover sprouts.

I also enjoyed a delightful yogurt parfait, made of gorgeous, deep purple blueberries mingled with layers of 100 percent whole milk yogurt and crumbly granola.

The tall container was a swirl of bright colors and equally bright flavors.

Whether you're a vegetarian in search of variety or a meat-eater looking to expand your eatery experiences, India Grill, Pepper Sisters and Terra Organica Café all offer meat-free meals you'll remember.