Review: Lunch at Annapurna Vegetarian Indian Restaurant

Oh, look. Another post about what I had for lunch today.

Today I ventured through the rain over to Annapurna Vegetarian Indian Restaurant. Interestingly enough, I've never been here even though it's only a few blocks from work. Why? Because under the previous management (and in the old location just a block down the street) the place was never open! How the heck to people expect to get customers when you're always closed at lunch or dinner times!? I mean, seriously. Well, all of that's fixed now. Annapurna's in a new location and is open! For reals.

Lunch was that stuff! A really wonderful lentil dahl soup, even better than at Sejuiced along with an egglplant dish, channa masala, rice and a spiced mixed vegetable and potato type of thing. I was also brought some vegan bread in a little basket. It was like naan with nothing on it. I'm on a cleanse so I couldn't eat the bread, but I bet it was just as good as the rest of this.

For lunch there's just the lunch buffet, but that's fine. It's $9.95 for all you can eat, and really, that's quite reasonable for Kitsilano. More than half of the buffet is vegan, which is really exciting. Everything tasted really fresh. No reheated frozen vegetables here. Each of the dishes had identifiable pieces of fresh chopped herbs in them, too. It's not often you see that and especially not in buffet items. Nothing was OMG the best ever, I must tweet this!, but it was really delicious. I'm definitely going to start adding Annapurna into my lunch rotations.

The restaurant was clean and the host/server was very polite and friendly. I really hope that people start to realize that this isn't the same Annapurna as before. I almost wish they had changed the name just so people would think it was a new restaurant. There was only one other table of people when I came in for lunch and that's just really too bad. I haven't been in for dinner, yet, but I don't live far so I'm definitely putting that on my to-do list. I took a peek at the dinner menu and there are so many items with a notation for being vegan. I love Indian food, so this is pretty rad. James and I are constantly at a loss of where to for dinner on nights we don't feel like cooking or just feel like going out.

So, if you live in Vancouver, go check out the new and improved Annapurna. If you don't do it for yourself, do it for me. I need more awesome places to eat lunch so I definitely want this place to succeed.

Holy shamoly.  I just went to their website to link them and I noticed they have delivery.  Oh, man.

Samosas!

I've been trying not to neglect the recipes in cookbooks that aren't brand new. Veganomicon swooped in and took all of my attention. There are just so many awesome things to make! And even though I've made at least half (if not more) of the recipes in Vegan with a Vengeance, there are still some that I've been wanting to try. Recipes like these samosas! Potato-Edamame Samosas to be exact.

I didn't use edamame, though. I didn't have any and I did have some frozen peas just chilling out in the freezer. (Get it... chilling out? See, it's funny because...) I also had some mango chutney that I'd bought and needed to use so I didn't make my own. That's okay, though. I think I would have regretted it if I had. Not that I think it would have tasted bad or anything. Just these samosas were a hell of a lot of work. It took me like 3 hours to make them. I was exhausted by the time I put them in the oven.

I did find them utterly delicious. It's a nice alternative to fried samosas. And hey - they heat up rather nicely if you want to eat them for lunch the next day! Just beware of the nuclear potato heat in the center if you microwave them. Cut them in half first or something.

Make these when you have some time on the weekend, definitely not on a work night or when you're pressed for time. They're quite yummy, just time consuming.

Cauliflower All Done Up Indian Style

Sometimes you see something out there in blogland and you immediately know that you want to make it. This is one of those. Another one is Bazu & Daiku's pecan pie, which I'm going to make this weekend with a bit of a twist.

Mahanandi's Gobi Kasuri Methi with Golden Raisins just sounded soooo good. I just happened to have a head of cauliflower in my fridge that I was planning on cooking later in the day. I was overjoyed to see a yummy new recipe for my "white broccoli" (as Roman calls it). I had to leave out the raisins, unfortunately, because I can't have any dried fruits on my cleanse. (too much sugar). I looked in a few markets and couldn't find any of the kasuri methi (sundried fenugreek leaves), but I'm not going to give up. This still came nicely, but I bet the extra flavors would have made it even better.

I wasn't quite sure of the ingredient measurements, so I guessed. The next day there was a new blog post using the same recipe, but adding potatoes (aloo). Yum! I'm going to try it that way once I can get my hands on the kasuri methi. I also used canned tomatoes instead of fresh. I just have issue with buying those nasty cardboard-like tomatoes in the winter time. It seems so unnatural.

I ended up adding some fenugreek seeds instead of the fenugreek leaves, but that wasn't really the best idea. I brought this for lunch yesterday and today and today it was slightly bitter because of the seeds. So don't do that if you're tempted.

I don't really know what to call this, since I didn't add two of the ingredients in the name and I can't very well just call this "cauliflower" now can I?

Indian Cauliflower Yumminess

2 Tablespoons peanut oil
4 cloves slivered garlic
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 red onion, chopped
2 cans chopped tomatoes
1 head cauliflower, chopped into florets
1/4 cup grated coconut
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon chile powder

In a large pot over medium heat, warm the peanut oil. Once it's hot, add the garlic, cumin and mustard seeds. Cook for 3-4 minutes, being careful not to burn the garlic.

Add the onion, tomatoes and cauliflower and simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in the coconut, turmeric, salt and chile powder and simmer for another 10 minutes or so.

Serve over basmati rice. This makes 4-5 servings.