PDX Eats | Vegan Brunch at TeSóAria

June 12, 2016 by Lindsay Ingalls Leave a Comment

I absolutely love a nice glass of wine and if you pair that with vegan eats I’ll likely be your best friend. So, when I was invited to TeSóAria for their vegan brunch I just couldn’t say no. I didn’t know anything about TeSóAria before my visit besides that they have a tasting room in North Portland and the vineyard is in Roseburg.

I arrived at the tasting room and was instantly impressed by the space. It’s bright and inviting and has these big beautiful windows that let in so much light and open during the summer. Can’t you just picture it sitting either at one of their outside tables or inside with the windows open and a nice glass of wine? Okay, so basically I am planning Neil and my next date night.

Anyways I found my seat and took a look at the menu which feature four courses with two wine pairings for each course. We settled in with a bit of wine to start and of course I can’t remember what it was but it was white, crisp, slightly sweet and a great way to start the brunch.

Once everyone had arrived it was (finally) time to start eating and drinking! Founder and Winemaker, John Olson, started us off with a nice welcome and then got right into explaining the wines he had chosen for our first course. Since I know very little about wine, basically I know what I like when I taste it, it was nice to hear the back story of each wine and John did an amazing job of making it fun and interesting while also informative. John explained each pour of wine at the start of each course and I felt like I left knowing so much more about wine.

Now we will get into the food because let’s be honest I might not be a wine connoisseur but I do know vegan food.

Then it was time for our first course which was this beautiful salad. I have to say I was a bit skeptical because I’m just not one of those people who likes fruit in my salad but the roasted apricot vinaigrette was actually pretty amazing. My only gripe with this dish is that it was a bit over dressed but if it had about half of the vinaigrette on it (or twice the greens) I would definitely order this again because it tasted amazing.

Next up we have this beautiful dish that features peppers stuffed with cashew cheese and a tabbouleh. I know you’re thinking cashew cheese?!? Yes it was as good as it sounds. This dish was easily one of the top favorites at our table and I have to agree.

Our last savory dish was a cassoulet featuring a variety of beans and mushrooms, grilled fava beans and a chickpea crouton. I thought that the flavor of this dish was spot on but it honestly was my least favorite (but still incredibly flavorful and delicious) of everything we ate. I love the beans and mushrooms but I’m not big on fava beans that are still in the pod, they have a bit of a strange mouth feel and are a bit tough to eat. The chickpea crouton was good but I think with all that beautiful broth hanging out at the bottom of my bowl I would have loved a bigger crouton to sop it all up or a nice piece of bread.

The last course we had was this incredible rosemary shortcake. I could have eaten five plates (or more) of this because it was just amazing. It was sweet and savory and a little bit tart. I just couldn’t get enough and if I had been at home I would have licked the plate.

Overall I had an amazing experience and I hope they host this event again because I would love to do it again. The food was really great and the wine was incredible. It isn’t often that you find an amazing wine bar that also has really delicious and fun vegan options.

I also am looking forward to trying TeSóAria’s Vegan Thursdays, called “Shut Up and Eat Your Vegetables!” starting this coming Thursday, June 16th from 5pm on at The Portland Tasting Room.

Every Thursday, Chef Max will have a Seasonal Vegan Tapas Menu available to pair with our award winning Wines! Vegan Tapenade, Mezze Boards, Samosa’s, and more, priced $4 to $12. Available every Thursday starting at 5pm.

What is your favorite wine? Which of the four courses do you think you would enjoy the most?

Check out these other bloggers thoughts on this wonderful brunch!

Pechluck’s Food Adventures

Run, Coach, Rewind

September 15, 2011 by Lindsay Ingalls 1 Comment

Today has been a busy day between blogging and freelance work this morning and then I headed my day job where I started my day with a mug of this delicious tea.

Shortly after getting to work I was ready for a snack so I broke out my homemade trail mix. In the mix there is raw cashews, almonds, pistachios, tamari-wasasbi almonds, fruit sweetened cranberries, raw pumpkin seeds and mulberries- such a good combination.

Lunch was leftovers from dinner chickpea chili in a wrap, a quick and easy way to transition dinner to an easy lunch. I love wrapping leftovers in a tortilla.

My work day ended and I head straight to the gym to get out 2.5 Miles for Ashley right on track for my half marathon training plan. After my run I stretched and foam rolled, holy hell I haven’t foam rolled in awhile and the foam roller was having a love-hate relationship with my IT band. Reminder to self: FOAM ROLL MORE!

Following my gym sesh I had a health coaching sesh which went really well. I have great clients and I love working with them.

Now it’s time to relax a.k.a. work on the couch for a bit while I ice my knees and enjoy a glass of vino.

REWIND

Anniversary Dinner:
Tuesday was Neil and I’s 5 Anniversary since we got together. We have been married for 3 years and we don’t usually celebrate our dating anniversary but since it was 5 years it was a big deal and the Hubz decided to surprise me with dinner at a new restaurant, The Bobcat Cafe.

Neil called, checked on vegan options and made a reservation (big deal he never does this) and I swooned. Then we enjoyed an amazing dinner:

Started the Night with a Beer- Bobcat Cafe is also a brewery!

Then we started with the Black Bean Gazpacho and...

a Green Salad with an amazing Roasted Corn and Basil Dressing

The star of the show was the 5-Spiced Tofu A-M-A-Z-I-N-G

Overall Bobcat Cafe was amazing. The food was incredible, the service was great and the beer was good. The atmosphere was a mixture of classy restaurant and a pub- which made for a wonderful place to eat.

Q. If you’re married to you celebrate your dating anniversary?

Weekend Wrap Up

January 24, 2011 by Lindsay Ingalls 6 Comments

This weekend was freezing in Vermont so the Hubz and I spent more of our weekend inside working on a number of projects. I am happy to say that I was able to organize the closets in our bedroom and purge a number of items that we had been holding on to for too long. I also attempted to work on organizing our office but I think I just made a bigger mess. We are in need of some major organizational materials and have visions of how we want things to look but until we head south and by south I mean to NYC and Connecticut where there is better shopping (Ikea and Target) we will just have to make do. Who knew we were such pack rats?

As for food this weekend I spent a lot of time working on recipes from Veganomicon for the Vegan Cookbook Club. On Friday night I made Sauteed Seitan with Mushrooms and Spinach; I was lazy and decided to just purchase pre-made seitan to save me time. Overall I thought the dish was really good but I’m not going to giveaway all my thoughts here you’ll just have to wait for my full review of Veganomicon. For the remainder of the night the Hubz and I just relaxed enjoyed an Ottercreek Black IPA and attempted to watch Dinner for Schmucks but we just couldn’t get into it; it really just wasn’t as funny as I hopped it was going to be.

Saturday was spent making a mess of the office while drinking coffee and watching The Real Housewives of Atlanta. Unfortunately for the Hubz my way of organizing is to make a huge mess and then clean it up so the state of our office is in disarray right now- however the closet in there is amazingly organized so WIN! We are heading to NYC and CT in a few weeks and will be hitting up Ikea and Target for some items to help in our organizational project but I should probably make one last effort to at least get that room orderly. The second half of Saturday was spent getting lattes, groceries and gas- exciting I know. I didn’t photograph dinner and I can’t remember what we had so it must not have been that exciting. I did make the Lower Fat Banana Bread (muffins) from Veganomicon though and they were tasty. I added chopped up dates to them and they were so good.

Sunday I was up early and ready to tackle the closets in our bedroom but first a mini french press of coffee and a two banana bread muffins. Then I was on to organize and purge items in our closets, as well as take over the walk-in closet which the Hubz ended up with some how when we moved in. I never realized how much I could get a workout just from cleaning and organizing our bedroom; by lunch I was sweaty (TMI) and had worked up an appetite. Lunch was a pasta dish per the Hubz request and included chickpeas and spinach in a creamy garlic sauce. I tried out my sample of Jovial Brown Rice Pasta, it was pretty good for gluten free pasta, but I prefer the Jovial Whole Wheat Penne.

After spending most of the weekend doing our own thing or sitting behind our computer screens the Hubz and I decided we needed a date night. Instead of spending money to go out we decided to stay in and enjoy a bottle of wine and a home cooked meal; we even showered and got dressed (I’d been in yoga pants all weekend). For dinner I made the Chickpea Cutlets with Mustard Sauce from Veganomicon with roasted butternut squash and cornbread stuffing on the side. I thought both the cutlets and the sauce were really tasty however I have a few criticisms regarding the wording of the recipes and the fact that in the directions for the sauce it left out a step that included major ingredients; again you’ll here more about this in my final review of Veganomicon.

Now it’s Monday morning and I am sitting back enjoying a mug of coffee and blogging. I started out my morning with a bowl of creamy oats with a spoonful of pumpkin butter and a little cranberry cinnamon granola on top for crunch. I picked up this Sticky Fingers Bakeries pumpkin butter from Marshall’s on sale and it is really amazingly good on oatmeal. Alright that is my weekend wrap up now it’s time to get ready for my work week. Enjoy your day!

Reminder: Check out the Fiery Vegan Valentine Contest.

From Farm to Table

August 12, 2010 by Lindsay Ingalls 5 Comments

Yesterday was busy with meetings, appointments, CSA pickups and lots of organizing before our first guests visit our new home. Since it was going to be a busy day the Hubz stopped and picked up iced coffees for us after his trip to the gym.

We used our GlassDharma Straws to sip them with

After our whirlwind day we finally sat down to a meal that was filled with delicious items from our CSA. In our CSA this week we received 2 lbs Red Beets; 2 lbs Onions; 1 Bunch Kale; 1 Bunch of Thyme; 1.5 lb Beefsteak or Heirloom Tomatoes; 1 Bag Spicy Brassica Mix; 6 ears of Sweet Corn; 1 Qt Frozen Winter Squash Puree. Last night I used half the kale to make baked kale chips, 2 corn on the cob for baked corn and 1 tomato for our pita pizzas.

The kale was tossed with 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil, 1/2 tablespoon nutritional yeast, salt, pepper and a dash of cayenne and baked at 425F for about 7 minutes; just until it began to crisp up. The corn was removed from it’s husk and rubbed down with a little Earth Balance and then sprinkled with nutritional yeast, salt, and pepper and rolled up in aluminum foil and baked at 425F for 15minutes. The little pita pizzas had a slice of vegan cheese of half of a pita with a leftover bean&rice burger, tomato and quarter of an avocado.

After dinner I caught up with my BFF for awhile over skype since we hadn’t talked via phone/skype in over a month and then I decided that it would be a great time to try out the Ravi Wine Chiller. I learned something new last night that red wine is often served too warm! I was unsure about the Ravi Wine Chiller at first thinking that maybe it would make my red wine too cold but it was perfect! It has a great little valve on the side that the more your thumb is over it the slower the wine pours out and the colder it gets; so for red wine you just let it run through the chiller and it brings it to a proper temperature without making it cold.

Q: What is your favorite type of wine to drink? or do you enjoy wine?

P.S. From now until August 16th you can save 25% of your total purchase when you use coupon code EXCITE25; this a one time use only so make sure to check out other items on my OpenSky shop as well as others shops before checking out!

Disclaimer: Ravi provided me with a free sample of this product to review, and I was under no obligation to review it if I so chose. Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review or sponsor a product giveaway in return for the free product.

Naturally Lindsay

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