GreenFare Organic Cafe – a review

Eating out can be a challenging exercise for vegans.  That’s because the menus of most restaurants are filled with dishes that contain meat, dairy and eggs – with perhaps one (very lonely!) veggie-friendly option.  Fortunately, my husband and I have found that many chefs are willing to make substitutions upon request.  Sometimes chefs will happily prepare a special, off-menu dish to accommodate us.  But even in those cases our choices are limited, so we are thrilled to find restaurants that already offer a full selection of whole-food, plant-based nutrition.  Those kind of restaurants seem to be popping up regularly now.  But they are still relatively few and far between.  And therefore we were particularly happy to find one of them located practically in our own backyard.  Just a few miles down the road from us in northern Virginia, GreenFare Organic Cafe is an innovative restaurant that serves organic, plant-based food.  So we can eat everything on the menu at GreenFare.  It’s a rare treat.

Bright and Cozy

GreenFare is a cozy cafe featuring charming, farmhouse decor.  It’s tastefully decorated with wood-top tables, cloth napkins, and comfortable ladderback chairs.  The front window fills the restaurant with natural light, and a live potted plant decorates each table.  The walls are painted a rich, red color.  A rustic, country-style cabinet contains a tantalizing selection of food-related books and shabby-chic knickknacks.  Colorful canvases that feature the beguiling faces of farm animals serve as a beautiful reminder of the restaurant’s choice to be compassionate.

GreenFare is strategically situated in a strip mall that’s anchored by Mom’s Organic Market.  Mom’s is a regional chain that sells groceries that are healthy for both people and the environment.  It stands to reason that customers at Mom’s might enjoy GreenFare — and vice versa.  Smart.

The atmosphere in the restaurant is relaxed, and the restaurant aims to serve quality meals rather than rushing to put a plate on your table.  So when you come, be prepared to soak in the ambiance and savor your meal.  Chances are good that the restaurant’s friendly owner, Gwyn Whittaker, will stop by your table to chat for a bit while you wait for your food to arrive.

Meat-Free but Symbol-Rich Menu

The menu at GreenFare contains an interesting variety of meat-free meals.  The spring menu features a nice range of ethnic selections.  If you’re looking for an Italian selection, the menu offers Organic Spinach and Sweet Potato Lasagna or Organic Spinach Alfredo Pasta.  Into Oriental?  You might want to try the Organic Portobello Ginger Stir-fry Bowl or the Organic Thai Quinoa Bowl.  Want a Mexican meal?  You could opt for the Organic Southwestern Chipotle Bowl or the Organic Black Bean Enchilada.  You get the point:  there is something for everyone, and you can keep coming back without getting bored.

If you have food allergies or just certain preferences, GreenFare’s menu takes the guesswork out of deciding what ingredients might be included in each dish.  GreenFare’s menu excels in this regard, containing easy-to-spot symbols that indicate possible allergens like tree nuts, peanuts, wheat and soy.

SOS-Free Cooking

GreenFare proudly serves food that is prepared without adding salt, oil, or sugar (SOS) during preparation.  This SOS-free style of cooking is particularly beneficial for people who are suffering from high blood pressure, diabetes, or obesity — although it behooves all of us to pay attention to these components of our diets.  Many ready-to-eat foods that we buy in the grocery store are very high in salt, oil, and sugar — with the result that people have begun to expect their food to be excessively salty, sweet, and buttery.  Happily, our palates and expectations can be retrained. It doesn’t take long to notice that whole-food, plant-based nutrition is delicious when the natural flavors of grains and veggies are not excessively covered over by salt, oil, and sugar.

The SOS-free diet differs a bit from my own approach in the kitchen, as I do currently use limited amounts of all three of these components.  But I share GreenFare’s interest in preparing food that is as nutritious as possible.  I would never use refined, all-purpose flour, even in baked goods — for which whole wheat pastry flour is ideal.  White rice and bread do not have a home in my pantry, as they have been replaced by quinoa, brown rice, oats, and other whole grains.  You get the idea.

So, anyway, back to the SOS components.  Normally I use them as sparingly as possible, with a few notable exceptions (such as my vegan version of my mom’s fudge recipe, and I advise eating only tiny pieces of that particular treat).  In case you are wondering why I include these ingredients in my food, the culinary school that I attended taught me very specific uses for them.  Regarding salt, my instructors told me that its purpose is *not* to make food taste salty.  Rather, the purposes of a salt seasoning are to: 1) transform the veggies in a dish by opening cell walls;  and 2) blend flavors.  In some cases, the use of a salt seasoning, particularly miso, will add a noticeable depth of flavor to a dish.  The right amount of salt in a dish will intensify the flavor in a very subtle way.  When I was a chef in training, it took a lot of practice for me to reliably reach the precise point where I had added enough salt to blend the flavors but not too much.  And here’s a tip about where not to use salt; when cooking beans, don’t add it until they are completely soft.  Adding salt early is believed to toughen the beans and make them less digestible.  Instead, add a strip of kombu sea vegetable during cooking to reduce flatulence and help improve the digestibility of the beans.  If using canned beans, always buy the ones with a label that says “no salt added,” not just the ones that say “low sodium.”

As for oil, my instructors told me that the edges of all cut veggies need to be protected during cooking by sealing them in a very thin layer of oil.  For an oil-free method of cooking veggies, they taught me to “steep” an uncut veggie in a carefully determined amount of water.  Unlike boiling, in which a veggie’s nutrients (and taste!) are tossed away in excess cooking water, the steeping method results in complete absorption of the water into the veggie, thereby brightening its color and preserving its taste and nutrients.

Regarding sugar, I use maple syrup (which is unrefined and contains nutrients) when I need a liquid sweetener.  If I need a dry sweetener, I use only organic cane sugar.

Delicious and Nutritious

My husband and I have visited GreenFare several times, and we have always enjoyed the food we’ve been served.  The entrees and side dishes are packed full of veggies and generously flavored with herbs and spices.  They are also normally served with a broth-based or nut-based sauce that’s designed to carry the flavor and complement the veggies.  Often the dishes contain all three ingredients of a complete meal:  a protein source, a grain, and plenty of vegetables.  I feel better just looking at the vibrant colors and variety of textures in the GreenFare dishes!

On our most recent visit, my husband and I particularly appreciated the side dish of Organic Baked Patatas Bravas.  They were crispy, spicy, smokey, and perfectly accented with vegan sour cream and a tomato-based sauce.  Another favorite was the Organic Chocolate Nut Pie, which didn’t suffer in the least from the omission of sugar.  I’m inclined to think that its sweetness may have come from the inclusion of banana, which would add fiber and nutrients as well as sweetness.  Great idea.

Serious about Sustainability

With a background in environmental education, I am always aware when a restaurant makes even the smallest attempt to be sustainable — perhaps by using paper take out containers rather than styrofoam.  And usually that is about as good as it gets at most restaurants.  But GreenFare clearly goes the extra mile (though not when obtaining its produce).

GreenFare is serious about fresh, sustainable, organic food.  It’s one of only a handful of restaurants in the U.S. that are certified by California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF).  CCOF certifies farms, markets, and other food-handling establishments.  Its organic certification standards were used as a foundation for the USDA National Organic Program, finally making “certified organic” a federally-regulated claim.

And the food at GreenFare is all prepared onsite, so that it is as fresh as possible when it comes to your table.  Most of the produce in their kitchen travels for 150 miles or less.  The restaurant also recycles and composts its waste.  Furthermore, GreenFare is a carbon-neutral establishment, offsetting 100% of its energy use with wind power.

That’s the “wow” factor for restaurant sustainability if ever there was one.

Books, Classes, and Events

You can do much more at GreenFare than just eat a meal.  You can learn a lot about plant-based nutrition in a variety of ways.  You can buy some great books about the amazing power of a plant-based diet.  You can embark on the 21-Day Kickstart program with GreenFare and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.  (Want to talk about the impact of the restaurant in the community? More than 500 people have already been through that Kickstart program at GreenFare!)  And you can attend events at the restaurant that feature book signings, films, or lectures by nutritional luminaries.  What other restaurant do you know that offers all of this?  (None, I’m sure.)

So, if you live in northern Virginia, or you are just passing through, be sure to have a meal at GreenFare!