Nourrie Cuisine

With the holidays right around the corner, there's no better time than now to start thinking about catering for your holiday party. Nourrie Cuisine may be a new caterer in the area, but its President is certainly not new to the food industry. Elena Johnson spent years in corporate food service management, training, and sales before moving to the nonprofit sector. She's also worked part-time as a caterer, personal chef, and restaurant consultant before launching Nourrie Cuisine. Today, in addition to catering and prepared meals, she conducts cooking demonstrations at festivals and speaks at national conferences.

Why is it called "Nourrie Cuisine?" Nourrie is derived from the French words meaning "to feed" and "nourished," which is exactly her mission. She dropped off three dishes for me to try and I will say that I was very impressed.

My favorite was the Rosemary Braised Seitan. This meaty and incredibly flavorful seitan was pan-roasted with rosemary and garlic in a scallion pan sauce. Wow! It was served with green beans and mashed potatoes.

The Spinach Rolls were very doughy, but also very good. They were filled with a delicious spinach-tofu mix.

Lastly, I tried the Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchiladas. Again, great flavors. I wasn't a huge fan of the long-grain rice because I prefer shorter grain rice, but other than that, it was great.

Nourrie Cuisine offers catering for weddings and events and also sells these prepared meals for $12.99 each. The will deliver to DC, DE, MD, NC, NJ, NY, PA, VA, WV or you can pick them up in Ellicott City, Maryland. To learn more about the prepared meals, go here. To get in touch with Elena directly, you can reach her at info@nourriecuisine.com or (410) 419-0504.

I am excited to have yet another vegan caterer in the area who uses organic ingredients whenever possible. And I hope her business flourishes this holiday season!

Full Disclosure: Although the products were provided to me for free to review, that in no way influenced my veracious opinion.

DC Vegan Catering

Spunky -- that is the word that comes to mind when I think of Leah Curran Moon.  I met her one day in a dance class at Dance Place while she was earning her PhD in Public Policy and Public Administration.  We danced together, we laughed together, and somewhere down the line I discovered she was a feminist, band member, and vegan as well. So, we connected on Facebook, but lost touch for a while. Then, out of the blue, she tells me that she and her husband, Michael, just started a vegan catering company. DC Vegan Catering is the name and fresh food is their game.

Originally from Cleveland, Leah and Michael's friends over at Cleveland Vegan Catering inspired them to start a branch of this business in DC. Entrepreneurs at heart, Leah and Michael's business plan is now coming to fruition and they are excited to not only promote delicious vegan foods, but DC pride as well.

This 100% vegan catering business is up and running and operating out of Union Kitchen, DC's food incubator that serves as a place for budding entrepreneurs to take up shop and use commercial grade kitchen space at reasonable prices. They took us on a tour of the facility and it was, for lack of a better descriptor, super cool. They have access to all of the commercial equipment they could ever need from ice cream makers to large ovens and even a marketing company that houses itself in the same space. The vibe, they say, is inspiring, as the kitchen comes alive during the week with food entrepreneurs excited about their small businesses.

DC Vegan Catering has hired two chefs while Michael also works full-time in the kitchen and Leah manages the business side of things. As they are now set-up to take orders, they treated me and Chris to a meal showcasing a few of their favorite dishes.

First on the menu was the Cauliflower Wings.  Oh...my...god. If I were to describe the perfect vegan buffalo cauliflower dish, it would be this one. On one side of the platter was soft, yet crisp cauliflower slathered and baked in buffalo sauce -- the buffalo sauce that Chris proclaimed was the closest to the buffalo sauce he so enjoyed throughout his life. On the other side, was a yummy mango sriracha version of the cauliflower. Both were made even better with the addition of a Ranch dressing that was very thick and loaded with dill. If I were to have a party, I would order tons of these!

Next up was the entree. I'll start with the main dish -- the Chesapeake Tofucakes. Served over a light coleslaw, these tofu-based crab-like cakes were coated with panko breadcrumbs and baked to perfection. The lemon aioli served to complement them perfectly by adding creamy, lemony flavor to the Old Bay-spiced crispy cakes. On the side were the Mashers, a buttery vegan version of mashed potatoes made with Yukon gold potatoes and sauteed leeks.

We were so full, but when the plate of cookies and truffles appeared, how could we resist?  The thumbprint cookies were sugar cookies filled with sweet raspberry jam and were reminiscent of the thumbprint cookies I so enjoyed as a child.

Also, on the menu are amazing dark chocolate truffles. We, of course, had to indulge in both flavors -- one covered in pecans and one in coconut. These coconut milk-based truffles are made with freeze-dried coffee and flavored with vanilla. They'll melt in your mouth, not in your hands.

The chef even gave me her version of vegan Butterfinger bars and they are really to die for! I'm truly excited about this new business. What I really like is that their menu is diverse enough to cater to a wide variety of events. I could see catering an office breakfast meeting with the Bullfrog Garden Bialy bagels, Lemon Mint Fruit Salad, and Chewy Breakfast Bars. Then, for the Superbowl party, you have Corn and Black Bean Boats, Cauliflower Wings, and a Hummus Platter. And for the wedding, you have Three Grain Bake in a cashew sauce, Beet Burgers, and Chesapeake Tofucakes with Raw Salted Caramel Chocolate Cups.  Yeah, it's like that!

To raise money for their new venture, they are selling these awesome DC Vegan t-shirts as well. View the video promotion here, and order the shirt here. And, yes, the girlie shirts are girlie cut. I am truly excited about DC Vegan Catering and how they will complement our limited DC vegan food offerings. To place a catering order, go here.

Go DC. Go Vegan.