Vegan Bengaluru Potluck – Sat 25th February 2012

This month, the Vegan Bengaluru Potluck will be at Cubbon Park on Saturday, 25th February 2012. At 1pm, we will meet at the Victoria Statue near the Bal Bhavan entrance of Cubbon Park and then move to the lawn behind the statue (across the road from the cricket stadium). We will wait until 1:30 for people to arrive, settle in and chat with each other and then share lunch together.

Here’s some information about the Vegan Bengaluru potlucks:

1. *All* are welcome! You don’t necessarily have to be vegan to attend the potluck event. Even if you’re just curious about a vegan lifestyle or interested to learn about veganism you can join us.

2. You *MUST* bring a 100% vegan dish to share. Everyone brings something so it won’t be fair if you walk in empty handed.

3. It would be nice if you bring a vegan dish that is prepared by yourself; however, if you are unable to cook then feel free to carry food which you have purchased.

4. If you’ve purchased the food, then make sure there’s an ingredients list on the package so we can be assured that it is vegan. Particularly if you’re a first time attendee who is not vegan, please don’t expect us to take your word for it that the food you’ve purchased is completely vegan.

5. If you’re unsure about what to bring then the best bet is fresh fruits or fruit juices. Everyone appreciates fruits.

6. Please bring plates, bowls, forks, spoons, serving spoons, and glasses for yourself. Everyone brings their own.

7. Come, relax, and enjoy the food and conversation!

Looking forward to meeting everyone.

- The Vegan Bengaluru Team

Vegan Bengaluru Potluck – Sat 26th November 2011

This month, the Vegan Bengaluru Potluck will be at Cubbon Park on Saturday, 26th November 2011. At 2pm, we will meet at the Victoria Statue near the Bal Bhavan entrance of Cubbon Park and then move to the lawn behind the statue (across the road from the cricket stadium). We will wait until 2:30 for people to arrive, settle in and chat with each other and then share lunch together.

On Saturday morning, before coming to Cubbon Park for the potluck, some members of Vegan Bengaluru will be attending the Queer Habba/Bangalore Pride Mela. Veganism is about being compassionate and caring towards *all* animals, including humans. In this spirit if you would like to join us in supporting diversity and equality then you are welcome to meet us at Sowmya Reddy’s vegan baked goods stall at the Mela at 11:30 am. The Mela is at Rococo, Rest House Road (off Brigade Road) and we will be going from there to Cubbon Park for the potluck at 2pm.

Here’s some information about the Vegan Bengaluru potlucks:

1. *All* are welcome! You don’t necessarily have to be vegan to attend the potluck event. Even if you’re just curious about a vegan lifestyle or interested to learn about veganism you can join us.

2. You *MUST* bring a 100% vegan dish to share. Everyone brings something so it won’t be fair if you walk in empty handed.

3. It would be nice if you bring a vegan dish that is prepared by yourself; however, if you are unable to cook then feel free to carry food which you have purchased.

4. If you’ve purchased the food, then make sure there’s an ingredients list on the package so we can be assured that it is vegan. Particularly if you’re a first time attendee who is not vegan, please don’t expect us to take your word for it that the food you’ve purchased is completely vegan.

5. If you’re unsure about what to bring then the best bet is fresh fruits or fruit juices. Everyone appreciates fruits.

6. Please bring plates, bowls, forks, spoons, serving spoons, and glasses for yourself. Everyone brings their own.

7. Come, relax, and enjoy the food and conversation!

Looking forward to meeting everyone.

- The Vegan Bengaluru Team

Lisa Pitman, Raw Food Chef, in Bangalore on November 11 & 13

Bangaloreans can learn about the healing power of plants and how to prepare raw food with Lisa Pitman, a raw food chef from Canada. She’ll be in India for the first time this November and will be in Bangalore on November 11th and 13th.

Date: Friday 11th Nov- 5:00pm-8:30pm OR Sunday 13th Nov- 10:00am-1:30pm

Venue: In the Pink Organic Bazaar & Restaurant, No. 93, 6th Cross, N. S. Palya, Dollars Colony, BTM Layout, 2nd Stage, Bannerghatta Road, Bangalore – 560 076

Fee: Rs 1250 per person

For registrations: Aparna 9945001003, Tanvi 9488935424 or Millie 080 23545199 Email: seminars@sharan-india.org

For more information about Lisa’s other events visit the SHARAN website here.

About Lisa Pitman:

Lisa Pitman of Toronto, Canada is an acclaimed speaker, social worker and certified chef. She has received rave reviews from audiences across Canada, the USA and the United Kingdom for her positive approach to sharing an inspiring message about the healing power of foods. Lisa is passionate about creating fantastic plant based meals and showing others how easy it is to adopt a healthy, vegan lifestyle.

Lisa is a regular speaker at conferences and conducts cooking classes to help people to live healthier, both physically and emotionally. After being vegan for 27 years, Lisa has seen the impact of a plant-based diet. She will share information about how a vegan diet can protect us from diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, obesity and cancer. At a time when our world is seeing these disease at epidemic proportions her wisdom is more relevant than ever before.

Her informative and beautifully illustrated blog provides insights and raw vegan recipes for all who want to live healthier.

In November, Lisa will embark on a year-long tour – holding workshops in India, Thailand, Bali, Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii.

Vegan Bengaluru Oct 29th Special Buffet Lunch at In The Pink – Rs. 250

Time: Saturday, October 29 · 1:00pm – 5:30pm
Location: In The Pink, Bangalore

The vote is in! For the month of October, the Vegan Bangalore group has decided to have a buffet lunch on the 29th at In The Pink instead of the monthly vegan potluck.

Aparna and Paneesh, the co-owners of In The Pink, have kindly offered to get a delicious, special 100% vegan buffet spread prepared just for us!

Pumpkin Whole Wheat Ravioli in a Spinach Béchamel Sauce

The price is Rs. 250/- per head. I can tell you that it’ll be totally worth it!! YES, vegan desserts will be a part of the buffet!

We will also be watching a very interesting movie about health and nutrition.

Everyone is welcome to attend! You don’t have to be Vegan to be a part of these Vegan Bengaluru events. Please come and bring family members and friends too.

You are required to RSVP for this event, either by posting a comment here or on the Facebook Event Page so that we can get a head count and let In the Pink know how many people to prepare the buffet for.

Vegan pizza with pesto

And since this time it isn’t a potluck, you don’t have to worry about preparing any food. You can sit back and enjoy the delectable vegan dishes prepared by a professional chef!

Strawberry and lemongrass based dessert

The address and contact details for In The Pink are:

In The Pink Organic Bazaar & Restaurant
No.93, 6th Cross, N. S. Palya,
Dollars Colony, BTM Layout,
2nd Stage, Bannerughatta Road,
Bangalore – 560 076

Mobile: +91 99450 01003 / 98451 68462
Email: info@inthepink.in

The place is pretty easy to find and if at all you need directions, then you can call the restaurant.

Looking forward to seeing you all there.

- The Vegan Bangalore team.

World Go Vegan Week Bangalore Pizza Event 24th to 31st Oct 2011

The last week of October is known as World Go Vegan Week. To celebrate this event, a few of us from the Vegan Bengaluru group approached a handful of local restaurants and requested them to introduce a vegan pizza into their menu for the week of 24th to 31st October, 2011.

Many of them happily obliged and some of them even said they would veganize other dishes upon request.

Here is a list of participating restaurants. Do drop in to these places with your friends and family and enjoy the special vegan fare.

Little Italy Indiranagar - No. 2017, 100 Feet Road, HAL 2nd Stage, Indiranagar, Bangalore - 560038 Ph: +91 080 25207171,7272

This is a pure vegetarian restaurant. Apart from the pizzas, these are the vegan and veganizable items on their menu:

Starters:
A.4 – Bruschetta – ***Ask for whole wheat bread***
A.10 – Funghi Alla Trapanese – ***Ask for whole wheat bread***

Soups:
Z.1 – Minestrone
Z.4 – Zuppa Di Cipolle – ***ask for no Parmesan***
Z.6 – Zuppa Di Broccoli
Z.8 – Zuppa Di Dil
Z.11 – Lentil and Spinach

Salads:
D.1 – Pomodoro
D.4 – Contadina
D.8 – Stagioni
D.11 – Corleone
D.18 – Insalata Di Olimpo
D.19 – Insalata Di Zeus

Wood Burn Pizza:
P.1 – Sadu
P.12 – Zen
P.14 – Zorba

Pasta:
B.1 – Pummorola
B.2 – Aglio Olio E Peperoncino
B.5 – All Arabiata
B.7 – All Pesto Geneovese – ***ask for no cheese***
B.39 – Pasta De Fattore

Mr. Pradeep Shetty of Little Italy, Indiranagar clarifies: “…in Z4 cheese is only sprinkled on top, which can be avoided. and the same holds good for B7 also. we do not use cheese in our pesto sauces while preparing. we can give whole wheat bread instead of the regular bread.”

Little Italy Koramangala - #32 Krishna Nagar Industrial Layout, Near Forum, Behind Skc Mall, Hosur Road, Koramangala, Bangalore - 560029 Ph: +91 080 41114034, +91 080 41215709

This place has the same menu as Little Italy, Indiranagar even though it is run by different owners. So the veganizable items on the menu would be the same.

Under the Mango Tree - # 3, Laurel Lane, Richmond Town , Bangalore Ph: +91 9686601021

Nirmala of Under the Mango Tree says, “We are happy to support the Vegan week at UTMT and will promote the same by mentioning it on our page on fb ( UTMT) as well as on our notice board. The items on the menu are:

Basil Pesto Pizza
Tomato pesto Pizza
Grilled Tofu with burnt garlic noodles

Apart from this, upon requesting the staff, you can have a host of other items veganised as well , for eg. the Veg steak ( will be prepared with tofu and not cottage cheese), Baked mushrooms with garlic bread etc..”

Toscano - The Collection, U.B. City, Level II, Concord Block, 24, Vittal Mallya Road, Bangalore Ph: +91 080 41738800 and Whitefield - Whitefield Forum Value Mall 2nd Floor, Whitefield Main Road, Whitefield, Bangalore Ph: +91 080 25939224

In The Pink - 93, 6th cross, 29th main, Dollars colany, NS Palya, BTM 2nd Stage Ph: +91 9945001003, +91 9845168462, +91 080 26789998

In The Pink is a pure vegetarian restaurant and they are happy to veganize most things upon request. The above picture is of the vegan pizza that Chef Joydeb has created specifically for this World Go Vegan Week event.

As more restaurants confirm their participation in this event, we will be adding them here so do come back and keep an eye on the list.

Enjoy the delicious vegan offerings and spread the word!

Snapshots from the Vegan Bengaluru potluck at Jaaga Sep 2011

Beautiful place. Great conversation. And most importantly… delicious food!

I don’t have to say much about our Vegan Bengaluru lunch potluck at Jaaga on the 24th of Sep. 2011. The pictures will say it all!

The People

The Spread

Mysore Pak

Hakka Noodles in Peanut Sauce

Pasta Salad

Poori

Sweet Tomato Curry

Steamed Ragi Sweet

Bread for Bruschetta

Topping for Bruschetta

Semiya Sweet

Multi-Bean Hummus

We also had this awesome Fusion Asian Style Semiya with Peanut Powder topping which was amazingly delicious! But sadly, I didn’t get a chance to grab a picture of it. It arrived after I’d started to eat and by the time I was done eating people had finished every last bit of it!

Pouncing On The Food

Eating, Chatting, Laughing and Washing Dishes

Hanging Around with a Full Tummy

Vegan Power. Yay!

We don't really want to leave but we must disperse

Thanks to the awesome people of Jaaga for welcoming us to hold our September’s Vegan Bengaluru potluck at their beautiful space.

The Vegan Bengaluru has a potluck meeting every month and everyone is welcome to attend. For the month of October, 2011 we’ll be doing a buffet lunch at In The Pink Organic Restaurant instead of a potluck.

To join the fun, check out the Facebook event page here and RSVP.

And join our Vegan Bangalore Facebook Group to keep yourself updated about more of our events.

Ending this post with a sweet video shoot of our potluck event done by Clemence Barret of Jaaga. Thanks so much Clemence!

The Art of New Age Cooking with Dr. Nandita

It was a relaxing get together on a late Saturday morning. The weather outside was perfect and so was the atmosphere inside In The Pink Organic Bazaar and Restaurant. It was nice to walk in and meet Dr. Nandita Shah of SHARAN India who was all set and ready to start with one of her famous cooking demos.

The Art of New Age Cooking was an interactive workshop which was made possible by the coordination efforts of Archana Saraf. It focused on creating healthy, organic, extremely delicious food.

We started off with introductions. Most people, like me, had already attended one of Dr. Nandita’s seminars. One can never have too many workshops with her because there’s always something new to learn.

Audience

Many of us present were vegans. Some long time, some new. There were also a handful of beginners who were on their path to becoming vegan. They knew the benefits of veganism on the Earth and on their health. And most importantly, they were well aware of the ethical implications of switching to a compassionate lifestyle free of all animal derived products. But they just needed that extra little push in the right direction and who better to give them that than Dr. Nandita? As far as I’m concerned, she is the guru of veganism in India. Not only is she extremely knowledgeable, but she is also well qualified to share this knowledge. On top of that she has an immense passion for spreading veganism in a positive, constructive way.

Dr. Nandita making spiced peanut nut butter

Spices

The cooking demo covered 12 vegan dishes of various varieties. From nut butters and nut milks to salads and steamed lentil cutlets. Throughout the demo, Dr. Nandita shared a lot of information with us about the benefits of putting whole, organic, plant based foods into our systems. She also answered all the questions we asked her while she cooked and managed to go back each time to whatever she was talking about. A highly impressive multi-tasking effort.

Dr. Nandita holding up a glass of delicious Cashew Nut Milk

Fermented Cashew Cheese... YUMMY!!!

She gave an open invitation to any of us to walk up and lend a helping hand in the cooking (making sure we washed our hands well before doing so of course). Arun, Sujoy, Smitha, Lata and a few others did a great job lending a hand in the cooking.

Arun

Volunteers stuffing Bhindis

Sujoy

Of course, she also had Archana and a couple of kind, In The Pink employees by her side, helping out through the whole session.

Archana Saraf watches as Dr. Nandita works the food processor

Prepping for Salad

Needless to say, by the end of the demo, all of us were ravenous! We needed to distract ourselves by shopping at the nice little grocery section at In The Pink while the buffet was being set up.

The Spread

Shepherd's Pie

Steamed Sprouted Lentil Cutlets

Papaya Salad

What an amazing vegan spread it was!! It took a lot of will power on my part to click photographs before wolfing down the food. So don’t blame me for not pausing to click pics of the desserts when they were brought out. We were all way too stuffed from that hearty meal but somehow the raw banana ice cream with a cinnamon walnut topping and the mysore paks seemed to slip nicely into our tummies. :p

My plateful of heaven

The Cabbage and Raw Onion Salad was surprisingly delicious!

I hope Dr. Nandita holds more of her wonderful cooking demos in Namma Bengaluru in the near future. And I surely hope that all of you will be lucky enough to attend them.

Dr. Nandita's glowing smile