A new leaf: Eat green

Eat healthy, fresh vegetarian dishes and save some green

A New Start’s lunch buffet featuring “Bibimbap” for $7.99
Photo by Can Türkyilmaz

Admit it. You’ve already given up on your New Year’s resolutions to lose weight and eat healthy. Now here we are in March; we’ve made it past the candies and chocolates and are entering the month of green beer. Now is the perfect opportunity to spring into the season with fresh greens (no, we don’t mean those artificially colored shamrock cookies). Allow us to suggest a few neighborhood restaurants offering delicious vegetarian fare for under $10 a dish, and no, it’s not all rabbit food.

New Start Veggie Garden lunch buffet featuring spring rolls for $7.99 Photo by Can Türkyilmaz

New Start Veggie Garden
972.243.0507
2330 Royal, Suite 900
(Closed on Saturdays)

New Start Veggie Garden opened six years ago after owner Susan Kim recovered from breast cancer. Once a meat lover, Kim changed her diet after she was diagnosed, and attributes that to her recovery. The restaurant is centered around an all-vegan buffet that features items such as crispy soy sesame chicken, soy beef, pumpkin miso soup, vegetable tempura, fried rice, spring rolls, kimchee pancakes and even bite-sized cheesecakes made from pineapple and tofu. Drinks are included with the buffet. Choose sweet cinnamon juice or refreshing cucumber lemonade. Each day the chef switches out one or two items, and prepares all the sauces and dressings fresh. The specialty of the buffet is the Bibimbap dish you can make yourself, although manager Seoung Choi is adamant about helping. Bibimbap is basically a large bowl of Asian bean sprouts, bok choy, spinach, radish, carrots, kimchee and eggplant topped with brown rice, Korean spicy sauce, sesame oil and kelp powder. Once that’s done, grab a fork, chopsticks, or whatever makes you comfortable and mix it all together. The vegetables are neither hot nor mushy; they are cold and some are firm. “I want the vegetables to taste alive,” Choi says. That’s not his only wish, though; “I really want to show this food to American people. The owner doesn’t do this for money, but to preach the goodness of this diet.”

Nick and Sam’s Grill
214.379.1111
8111 Preston, Suite 150

Black kale tabouleh ($8) at Nick and Sam’s Grill Photo by Danny Fulgencio

Head chef Richard Blankenship put his own spin on traditional Middle Eastern tabouleh with vegetarians and the gluten-intolerant in mind. Blankenship’s black kale tabouleh is crafted with shaved fennel, celery leaves and quinoa with a lemon and olive oil base. “I made this salad differently to meet the dietary demands of the neighborhood,” he says. Traditionally, tabouleh is made with plenty of parsley, bulgur wheat, lemon juice and tomatoes. The chef wasn’t a fan, so he decided to mix it up by replacing parsley with black kale, a super food with tons of vitamin K, vitamin C, vitamin A, magnesium, beta-carotene and chlorophyll; quinoa instead of bulgur wheat; and the fennel and celery to jazz it up. Blankenship also toasts some of the kale to add a little crispiness in place of croutons. “We wanted this to be kind of like a signature dish,” he says. The restaurant also offers an Asian green salad, vegetable roll with asparagus, cucumber, shiso, carrot, celery and ginger, and features a juice bar with fresh extracted fruit and vegetable juices. Blankenship says he might change some items on the menu mid-March to offer lighter, seasonal vegetables. Luckily, the black kale tabouleh isn’t going anywhere, but if you order it, you might want to check your teeth in the bathroom before you leave.

Gazeebo Burgers’ Garden burger with avocado $5.95. Photo by Can Türkyilmaz

Gazeebo Burgers
214.368.3344
5950 Royal

Eating vegetarian doesn’t require you to pop open cans of spinach daily, a la Popeye. Plenty of restaurants offer vegetable and black bean burgers that taste close to the real thing. Gazeebo Burgers offers four different types of veggie burgers. The garden burger is a patron favorite, says Dan Son, director of operations. “We have it so we can offer any individual choices.” The burger sits in between a toasted, butter-free bun covered with melted Swiss and one-third of an avocado. The restaurant features an island of condiments such as mayonnaise, honey mustard, ranch, pico de gallo, lettuce, pickles, tomatoes and jalapeños with no upcharge so you can cool your burger down or spice it up. Black bean burgers cost 95 cents more, but the garden burger is jaw-droppingly large, and you can order American, pepper jack or cheddar if you feel neutral about Swiss cheese. If you’re the kind of person who needs to pair your burger with something else, yet want to stay healthy, try the side green salad with romaine lettuce, croutons, tomatoes and cucumbers. This isn’t your typical small salad in a Styrofoam bowl; it’s practically a dinner salad. Gazeebo also offers pasta and Caesar salads that you can order sans the chicken for $2 less. Have a gluten-intolerance? Gazeebo has gluten-free buns for $2 more. Son says the cooks set a portion of the grill aside for the veggie burgers so meat juices don’t taint the vegetarian food. The restaurant also has an open kitchen so you can watch your food being cooked. “The menu will always stay this way,” Son says. “It’s the old saying, ‘Keep it simple, stupid.’”