Vegin' Out: Local, organic vegan food delivery

You don't have to be vegan to love vegan food, as evidenced by the popularity of Real Food Daily. The Santa Monica branch of RFD's even taken over the space next door (I think it used to be a Chinese restaurant) and is in the process of putting in a new bakery.

Sadly, while I'd love to have someone prepare nice vegan meals for me daily, I can't afford to eat at RFD every day. Which is why I was excited to discover Vegin' Out, a local vegan food delivery service, at the Room 367 event last month. Vegin' Out was sampling out a very tasty vegan jambalaya.

How would you like healthful, local, organic food cooked and delivered to your doorstep? Vegin' Out does just that -- and pretty affordably too! For $100, you can sign up to get 9-10 fresh vegan meals delivered to you (free delivery in the L.A. area; $15 for DHL shipping elsewhere).

Founded in 1999, Vegin' Out's co-owned by Tim Boissy, a nutritional chef, and his brother Dan Boissy. Vegin' Out gets much of its produce from the Santa Monica Farmers' Market; about 75% of the ingredients in Vegin' Out's trans fat-free meals are certified organic.

So last week, I tried out Vegin' Out's service. Monday morning, I received a few entrees, a few side dishes, soup, and most importantly, almond shortbread cookies!

My favorite dishes were the tofu cordon bleu over wild rice and the vegetarian chili, both of which I feel I could eat every day (at least for a few months). The side dishes -- like the carrots in creamy garlic sauce, cauliflower with braised tomatoes, and spring succotash -- were pretty tasty too.

There were a few duds too, however. The country garden spring soup was rather bland, for example -- though I did end up eating all of it. The main oddity about my delivery was the large number of carrots used in the dishes. In addition to the three servings of carrots in creamy garlic sauce, there were small pieces of carrots in the chili and soup, as well as larger pieces in the pepper steak mushroom stroganoff. I do like carrots, but a girl's got her limits! Brian L. Patton, Sales & Marketing Manager for Vegin' Out, did assure me this was an anomaly for the week.

Luckily, each week's delivery includes a preview menu for the next week -- and customers can specify if they'd like to omit one dish to double up on another. This option's one I could use to avoid too much of any one veggie as well as avoid veggies I don't want -- i.e. broccoli -- altogether.

While I liked the food, I did have some qualms about Vegin' Out's packaging. All the food's delivered in plastic one-use packaging (recyclable, but still) -- encased in a plastic bag to boot. Patton says that the biodegradable packaging they've tried didn't work as well, and thus are sticking to the current plastic containers "until we find the ideal option." Switching out the bags, however, is at the top of our priority list," says Patton. "We're currently weighing out our options for that ... either reusable or biodegradable."

The plastic packaging's really an issue for me, because it'd suddenly bring up my use of those clam shell things from maybe one a week to seven or so! Of course, for people who buy a lot of pre-packaged prepared foods anyway, switching to Vegin' Out deliveries might actually cut down on their plastic consumption.

I think I'll hold off from using Vegin' Out's services until they at least get rid of the plastic bags -- which are soon going to be banned in my town (Santa Monica) anyway. Hopefully that day will come soon; the vegan orange chocolate chip cookies on next week's menu sound really yummy.

Vegin' Out. (310) 574-9405

Comments

[KateNonymous]

It sounds like a great service, and I'd probably sign up for it (I'm not vegan, but the food sounds delicious), at least to try it out. But I'm at work during the Monday 11-5 delivery period they offer, so it isn't an option for me. I'm not keen on the thought of leaving the food sitting on my doorstep for an undetermined length of time, and the thought of having it delivered to my office, figuring out how to store it, and then carrying it home on the bus isn't all that appealing.

[Dan Wentzel]

Does anyone recommend a good book or other resource to making the transition to healthy veganism?

For many people, going lacto-ovo is the first step.

The major concern is eating enough protein and a nutritionally balanced diet.

The Amazon forests being trimmed down to make room for cattle protection reduces the oxygen supply available to everyone.

[Jennifer in Pasadena]

Hi! I just received my Vegin' Out order and the bag was not plastic, it was paper, which I will reuse and recycle. As usual though, the food is fantastic and as I type this I'm munching on one of those orange chocolate chip cookies. Yum!