Vegan Southern Feast: Sausage Okra Gumbo, Bacon Cornbread, Maple Bourbon Sweet Potatoes, Perfect Brussels Sprouts

      Welcome to the first installment in my “Challenge Accepted” series, inspired by Barney on “How I Met Your Mother” but having literally nothing to do with the show! Today’s post answers the request of my friend Sari, who asked for a way to make amazing Rice Krispie-like treats without marshmallows. You could sub a vegan marshmallow, such as Dandies or Sweet N’ Sara, into the standard recipe, but a) that gets freal expensive b) that’s not very exciting! So, a treaty crisped rice treat using other ingredients??

     One of my favorite things to do, as faithful readers might have realized, is to melt chocolate with a nut butter or Speculoos (or both) and stir shit into it. It’s a foolproof, always delicious, and extremely versatile method of cookery. So, it makes perfect sense to use this as the basis for this creation! 
      When making Rice Krispie treats, the important thing is to make some kind of glue to hold the cereal together. Melted marshmallows do this very well, we know. But do you know what else can make a great gluey substance? Nut butters melted with liquid sweetener. Once you get this basic aspect down, you can play with it in all kinds of ways depending on what you’re in the mood for, or even just what you have on hand. No brown rice syrup? Agave or maple syrup will work! No cashew butter? Peanut butter, Speculoos, almond butter, hazelnut butter…you pretty much can’t go wrong with substitutes. In fact, I would have gone with cashew butter when making these, but I’m all out, hence today’s treats are peanut buttery. I also decided to make them chocolatey, because when you have the option of chocotizing something, you take it. 
    This recipe is a rough guide of what I did today, rough because you can really do whatever you want in terms of ingredients and amounts and it’ll probably be delicious. I used a mix of all 3 types of sweeteners, but it will work with just one (though all agave might be too sweet). I was also just using peanut butter, but then halfway through I smacked my head and said “What are you doing!” and added some Speculoos. Because duh. 

      If you want a more traditional treat, forego the chocolate and swap cashew butter for the peanut butter, and you’ll have a milder base flavor that is more akin to what you are used it. Next time I have cashew butter on hand, I’ll make it that way. But using peanut butter and chocolate is never a wrong move. I hope you enjoy it no matter what combination of ingredients you use. And now we all can see that marshmallow-less can mean delicious, and not just, sadly, ‘without Marshall “Marshmallow” Errickson’, as I am. Thanks Sari! 

    It’s getting ridiculous, Philly! A few years ago, I had to go to NYC if I wanted interesting cold-pressed juice. But now, everywhere I turn there’s a new juice bar opening in Philadelphia! As you know, last week I discovered the wonderful Yellow Juice Bar at 20th & Sansom. This week, while spending some time on South Street, I discovered Sip N Glo Juicery, one of my new favorite juiceries. (Is this a word?) 
    Right across from the Whole Foods and  next to a few yoga studios, Sip N Glo’s location is pretty perfect for their desired kind of foot traffic. I wandered in the first time during the lagging pre-lunch hours, so I was the only customer in the tiny place. The man working was bottling juices while I deliberated, and he let me sample a few.

      First, he had me try the One Love, a mix of green apple, cucumber, kale, spinach, pineapple, and ginger. The guy said it was his favorite, and I could see why. It was pure heaven! Next, I tried Sweet Greens, which I was biased towards getting to begin with. Mixing kale, spinach, apple, and cucumber, it was one of my favorite juice combos, and Sip N Glo makes it perfectly.
      I ordered a large Sweet Greens (16 oz., about $7 after tax), and the craziest thing happened. So, I usually ask for my juices and smoothies to be ‘heavy on the kale’, but I didn’t here because it was my first trip and I wanted to get a true sense of their juice. When the juiceman handed my cup to me, though, he said, “I made it heavy on the kale.” Like he read my mind! Crazy! And no joke, it was one of the best juices I’ve ever had. I don’t understand how they balanced the flavors so well, especially with supposedly extra kale. It tasted like very mild apple juice, but obviously better. Amazing. 

     Next time, I ordered a smoothie. Now, one of the downsides of this place is that a lot of their smoothies use Greek yogurt and honey. So, be careful when ordering. I didn’t see any possible substitutes for the yogurt, so I chose a smoothie that didn’t use any to begin with. Otherwise, it would be too far from the original concept and not the best thing to judge. I chose the Green Balance: kale, spinach, chocolate protein powder, chia seeds, and almond milk. Sounded great! I asked the woman working what kinds of protein powder they use, and she said they were all plant-based and vegan. So that part is good! This smoothie tasted fantastic. I wish it was blended with a little bit of ice to make it colder; with no frozen fruit to add in, it was a bit warm. But the taste was wonderful. A large 16 oz. smoothie after tax ran me $8 and change, which is pretty steep.

     Note that this place is very much just a counter that happens to be indoors. There is no seating and the counter runs clear across the space, separating you from the workers (and the bathroom – go across the street to Whole Foods to pee). In pictures online, I thought I saw some outdoor seating, but a) I don’t understand how that would be possible considering South Street sidewalks are crowded and b) it’s freezing out now anyway. But while there is room inside for a few stools, the small space is left completely empty. Maybe they don’t want people lingering. Another downside is the price. Given the South Street location, it’s understandable that the prices are a little higher. They’re not NYC-terrible, but it’s not something I could afford regularly. However, the products are so good that it’s worth a splurge every now and then. Hopefully, they will make the smoothie options even more vegan-friendly (the option to use agave instead of honey would be a nice offer, as well as having something instead of yogurt). On the plus side, they do have punch cards!