Skip to Navigation Skip to Content
illustrations
We're a network of Vermont Chefs, Farmers, Food Artisans, and Diners.
Announcements Partner Members log in for Fresh Insider news archive

Best Vegetarian Meals in Vermont

January 10, 2018

Are you considering a vegetarian, meatless Monday, plant-based, vegan, flexitarian, or meat on the side diet this year? Already practicing one? If so, you are in great company. According to the Baum + Whiteman 2018 Food and Beverage Forecast, 31% of Americans are currently practicing meat-free days and over the past decade, consumers under age 40 upped their fresh vegetable intake by 52%. Whether you choose Monday, Tuesday, Saturday, or Sunday - going meatless for a day (or even just the occasional meal) benefits your health, wallet, and the environment. 

Committed carnivores fear not. Integrating more meatless meals into your diet will help you free up funds for healthier and more sustainable meat purchasing. You can focus that extra budget on the small, sustainable, local meat producers of Vermont. Better meat for a better planet.

One of the greatest barriers to decreasing meat consumption is figuring out how to make delicious, creative meals anchored by vegetables instead of meat. Luckily, the talented chefs of Vermont can help. Look to the progressive restaurant menus of the Vermont Fresh Network for divine veg-spiration. We've collected the finest examples of meat-free specials and menu items from Vermont's best chefs. 

American Flatbread - Middlebury Hearth

Chef Samantha Langevin

IMG 20180105 163319 2

Baked Feta 

Maplebrook Feta, local organic vegetables, extra virgin olive oil and red pepper flakes for a little kick. Baked in a wood-fired oven, it is served with lemon wedges and housemade flatbread crackers.

Artisan Restaurant at Four Columns Inn, Newfane 

Chef Erin Bevan

Screen Shot 2018 01 09 at 1.26.09 PM

Tortelli di Zucca 

Stuffed pasta with Allwinds Farm Red Kuri squash and Vermont Creamery mascarpone in brown butter sage sauce with pomegranate, shaved black truffles and Parish Hill Creamery Reverie cheese.


The Bench, Stowe 

Spaghetti Squash Alfredo

 

Spaghetti Squash Alfredo

Spinach, mushroom, and alfredo stuffed Squash, topped with Maplebrook Farm mozzarella, parmesan, and basil, with a Mount Mansfield Breadworks garlic baguette.

Bistro De Margot, Burlington  

Chef Herve Mahe 

BistroMargot

Beggar's Purse 

Beggar’s purse: delicata squash, wilted spinach & leek, roasted cauliflower, Bayley Hazen Blue, roasted fingerling potatoes, cauliflower & coriander seed cream [Aumonière Croustillante Au Bleu de Bayley Hazen, Courge Delicata, Chou - Fleur, Fondue d’Epinards & Poireaux, Purée de Chou Fleur à la Graine de Coriandre]

Chef Mahe gave us some step-by-step instructions to make your own Beggar's Purse here!


 

Butch + Babe's, Burlington 

Chef Jaclyn Major 

image2

Maple Chili Polenta + Crispy Mushroom

Glazed Vermont root veggies, poached egg, and Nitty Gritty Grain polenta

Butch + Babe's has a new chef who loves to dream up vegetarian dishes. Meet Chef Jaclyn on the B+B blog!


Champlain College, Burlington

Chef Sandi Earle 

Screen Shot 2018 01 09 at 1.21.21 PM

Maplebrook Buratta Caprese Salad

Burrata, fresh tomatoes, balsamic and greens. Perfection. Recipe here!


 

Copper Grouse at the Taconic Hotel, Manchester 

Chef Vanessa Davis

Screen Shot 2018 01 09 at 1.00.55 PM

Ancient Grain Risotto

Ancient Grain (wheat berries (sourced from Nitty Gritty Grain Co.), rye berries & farro) risotto with local brussels sprouts and roasted seasonal squash, cherry tomatoes, crimini mushroom tossed in a green tahini sauce and topped with Blythedale Farm's Cookeville grana cheese and pea shoots from Bromley Farm.


Cornwall Orchards Bed and Breakfast, Cornwall

Innkeeper Lise Anderson

Cornorchbreakfast 1
 

Winter Vegetable Strata

Features eggs from MoSe Farm in Orwell with a side of greens tossed with a light maple (local syrup) orange dressing, accompanied by nutty carrot muffins made from a 1970's Moosewood recipe (carrots from Elmer Farm in Middlebury), and garnished with crisp Macoun apples from Champlain Orchards.

Note from Lise Anderson, innkeeper at Cornwall BnB, about adopting Meatless Mondays at the Inn... 

At Cornwall Orchards B&B we celebrate Meatless Mondays (MM) with a vegetarian breakfast for all our guests. I have a background in public health, but we decided to adopt MM because cooking vegetarian is familiar - and healthier - and the founder of MM is an old ad man friend of my dad's.


  

Edson Hill, Stowe 

Chef Jason Bissell

LUVLENS EDSONHILL NORDICSHOOT2 88 1

Squash Lasagna

Goat Cheese, spaghetti squash, garbanzo beans with a sage cream sauce featuring Vermont Creamery, Mansfield Dairy, and King Arthur Flour products.

 

Hinesburgh Public House, Hinesburg

Screen Shot 2018 01 09 at 1.29.01 PM

Noodle Bowl 

Stir-fried veggies and kimchi over noodles in a miso broth with nori garnish


 

Honey Road, Burlington 

Chef Cara Chigazola Tobin 

IMG 2505

 Local Baby Carrots (from Half Pint Farm in the summer and Jericho Settlers Farm in the winter), Tahini, Dried Cherries, Pistachio Dukkah.


  

Inn at Weathersfield, Perkinsville 

Chef Michael Ehlenfeldt

InnatWeathersfield 2019

Hemingway Farm Delicata Squash filled with Quinoa, Kale, Heirloom Apples, Small Greens, and Chutney.

Note from Chef Michael...

A plant-based diet is a whole lot healthier. I don’t eat meat unless I know where it comes from.


 

Liberty Hill Farm Inn, Rochester 

Chef, Farmer and Innkeeper Beth Kennet

LHF Savory Bread Pudding photo

Savory Bread Pudding

Farmer, innkeeper, and chef Beth Kennet makes a casserole dish for guests often using leftover dinner rolls and leftover veggies. You can put in whatever vegetables you prefer, it is a great recipe for a side dish, vegetarian entrée, or brunch casserole. You can make it fancy by baking in individual ramekins. Beth uses Cabot Seriously Sharp or Cabot Alpine cheddar. 


 

Michael's on the Hill, Waterbury Center

Chef Michael Kloeti

Screen Shot 2018 01 09 at 2.14.11 PM

Root Vegetable Frites with local chevre and truffle honey gastrique. 


  

Morse Block Deli, Barre 

Chef Stefano Coppola

IMG 20180105 133920

Winter Shawarma

A mixture of pickled & fresh seasonal veggies with baby spinach, garlicky hummus, and a yogurt-tahini sauce all wrapped up in a warm Joseph’s Pita. The current version consists of pickled delicata squash, pickled beets, and pickled red onions (all from Pebble Brook Farm), curry-pickled cauliflower, fennel-pickled peppers, fresh carrots (Jericho Settlers’ Farm) and toasted sunflower seeds.


 

Natural Provisions, Williston 

Screen Shot 2018 01 09 at 2.26.04 PM

Vegan Chickpea Tuna Wrap

Natural Provision’s chickpea tuna salad, organic lettuce & pea shoots, carrots, red bell peppers & banana peppers wrapped in a sundried tomato tortilla.


 

The Perfect Wife Restaurant, Manchester 

Chef Amy Chamberlain

Screen Shot 2018 01 09 at 2.28.40 PM

The Howling Wolf Special 

Steamed veggies with sweet potato hash and yellow curry satay.

Note from Chef Amy...

This menu item came from The Howling Wolf Cafe (It was in Aspen, CO and I was the opening chef there in 1995).  It was our signature vegetable dish there and is now very popular here, too. I get more requests for the recipe to this menu item than any other. Get the recipe here!


  

Red Hawk Cafe at Champlain Valley Union High School, Hinesburg

Chef Colleen French

falafel buddha bowl4

Falafel Buddha Bowl

Featuring quinoa, VT Bean Crafters falafel, roasted red onion, purple cabbage, Vermont-grown red potatoes, Vermont-grown butternut squash, and Vermont-grown brussels sprouts drizzled with a maple mustard tahini sauce made with Vermont maple syrup. [Pretty much the same-old cafeteria food you had in high school, right?!]


 

Red Hen Baking Company and Cafe, Middlesex

unnamed 2

Beet Apple Soup with Horseradish and Creme Fraiche 

Featuring local beets (may be a different farm each batch, including Pete's Greens, Dog River farm, Harlow Farm or others), Champlain Orchard's apples, Foote Brook Farm Yukon Gold potatoes, and finished with Creme Fraiche from Vermont Creamery with the added zip of a little horseradish.


 

Skinny Pancake, locations in Burlington, Montpelier, BTV Airport, UVM, and Hanover, NH

Hashpuppies 2 1

Hash Purples

Skinny Pancake Hash Purples are made from shredded Jericho Settlers Farm beets and carrots, fried until crispy and served with garlic dill aioli. We are proud of this item because it is sourced from local beets and carrots nearly 100% of the time and made entirely from scratch. 


  

The Reluctant Panther Inn and Restaurant, Manchester

Chef Sigal Rockland  

Raw pickled and grilled farmers market vegetables Israeli hummus 1 

Raw, Pickled & Grilled Farmer’s Market Vegetables, with Israeli Hummus  

Note from Chef Sigal...

This dish features our love of fresh local vegetables, from our farmer’s market in Manchester, and a little bit of my heritage as well. I go to the Farmer’s Market twice a week and get the best vegetables I can find from our local farmers, and then showcase them at their best. Our guests love it!

If you plan ahead, the combination of pickled vegetables with the raw and grilled can add flavor and texture interest and also let you taste a bit of summer in the middle of winter, with veggies preserved from those summertime market trips.

 

 

 

Thank you to Flavor Plate for donating their time and effort to the design and co-development of our website.