Chaco Canyon Organic Café exists to serve the diverse needs of its community and to empower its employees to create a better tomorrow for themselves and the world. Plus, the food is terrific.

Is this your first restaurant?

Yes, but I’ve worked in several along the way, including San Francisco’s Millennium Restaurant with vegan virtuoso Eric Tucker heading the kitchen.

When did Chaco Canyon open?

We opened in September 2003 in our original location. In April 2007, we moved to our current location, and in April 2011 we added our second location in West Seattle.

Do you want to have more locations?

Oh, yes. We’re planning for our third location and commissary kitchen to open in fall of 2014. We would love to have six Chaco Canyons in the Seattle area, with the possibility of doing single franchises in Portland and in Vancouver, BC.

What’s your favorite dish on the menu?

It really changes every couple months. I love our raw enchiladas and am constantly impressed with how vibrant, tasty, and satisfying they are.

What’s your most popular appetizer?

Hands down, our Egyptian Red Lentil Soup. Delicious and nourishing, with a nice hint of lemon and black pepper.

What’s the most popular entrée on the menu?

That would be our lentil burger. Voted the best vegetarian burger in Seattle by Seattle Weekly, it’s ridiculously good. It’s not the healthiest thing on our menu for sure, but something that will put a smile on your face.

What’s your most popular dessert?

Everything our amazing bakery department puts out is gobbled up. The short answer would be our raw brownies—delightfully simple with only five ingredients.

What do you feel is special about your restaurant?

Our “triple bottom line”: valuing people, profit, and planet in all decisions. It’s the absolute pillar of our café. We favor people and planet in nearly all of our decisions, and it’s rare that we ever pick profit over the other two. We value our employees as our most important quality, and are committed to everyone having a joyful experience at Chaco Canyon, and that ethic spreads to our community in a very tangible way.

How often do you change your menu items? Do you have daily or weekly specials?

We have a static menu for the most part that has occasional changes, but we add about fifteen items per month as “local and seasonal specials,” often teaming up with a local farm and featuring their produce.

Do you have gluten-free, soy-free, and sugar-free options on your menu?

Yes, we have numerous selections for all of those categories and many more that deal with other common allergies: nut-free, allium-free, wheat-free, and so on. We’ve become a beacon in the Seattle community for not only specialized diets but restrictive diets due to allergies.

What do you do to reduce your environmental impact?

What don’t we do? Here’s a sampling: We’re the first certified organic vegetarian café in Washington. We hand-sort, compost, and recycle over eighty percent of our waste. We used low-VOC paint and recycled insulation for our walls. We used all recycled wood for the trim and tabletops. We have never provided a disposable spoon or fork in our existence. And much, much more.

What are the most important lessons you’ve learned as owner or chef of this restaurant?

The best ideas for my business come from my employees and our community, not from me.

What led you to want to open a vegan restaurant, and/or what led you to the vegan diet yourself?

When we opened, Seattle had a dearth of vegan options, few organic options, no raw options, and very few fresh juice sources. Yet there was a huge community in each of these categories that was being underserved. We’ve been able to create a vegan menu that is beloved by more carnivores than vegetarians—and that’s a point of pride.

In the time since your restaurant first opened, how has the plant-based food movement changed? Do you find more demand now for vegan food?

I think we really caught the wave as it was forming; veganism was popular and growing ten years ago, and it’s popular and growing now. The difference in my opinion is the rhetoric around it.

Since your restaurant first opened, has your view of what constitutes healthy or delicious food changed? Have you changed the types of foods you offer?

The short answer is yes. What hasn’t changed is that I believe there is no one diet that is best for all, and that there are as many perfect diets as there are people in the world. What works for me won’t work best for you, and vice versa. Chaco Canyon exists to fill in some gaps for people who need options for their particular diet that they can’t get elsewhere.

Where do you see the plant-based food movement going in coming years?

(1) People will move to more urban farming and supporting local farms, which will help plant-based dietary consciousness; (2) Factory farms and GMObased crap will start to lessen their strangleholds on American food systems; and (3) Vegetarianism and veganism will become part of everyone’s weekly, if not daily, regimens.

Gluten-Free Coconut Strawberry Shortcake Cupcakes

Makes 20 cupcakes

2 cups tapioca flour

1⅓ cups white rice flour

1 cup millet flour

2 teaspoons xanthan gum

2 teaspoons baking soda

1¼ teaspoons salt

1⅓ cups shredded coconut

2⅓ cups sugar

1 cup safflower oil

2⅓ cups coconut milk

1 cup water

4 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

For the strawberry filling:

10 ounces frozen strawberries

3 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch

½ cup sugar

2 teaspoons margarine

4 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

For the coconut whipped topping:

1½ tablespoons agar powder

2 teaspoons cornstarch

⅓ cup sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

2½ cups coconut milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons coconut oil

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Using the whisk attachment, whisk together flours and xanthan gum in mixer for about 3 minutes. Add baking soda, salt, shredded coconut, and sugar, and mix briefly. Remove and set aside. In another mixing bowl, mix together wet ingredients: oil, coconut milk, water, apple cider vinegar, and vanilla extract. Slowly add flour mixture and mix thoroughly, at least 5 minutes at medium-high speed. (This is needed to get the xanthan gum to work its magic.) Grease muffin pans liberally. If using muffin liners, spray the inside of the paper cups liberally as well! Fill muffin wells only two-thirds full. Bake in the oven 30 to 40 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. Cool completely.

For the strawberry filling: In a small pot, cook the frozen berries over medium-low heat. In separate bowl, combine cornstarch and sugar. When the berries are warm but not hot, add in the cornstarch mixture to the pot. Cook, stirring frequently, until the mixture is thick, bubbly, and translucent. Remove from heat and mix in margarine and lemon juice. Chill in refrigerator.

For the coconut whipped topping: In small saucepan, whisk together the agar, cornstarch, sugar, and salt. Whisk in the coconut milk. Over medium heat, bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Lower heat, continue stirring constantly, and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat, and stir in vanilla extract and coconut oil. Immediately pour through a fine mesh strainer to remove any agar bits and place in the refrigerator to chill overnight. Remove from the refrigerator and transfer to a mixer. Whip the mixture until smooth and fluffy.

To assemble: Cut a cone-shaped plug out of the top of each cupcake. Pipe coconut whipped topping around the hole. Pipe strawberry filling into the well of the hole until it’s level with the whipped topping.

Tip: Use a piping bag with the big round tip for the strawberry filling for an easier assembly.

Quinoa is a grainlike crop originally grown in the mountainous regions of Ecuador, Columbia, Peru, and Bolivia. It’s considered a complete protein for humans, as it contains a balanced set of essential amino acids. It’s gluten-free and easily digestible, making it an excellent grain alternative. This is a great way to use extra quinoa.

Quinoa Tabbouleh

Serves 4–6 (as a side dish)

2½ cups quinoa

3¼ cups water

1 cup minced fresh parsley (about ½ bunch)

2 cups peeled, seeded, and diced cucumber (½" dices)

Leaves from 3 stalks of mint, minced

¼ cup diced red onion (¼" dices)

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

⅓ cup olive oil

Combine the quinoa with 3¼ cups water in a pot. Bring to a simmer and then reduce heat to low. Cover and cook for 30 to 35 minutes. Remove from heat and let sit covered for an additional 5 minutes. Fluff quinoa with a fork and cover and cool it in the refrigerator at least 4 hours. Once chilled, add quinoa to a large bowl with all the other ingredients. Mix together with a spoon and serve immediately or chill.

Tip: It’s easy to make variations on this recipe. You can mix red and black quinoa together with white (for example, cook 2 cups white quinoa with ½ cup red quinoa or ½ cup black quinoa) or use other grains like barley, farro, red rice, buckwheat, or millet.