Vegan

Tal Ronnen, a chef aiming to bring veganism to the masses, opens "plant-based" restaurant Crossroads on Melrose Avenue on Thursday. The menu at Crossroads, Ronnen's first L.A. restaurant, features his vegan, Mediterranean-influenced small plates in a chandeliered, wood-floored dining room designed by Studio Collective. Ronnen, author of "The Conscious Cook," teamed with entertainment and hospitality veterans Steve Bing and Parnell F. Delcham to open the white-tablecloth, all-vegetable restaurant in the former Phillipe Chow space at the corner of Sweetzer Avenue.

This post has been updated. Please see below for details. For any festival epicure, Coachella dining is essentially a weekend-long Treat Yo Self Day - and even more so for meat-avoiders. As an 11-years-and-counting vegan, I will say that Coachella has always been a Bizzaro world of food choices. And eating lighter saves you more room for beer without feeling like an engorged python. Coachella took on some enticing new vegan options this year (but seemed to lose some too)

Scott Jurek is a nice guy who exhibits none of the sanctimonious proselytizing that vegans sometimes do. He's also a guy who gave up a fast-food burger diet and runs what many consider to be obscenely long distances. How long? In 2010, he ran an astounding 165.7 miles (more than six marathons) in 24 hours to set a new U.S. record. His long list of running accomplishments has led to much praise, including Ultrarunning magazine three times naming him ultra-runner of the year. He also found time to write the new book "Eat & Run" with Steve Friedman (Houghton Mifflin)

The fourth annual LA Vegan Beer Fest is just around the corner, and attendees will have the opportunity to sample vegan brews from more than 15 breweries and vegan eats from a variety of LA-area restaurants and food trucks. Regardless of whether you keep vegan, vegetarian, or you're a dedicated omnivore, the LA Vegan Beer Fest is one of the better beer festivals in Los Angeles. Held in the Roxy Theatre and co-hosted by the folks behind Tony's Darts Away and vegan food-blogger Quarry Girl , The Vegan Beer Fest is a great way to kick-off a Spring and Summer filled with beer festivals.  The festival is on May 4th at 1pm, and tickets can be purchased online for $40 ($50 for VIP admission)

The vegan lifestyle isn't mainstream yet, but it's surely on its way thanks to the whole food movement inspired by the likes of "Forks Over Knives" and "Food Inc. " Trendy vegan cookbooks, blogs and personalities continue to multiply as we all get " vegucated ," as do the vegan options served at restaurants. I don't remember the last time I was in a restaurant that didn't serve kale or some sort of braised greens. Then again, this is L.A. But is pushing veganism onto children taking things too far?

  Vegan 'clam' chowder Total time: 1 hour, 35 minutes, plus overnight soaking time for the cashews Servings: 12 Note: This recipe calls for a commercial stove-top smoker; a heavy-duty roasting pan with a rack and lid can be substituted. This recipe uses small hardwood hickory chips or shavings; the chips are available at select cooking stores and are widely available online. Kombu (dried seaweed) is available at Asian markets and well-stocked supermarkets.

There's only a one-letter difference between "Vegas" and "vegan," but until recently the two could not have been further apart. For years, the best herbivore option in Sin City has been a nondescript shop on Spring Mountain Road called Ronald's Donuts that sells vegan doughnuts. Imagine my excitement when all 150 pounds of me read that Steve Wynn, the man behind the Encore and Wynn resorts, had gone vegan and mandated that the restaurants at these hotels have vegan menus, although I assumed that meant boring salads with pre-packaged carrot sticks, soggy tofu and absolutely no nutritional value.

I currently follow a strict vegetarian diet and consume no animal products at all. Since vitamin B-12 is missing from the vegan diet, I wonder how many micrograms of it I should take. I've seen B-12 pills of up to 1,500 micrograms each in my food co-op, but the daily requirement is just 3 micrograms. Vitamin B-12 deficiency is far more common than most people realize. Vegans (who eat no eggs, dairy or other animal products) are frequently lacking in this essential nutrient.

There was something about the chicken splayed across his plate that triggered Gene Baur's gross-out reflex more than 25 years ago. As quickly as you can say "Tofurkey," the Hollywood native swore off eating meat. This week, his Farm Sanctuary movement brought veganism to New York's Tavern on the Green restaurant to prove that Thanksgiving can be decadent without turkey, sausage stuffing and buttery mashed potatoes. That's no small feat for someone who once appeared in McDonald's ads and was known to toss dried noodles doused with butter into the microwave and call it dinner.

This recipe from registered dietitian Lisa Gibson provides protein, fiber, iron and vitamin C, and can be easily added to the couple's culinary repertoire: Note: this recipe has not been tested. Swiss chard with cannellini beans (Serves four) 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 1 to 2 medium onions, sliced thin 4 cloves garlic, crushed 1/2 cup vegetable broth 8 cups chopped Swiss chard leaves (remove and discard the long center stem before chopping)

Tal Ronnen, a chef aiming to bring veganism to the masses, opens "plant-based" restaurant Crossroads on Melrose Avenue on Thursday. The menu at Crossroads, Ronnen's first L.A. restaurant, features his vegan, Mediterranean-influenced small plates in a chandeliered, wood-floored dining room designed by Studio Collective. Ronnen, author of "The Conscious Cook," teamed with entertainment and hospitality veterans Steve Bing and Parnell F. Delcham to open the white-tablecloth, all-vegetable restaurant in the former Phillipe Chow space at the corner of Sweetzer Avenue.

Ever feel the need to take off your top while forming a soyrizo loaf? Are you the kind of person who likes to take off their pants and get comfortable before baking a dairy-free cake? Do you prefer to eat your veggie lasagna without socks on? Then nude vegan cooking is for you. Three students named Greta, Jess and Luke from the United Kingdom  have started the blog NakedVeganCooking.com (warning: It's not safe for work). It's exactly what it sounds like. According to the blog, "We like to cook naked, for ourselves, our friends and lovers out of our huge, messy shared house in Manchester.

This post has been updated. Please see note at the bottom for details.  If meat is murder, as Morrissey famously proclaimed during his tenure as the Smiths' frontman, then Staples Center will be signifcantly less-homicidal when the singer plays his sold-out headline gig on March 1. Promoters for the show announced Monday that the downtown arena's food service will incorporate a greatly expanded vegan and vegetarian menu the night of...

Veggie Grill, the chain of vegetarian restaurants based in Santa Monica,  is planning to double its store count within 18 months. In the first half of the year, branches are set to open in Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego and Seattle. The company said it more than doubled its locations last year to 16 eateries in California, Oregon and Washington. In its fourth round of equity fund-raising, announced Monday, Veggie Grill said it raised $20 million in common stock funding.

A new juice bar named Clover is set to open on La Brea on Thursday. The shop's main draw is its cold-pressed juices, each of which, it claims, will pack the nutritional equivalent of three pounds of produce. There will also be kombucha on tap, Stumptown coffee, wheatgrass shots and various cleanse programs for detoxification. The refrigerated food will be a mixture of sandwiches and salads made by Flore vegan cafe in Silver Lake as well as by chef Bruce Kalman (of the Churchill).

Coming to Southern California next year: healthful food with McDonald's business sense and Bill Clinton's blessing. LYFE Kitchen, a year-old Palo Alto restaurant that hits all the organic, local, vegan and gluten-free buzz words beloved of health nuts and foodies, is arriving in Culver City in mid to late February. The brand will then set up shop in Tarzana and West Hollywood this summer, according to the company, whose name is short for Love Your Food Everyday. It was launched in October 2011 by Mike Roberts, the former president and chief operating officer of McDonald's.

Seitan Wellington, it's what's for dinner this holiday season. At least it is if you're vegan, interested in becoming vegan, trying to balance your meat-heavy diet or just hanging around in the Spork Foods kitchen. Founded four years ago by sisters Heather and Jenny Goldberg, Spork Foods is a vegan food company that teaches cooking classes and revamps pantries with vegan and organic diet options. And just in time for the food-saturated holiday season, the sisters, in conjunction with an independent film collective called Open Road Films, have launched an online series of cooking classes in order to teach their vegan techniques to as many people ?

If you don't wear animals on your body, chances are you're loath to smear one on your face. And even if an animal byproduct isn't used in a moisturizer or a blush, those who don't eat or wear products of any kind from beings that walk, fly or swim have another concern. They want to know that the goods they use weren't tested on animals. Satisfying the demand for products that fit those descriptions is an über-niche market in the cosmetics industry: vegan beauty products. An extension of so-called natural beauty products, which largely eschew petrochemical ingredients, vegan items restrict their ingredient lists even further by prohibiting beeswax (which is often used in lip balms and mascaras)

The vegan lifestyle and the lifestyle of professional athletes aren't often associated with each other. But John Salley, a former NBA star who's played with the Chicago Bulls and the Los Angeles Lakers, swears by the strictly animal- and animal-product-free diet he's taken up since retiring from the game. Here, he talks about maintaining his energy and ability, the benefits of going vegan and misconceptions. Why did you decide to become vegan? Five years ago, I was doing a [public service announcement]

It kind of makes sense when you think about it, but I was still taken aback by the announcement that the launch party for Joseph Shuldiner's new cookbook "Pure Vegan" will be held at Lindy & Grundy . That, of course, is a butcher shop, albeit of a very particular type. Anyway, the party is Aug. 19 from 6 to 9 p.m. It will be very interesting to see what is served. And will the meat cases be full or empty? This is not the time to proselytize, girls. Shuldiner is the founder of the Institute of Domestic Technology, a kind of new-age, back-to-the-roots home ec department.