Vegan San Diego
3 San Diego Restaurants with Great Vegan Options
Contributor Ashley Jantzen, Holistic Practitioner & life long plant eater
Looking for vegan options in San Diego? Luckily the SoCal vibe is very accommodating to a plant based lifestyle BUT we have expert vegan and Holistic Practitioner Ashley Jantzen to offer some of her favorite vegan restaurants AND dishes!
D’lish: Chula Vista Italian food
Ask for the vegan menu! My go to is the Spanakopita Pizza or the Portobello Pasta.
Both are homemade + unique!
Bangkok Spices Thai North Park
Best Yellow Curry in San Diego!!!
Roots Bowls Hillcrest (bowls and juices)
I love the charcoal bowl! It’s everything you can ever ask for in a bowl :)
Vegan Tips & Suggestions From a Pro:
Restaurant Life:
Look at the menu ahead of time, if you have, just call! I’ve learned most chefs love to venture off of the menu to reconnect with their creativity. I see menus as suggestions and what items they keep on hand :)
Going to an event?
Don’t arrive hungry. Eat prior just in case there isn’t much there for you & arrive with a dish you can share (and eat yourself) ; )
GROWING INTO VEGAN
I grew up in a rural farming community and my family previously owned a farm. We had agricultural as well as live stock and for the most part, lived off the land quite well.
However, as a child, I intuitively did not want to eat meat, and to be honest, my family wasn’t sure how to take care of me nutritionally. Luckily they did not push me too much and routinely made my dish before adding meat for everyone else.
Around 6 years old, someone asked me if I was a vegetarian.
Being that I had never heard that word before, I of course asked what it meant - and wholeheartedly agreed! That was me! I felt proud to call myself a vegetarian and stuck to its meaning.
Fast forward 17 years - I discovered the vegan lifestyle and these three things have stuck with me….
I had no idea animals were being harmed for our consumption of dairy products or eggs.
The affect of animal bi products in our bodies - not just our physical bodies but mental and spiritual as well.
Climate change. Cattle are the No. 1 agricultural source of greenhouse gases worldwide.
After doing loads of research including diving into the health aspect of adapting a vegan lifestyle, it became clear that I would lead a vegan lifestyle from here on out.
Side note: don't do what I did next and send all your new found information to your loved ones. In my experience, it wasn’t received well. Instead lead by example.
I quickly learned that being vegan is easy, especially in Southern California BUT vegan wasn’t my goal in it’s entirety.
My goal was to decrease my carbon footprint, gain optimal health and not harm anyone in the process.
As I shifted to a plant-based diet, I made an appointment with my primary care physician to get a blood panel done for possible nutritional deficiencies as well as an allergy test (luckily, just dust!)
I began to track my nutrition with a chronometer and a few months later, got my blood test done again.
Surprised at my perfect blood work, my doctor asked what I have been doing.
I shared with her my choice to go plant based and my resources (chronometer + the Daily Dozen app to help guide me).
She took down the information so she has tools to share with her other plant based patients. I have maintained my plant based diet and continue to learn ways to increase my health as well as the health of our planet.
I would encourage you to do your own research and start making positive steps to decrease animal suffering and increase your health. It’s a Win Win! I personally have done this on my own without a community or vegan friends. So I know you can too. But I do believe that having a supportive community is extremely beneficial and I would love to be there for you. Feel free to find me at Saffron and Sage. I look forward to meeting you.