Ashvita Nirvana Brings To Chennai A Delicious Vegan Experience with Vegan Bites This Weekend

Vegan food often gets a bad name simply because it’s not what majority of the people in the world eat, but what is slowly happening to the food scene is that there are more and more vegans and more and more people interested in the benefits and the experience of being vegan. Vegan Bites is a Mumbai based meal service that provides alternative easy and convenient healthy meal choices. Think of your usual food, but with a twist.

Meet Samir and Hemali Pasad, the founders and chefs of Vegan Bites. Samir has been vegan for almost 20 years, while his wife became vegan once they were married. And since then, the two of them have been trying all kinds of new things with vegan food, including providing full meals all over Mumbai as well as making their very own brand of ice cream. And now they’re in Chennai for a weekend pop-up at Ashvita Nirvana.

Ashvita is known for their exciting and innovative food pop-ups happening quite often through the year, but this is the first pop-up happening at Ashvita Nirvana! And of course as the vegetarian restaurant in the Ashvita ‘family’, it’s no surprise that Nirvana is the one hosting this vegan food experience.

One of the great things about Vegan Bites is that they’ve experimented with pretty much everything to bring to the table delicious vegan food and they have found ways to produce familiar dishes with almost all the same ingredients without ever making you feel like you’re not eating something new. The Vegan Bites special is only available this weekend and there are two special menus for the three days so make sure that you call today and make a reservation!

The four-course meal started with soup. Each day, you get to choose from one of two soups. But we got to try two of the soups – Broccoli Almond Soup and Tomato Basil Soup. One is a slightly thicker and creamier soup, while the Tomato Basil was lighter and pulpier. Both were strong in flavour and absolutely delicious.

Like the soups, each diner gets to choose from two starters per day depending on what they’re in the mood for. We had a portion of the Eggplant Parmigiana and the Zucchini Noodles. What blows your mind is that there is absolutely no cream or cheese in any of these dishes and yet, the food retains the taste and flavour completely. The Noodles are served raw and accompanied by a pesto sauce and a marinara sauce that compliments the raw noodles perfectly.

The main course also comes with choices, and we got the Mushroom Risotto. The risotto was made as it would usually be, but instead of cheese or cream, they used coconut milk and cashew cheese. You would never know unless told, because the risotto tastes fantastic either way!

You might not think that ice cream can be vegan, but you’ll be pleasantly surprised by what can be done with vegan ingredients. Vegan Bites has found a way to make great ice creams that retain flavour as well as the texture, complimenting your meal really well. The dessert however, is only one option and depending on the day you visit, you’ll get a bowl of Cookies & Cream or Chocolate Chips. Of course sharing the ingredients and process would be giving away too much, but just know that one scoop may not be enough.

Vegan Bites is happening at Ashvita Nirvana from the 25^th to the 27^th of November. Call 97910 88189 to make a reservation so that you do not miss out on this experience! Ashvita Nirvana is located at #33, 5th Avenue, Besant Nagar.