A NEW LEAF

214.368.3344

5950 Royal gazeeboburgers.com

The restaurant features an island of condiments such as mayonnaise, honey mustard, ranch, pico de gallo, lettuce, pickles, tomatoes and jalapeños with no upcharge so you can cool your burger down or spice it up.

Eating vegetarian doesn’t require you to pop open cans of spinach daily, a la Popeye. Plenty of restaurants offer vegetable and black bean burgers that taste close to the real thing. Gazeebo Burgers offers four different types of veggie burgers. The garden burger is a patron favorite, says Dan Son, director of operations. “We have it so we can offer any individual choices.” The burger sits in between a toasted, butterfree bun covered with melted Swiss and one-third of an avocado. The restaurant features an island of condiments such as mayonnaise, honey mustard, ranch, pico de gallo, lettuce, pickles, tomatoes and jalapeños with no upcharge so you can cool your burger down or spice it up. Black bean burgers cost 95 cents more, but the garden burger is jaw-droppingly large, and you can order American, pepper jack or cheddar if you feel neutral about Swiss cheese. If you’re the kind of person who needs to pair your burger with something else, yet want to stay healthy, try the side green salad with romaine lettuce, croutons, tomatoes and cucumbers. This isn’t your typical small salad in a Styrofoam bowl; it’s practically a dinner salad.

Gazeebo also offers pasta and Caesar salads that you can order sans the chicken for $2 less. Have a gluten-intolerance? Gazeebo has gluten-free buns for $2 more. Son says the cooks set a portion of the grill aside for the veggie burgers so meat juices don’t taint the vegetarian food. The restaurant also has an open kitchen so you can watch your food being cooked. “The menu will always stay this way,” Son says.

“It’s the old saying, ‘Keep it simple, stupid.’”

TEN MORE SPOTS that offer meat-free menu items for $10 or less

Snappy Salads

972.991.7627

5915 Forest, Suite 300 snappysalads.com

Elevation Burger

214.360.0088

8611 Hillcrest, Suite 195 elevationburger.com

Pizza by Marco

214.363.6122

10720 Preston, Suite 1014 pizzabymarco.com

Celebrity Café and Bakery

214.373.0783

10720 Preston, Suite 1016 enjoycelebrity.com

Royal China

214.361.1771

6025 Royal, Suite 201 royalchinadallas.com

Southpaw’s Organic Café

214.987.0351

6009 Berkshire southpawsgrill.com

Picasso’s 972.503.3300

12300 Inwood, Suite 116 picassospizza.com

The Mint 214.219.6468

4246 Oak Lawn asianmint.com

Celebration Restaurant 214.351.5681

4503 W. Lovers celebrationrestaurant.com

Mughlai 972.392.7786

5301 Alpha, Suite 14 mughlaidallas.com

972.243.0507

2330 Royal, Suite 900 newstartveggiegarden.com

(Closed on Saturdays)

New Start Veggie Garden opened six years ago after owner Susan Kim recovered from breast cancer. Once a meat lover, Kim changed her diet after she was diagnosed, and attributes that to her recovery. The restaurant is centered around an all-vegan buffet that features items such as crispy soy sesame chicken, soy beef, pumpkin miso soup, vegetable tempura, fried rice, spring rolls, kimchee pancakes and even bite-sized cheesecakes made from pineapple and tofu. Drinks are included with the buffet. Choose sweet cinnamon juice or refreshing cucumber lemonade. Each day the chef switches out one or two items, and prepares all the sauces and dressings fresh. The specialty of the buffet is the Bibimbap dish you can make yourself, although manager Seoung Choi is adamant about helping. Bibimbap is basically a large bowl of Asian bean sprouts, bok choy, spinach, radish, carrots, kimchee and eggplant topped with brown rice, Korean spicy sauce, sesame oil and kelp powder. Once that’s done, grab a fork, chopsticks, or whatever makes you comfortable and mix it all together. The vegetables are neither hot nor mushy; they are cold and some are firm. “I want the vegetables to taste alive,” Choi says. That’s not his only wish, though; “I really want to show this food to American people. The owner doesn’t do this for money, but to preach the goodness of this diet.”

“I

214.379.1111

8111 Preston, Suite 150 nsgrillpc.com

Head chef Richard Blankenship put his own spin on traditional Middle Eastern tabouleh with vegetarians and the gluten-intolerant in mind. Blankenship’s black kale tabouleh is crafted with shaved fennel, celery leaves and quinoa with a lemon and olive oil base. “I made this salad differently to meet the dietary demands of the neighborhood,” he says. Traditionally, tabouleh is made with plenty of parsley, bulgur wheat, lemon juice and tomatoes. The chef wasn’t a fan, so he decided to mix it up by replacing parsley with black kale, a super food with tons of vitamin K, vitamin C, vitamin A, magnesium, beta-carotene and chlorophyll; quinoa instead of bulgur wheat; and the fennel and celery to jazz it up. Blankenship also toasts some of the kale to add a little crispiness in place of croutons. “We wanted this to be kind of like a signature dish,” he says. The restaurant also offers an Asian green salad, vegetable roll with asparagus, cucumber, shiso, carrot, celery and ginger, and features a juice bar with fresh extracted fruit and vegetable juices. Blankenship says he might change some items on the menu mid-March to offer lighter, seasonal vegetables. Luckily, the black kale tabouleh isn’t going anywhere, but if you order it, you might want to check your teeth in the bathroom before you leave.