Photo courtesy of Jessica Krock / Krocks in the kitchen
Two bowls at Crazy Bowls & Wraps with Smoky Mediterranean dressing
Caryn Dugan, better known as STLVegGirl, has teamed up with St. Louis-based Crazy Bowls & Wraps to create a plant-based sauce.
Dugan, who runs The Center for Plant-based Living in Kirkwood, created an oil-, soy-, gluten-, and nut-free sauce that she calls Smokey Mediterranean, which can be used as a salad dressing or sauce on any of Crazy Bowls’ salads, wraps, or bowls. The tahini-based sauce is also the perfect subsitute for the tzatziki sauce that accompanies the gluten-free falafel.
Crazy Bowls' founder, Keith Kitsis, describes the taste as “smoky sundried tomato." It joins the roster of six vegan sauces currently available at Crazy Bowls: Olive Oil & Herb, Hiyashi, Teriyaki, Spicy Teriyaki, Garlic Ginger, and Jalapeño Cilantro.
Dugan's creation dovetails with the local restaurant chain's newly introduced lifestyle bowls, which address specific diets: plant-based, paleo, gluten-free, whole 30, and keto. “Now people following certain diets no longer have to add this item or take away that one in order to conform to it,” Kitsis says, noting that the lifestyle filters are very specific, so the bowls are currently available on the stores' online menus and self-ordering kiosks. (Kitsis plans to add more of those kiosks in the coming year: "We need our order takers to become order makers.")
The lifestyle bowls are among the many items introduced over the years by menu consultant and chef Greg Perez (formerly with Big Sky Café, Blue Water Grill, Painted Plates, Piccolo’s, and Grateful Inn). “We already knew that people want hand-made, fresh foods, which became more and more obvious during the last year,” Kitsis says. “We don’t see that changing."
As for future collaborations with Dugan, Kitsis says, “It’s our first collaboration, but it won’t be our last.”
