Courtesy of Rachel Carr
Rachel Carr is on the move. A St. Louis native and the founder of Plant Craft Kitchen, a popular vegan meal-delivery service, Carr recently opened a brick-and-mortar space in Sunset Hills, at 3860 S. Lindbergh. Her journey toward this career began at age 10, when her family adopted a macrobiotic diet and holistic healing after her stepmother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Later, while attending Webster University, Carr became a vegetarian after meeting a like-minded group of people. It wasn’t until she was 35 and living in Los Angeles that she explored veganism as a cleanse. Back then, she was working as a seamstress in the entertainment industry, and there were long stretches of time between gigs. As she began cooking more, she decided to become a personal chef. When another chef abruptly quit at a neighborhood vegan café that Carr frequented, a friend of Carr’s persuaded the owner to hire her. Although she didn’t know anything about running a restaurant, Carr stayed on for seven years. She’s since worked at a food truck, a pizzeria, a Peruvian concept, and a burger place—all of which were vegan. In addition to working in restaurants, Carr has written a blog that led to a cookbook, Modern Raw. She has also recorded videos for the Plant Craft Kitchen YouTube channel, and developed recipes. When she creates recipes, her “main inspiration is non-vegan food,” she says, and she embraces the challenge of making it plant-based and delicious. The entrepreneur shared some insights about healthy eating, from recipes to restaurants.
On favorite restaurants: My favorite vegan restaurant is Small Batch. They have an interesting menu, they execute it well, the restaurant is beautiful, and I’ve had excellent service there. For a quick meal, I like to go to DD Mau in Webster Groves. I also really like Vicia, and SweetArt is great.
On popular items in the meal-delivery program: Comfort food—dishes that are familiar and approachable—like the lentil meatloaf (see recipe), spaghetti and meatballs, tamales, and mac and cheese. One thing that I really love about the meal-delivery service is that our customers are willing to try almost anything. We do some pretty exotic dishes from time to time, like chermoula eggplant, and people want to check it out.
On sourcing ingredients: I get a lot from Costco—they have a ton of organics. I’ll go to Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s if it’s an ingredient I need just a small amount of. Organic jackfruit is hard to find anywhere in St. Louis, so I order that on Amazon in large quantities. There’s also nuts.com—we use a lot of cashews, pumpkin seeds, quinoa, and brown rice in our cooking.
On her approach to cooking plant-based food: I just make food that I like that is healthy and that people will enjoy, whether they’re vegan or not, and I hope that they are willing to give it a try.
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Lentil “Meat” Loaf
Serves 10
INGREDIENTS
- 3 cups mushrooms, sliced
- 1 tsp. sea salt, plus more for seasoning
- Black pepper, to taste
- 1 large sweet potato, peeled and sliced (about 2 cups)
- ½ cup rolled oats
- 2 cups walnuts
- 1 Tbsp. thyme, chopped
- 2 cups cooked green or brown lentils
- 4 Tbsp. tomato paste
- 2 Tbsp. tamari
- Ketchup
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat oven to 350°.
- Sauté the mushrooms in a medium nonstick pan over low heat with water or stock for 3–5 minutes until tender. Season to taste with sea salt and black pepper. Transfer the mushrooms to a bowl, reserving the liquid.
- Add the sweet potatoes to the pan with mushroom liquid. Cover and sauté over low heat in about ½ cup water or stock (add more liquid as needed) until tender and lightly browned, about 10 minutes.
- While the sweet potatoes are cooking, add rolled oats and walnuts to a food processor. Pulse until crumbled.
- Add the cooked mushrooms and sweet potatoes to the food processor with the walnuts and rolled oats. Add the thyme, cooked lentils, 1 tsp. of sea salt, tomato paste, and tamari to the food processor. Pulse until well incorporated but chunky. Transfer to a mixing bowl and adjust the flavor with more salt and black pepper.
- Transfer the mixture to a parchment-lined bread pan. Spread a thin layer of ketchup on top of the loaf to help seal in the moisture.
- Bake at 350° for 1 hour. Allow the loaf to cool slightly before removing it from the pan and slicing.
Tip: To prevent mushy lentil loaf, cook all the liquid out of the lentils.
