Downtown Richmond Gem: Ellwood Thompson's Market

"LOOK! A place for low emission vehicles. Cute!"

I discovered this place from my friend, LaNell (thanks Lanell!), who I have to give a shout out to. She is one of the most compassionate, selfless, helpful, animal-loving vegan I've ever met. Her and her husband are retired but somehow they find the resources to spend everyday rescuing animals, usually cats. She currently takes care of twenty plus cats, some of which have too many medical problems to be adopted. Love you, LaNell!

Ellwood Thompson's is located off of Cary Street in downtown Richmond. Some may consider it a little expensive but the products they carry is so worth the slightly higher price. They promote local fruits and vegetables and it really is a vegan's playground! They even have a raw food bar, albeit a very small one.

First, the bakery case...

Although there are more vegan options in this case, I only labeled my faves :)

Update: Since my labels can only be viewed by a fly, I will rewrite it here (chocolate chip cookies, double chocolate chip cookies, and toffee bars. Update: their)


Next, the vegan hot bar! Yes, everything here is vegan. The first dish to the left is Thai chicken curry. The second is some sort of steak or beef. The one after that is a tofu dish and I can't remember the fourth. The day before they had vegan lasagna and it was absolutely mouth watering!!!


The deli is one of my favorite areas. There are more vegan options here than what is labeled (eggless egg salad, mac n' cheese, barbeque, pizza, samosas [translation: fried potato dumplings], aloo tikkis [translation: potato patties]). There are also vegan chicken nuggets, grilled veggies, vegan potato salad, etc.)

Another one of my favorite areas. Desserts! They have a lovely variety of vegan cakes, cheesecakes, tarts, etc. Very worth trying! Next to the desserts are a variety of tofu, veggie, and vegan wraps and burgers.

Now you know what I mean about Ellwood Thompson's = Gem

Vegan Quesadilla

So I tried a vegan quesadilla from Sticky Fingers Bakery (shown above) and it was delicious! It was a black bean and cheese quesadilla and it cost $7.99. Not a bad price but how difficult could it be to replicate?

Not difficult at all it turns out!

Here are the ingredients you will need:

- Whole wheat tortilla
- Daiya cheese (I've used cheddar so far but seems like mixing the cheddar and mozzarella would be very tasty)
- Black beans
- Onion
- Tomato
- Tofutti sour cream

I sprayed some oil on each of the tortilla. Lay tortilla flat on pan and spread the Daiya cheese generously.

Add the diced tomatoes, onions, and black beans on it. Put another tortilla on top of it.

Put on very low heat since it takes a little longer to melt the Daiya cheese. Adding higher heat will only burn the tortilla. Be sure to flip the tortilla after one side feels crunchy. If anyone knows how to flip a whole tortilla without having any of the fillings fall out, please let me know :-/

Here is how the inside looks (mmmmmmm)....


This was SO delicious!!

I just compared my quesadilla to the sticky fingers one and it looks like they use one large tortilla, fill it, and simply fold it over. Clever!