FARMINGTON – Winners of the Second Annual Veggie Madness Restaurant contest held during Moonlight Madness in July was a tie for first place between the Caribbean black bean chili from the Granary’s Brew Pub and Restaurant and spicy Thai butternut lime soup from Soup For You!! cafe.
Free samples of these two winners will be offered at Farmington Fair from 4 to 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 23, at the Healthy Community Coalition’s mobile health unit, located near the grandstand.
Judges for the veggie madness contest in July included Roz Kerr, member of the Nutrition Task Force, Dr. Dora Ann Mills, director of the State Bureau of Health and a Farmington native, Buzz Davis, local community member and Rotary Club president, and State Sen. Chandler Woodcock, R-Farmington.
The contest was sponsored by the Nutrition Task Force of the Healthy Community Coalition. Their goal was to promote increased consumption of vegetables and fruits by community residents. In Franklin County, 72 percent of adults do not consume the recommended five servings of vegetables and fruits a day. This contest is part of a county-wide effort to increase that number.
“Judging was harder this year,” said Kerr. “We had more entries so that’s why we ended up with ties. We were pleased to see more restaurants entering the contest this year so folks can see that a variety of restaurants can offer healthy choices to customers. Both judges and community members enjoyed sampling the entries and sharing their thoughts on them.”
The Granary’s winning chili was a new recipe developed by owner and chef Tom Marcellino and his saut and soup chef Angela Imlay. Soup For You!!’s winning entry was a vegan soup containing butternut squash, green beans, veggie broth, low-fat coconut milk and numerous spices. Second place went to the Homestead Bakery and Restaurant for its wild rice burrito with sauted peppers, onion and cheddar cheese. Tied for third place were Arkay Pizza’s veggie pizza and Athena’s veggie pizza and a veggie calzone. In fourth place was a curry carrot soup and calico bell pepper muffins from cherries.
The restaurants were given guidelines based on recommendations from the American Heart Association and the American Dietetic Association and include having a half cup of a vegetable per serving and being reasonably low in fat and salt. Entries were judged on these guidelines, plus being flavorful and eye appealing. Once the judges tried each entry, the public was invited to sample the dishes and offer their comments.
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