Sol Food (AKA Spring of Life) in Bowral is one of my favourite places to eat lunch.
Aside from the fact that it’s just a few doors down from my place of work, the food is always spot on. It’s consistently fresh, flavoursome and completely satisfying.
Sol Food’s counter offers an array of tantalising, healthy treats!
SOL FOOD MENU
This Asian-inspired lunch café serves 95 percent vegan food and 100 percent vegetarian. While I’m not completely vegetarian or vegan, it is a way of eating that I like to follow for my health, the health of our planet and the welfare of the animals we share our earth with.
SOL Food stands for Spring of Life, but it truly is food for the soul, too.
Rice paper rolls with vegan “prawns”
Healthy, hearty and delicious, the flavours are clean and the textures are crisp and fresh. The owner and chef is a lovely lady called Chelsea. She’s been vegetarian/vegan since birth, so it’s safe to say she knows what she is doing when it comes to this kind of cuisine!
Sol food owner and chef, Chelsea is intent on making plant based foods accessible and delicious for everyone!
SOL FOOD STORY
Chelsea opened the family-run cafe in 2010, in an effort to make healthy, tasty, meat-free food user-friendlier to the general community. She and her sisters were born in Taiwan and the food reflects their origin, but with a truly accessible bent. It’s not uncommon to see a queue of customers spilling out the door and along the sidewalk.
“We are constantly challenging ourselves to improve and create new dishes to ensure that our customers never consider a meat-free diet to be boring, bland or limited,” she said.
The ‘meats’ are made using plants and soy products and are so much like the real thing that you’d never know the difference. Chelsea creates the most incredible fish, seafood, beef, chicken and duck substitutes that are not at all bland like a lot of meat substitutes can be. In fact, I think they’re actually better than the real thing.
My Faves
In winter, I choose from soups such as Won Ton Soup and Special Noodle Soup and my favourite, Fried Noodles Tom Yum style. There’s also veggie meatballs, Korean mixed rice, fried rice and the best steamed dumplings I think I’ve had ever. They’re made from soy ‘chicken’, baby buk choy and English spinach.
Steamed ‘chicken’ dumplings
Delicious laksa makes the perfect winter warmer
In summer, I regularly have the Crispy Soy Duck Salad for lunch. It’s filling and tasty and is loaded up with celery, cucumber, lettuce, tomato and cashew, as well as the crispy soy ‘duck’. Its dressing is to-die-for.
There’s also Kimchi to help with gut health, rice paper rolls filled with an array of veggies and either veggie ‘prawn’ or soy ‘chicken’ and sushi made with vegie tuna, or soy chicken.
Sol Food also offers a small selection of fried offerings (for when I’m feeling naughty). My must-have is the veggie golden ‘shrimp’ made from Konjac and breadcrumbs.
Crispy ‘Duck’ Salad
The Ethos
Chelsea and her sisters truly believe the mantra, “Respect for all living creatures can well be the beginning of peace and harmony”. This is evident in the peaceful, harmonious atmosphere you encounter on each visit to SOL Food.
In keeping with this, the family also has a holistic health clinic in Moss Vale, called Spring of Life Therapy. It offers traditional Chinese medicine, remedial massage, cupping, acupuncture, herbal remedies, therapeutic support, lymphatic drainage and weight loss/management support.
Consider them your one stop shop to health and wellness!
Love, Di xxx
SOL Food is located at:
Shop 3
391-397 Bong Bong Street
Bowral, NSW
Tel:02 4861 3532
If you wish to learn more about life and property in the Southern Highlands, please contact me via www.homeandhearthproperty.com.au
