Winner of First-Ever Vegan Battle of the Brussels Announced

Chef Melissa Charlana won the first-ever vegan Brussels sprouts competition held last week at New York’s vegan restaurant V Spot. The competition asked participants to submit vegan dishes using Brussels sprouts as the honorary ingredient. Charlana’s winning dish was the Buffalo Brussels Bites, which consisted of deep-fried Brussels sprouts served with homemade vegan blue cheese dressing. Second place winners Allison Polaski and Alexis Smith created a “bangin’” pizza topped with Brussels sprouts, while other contenders used the featured ingredient in pasta, pickles, and cake. The competition was the most recent event held by US Veg Corp., which previously organized vegan mac and cheese, taco, and burger cook-offs. According to co-founder Sarah Gross, events such as these bring vegans together in a fun setting: “There’s a lot of applauding and celebrating the goodness of delicious, healthful food.”