Learn about the recipe testing process and the thoughts behind some of our new spring menu meals.
When springtime rolls around, Thistle’s Culinary R&D team revels in the opportunity to make some pretty significant changes to our menu by introducing fruits and vegetables that we haven’t gotten to play with for quite some time. The transition between fall and winter has some subtle changes: less apple, pear, and pumpkin—and more dark red fruit like pomegranate, cranberry, and citrus. But, there are plenty of produce that is abundant throughout both seasons including hard winter squashes and Brussels sprouts. When spring rolls around, our team has an especially fun time overhauling the menu and bringing back some of our favorites such as bright tart berries, spring peas, and hearty root vegetables.
We have a few perfected plates making a reappearance from last year, such as the Toasted Pepita Spread and Spring Cobb Salad. The Blueberry Sorghum Salad is also making a comeback because we wanted to feature sorghum, a plant-based protein with a bouncy bite. It’s packed with B vitamins, antioxidants, protein, and fiber. We also added our tangy tofu “feta” which pairs beautifully with the sweet and vibrant blueberry vinaigrette.
Another new spring salad we’re excited to have on the menu is the Ras el Hanout Roasted Turnip & Radish Salad. We admit, some of our team was at an embarrassingly old age when we first tried cooked radish. When it’s roasted, the crisp and spicy root transforms into a soft, mellow, and almost potato-like consistency with a bit of crunch. We serve these roasted radishes alongside hearty turnips, both tossed in a deep and complex spice blend called Ras el Hanout, crafted by one of our favorite partners, Oaktown Spice Shop. Ras el Hanout translates to “head of the shop,” which means the best spices the shop has to offer—and Oaktown’s Ras el Hanout is composed of over 20 different herbs and spices.
We also partnered with Oaktown Spice Shop for our new spring dinner, Japanese Carrot Curry. This dish is a labor of love made by Briana, one of Thistle’s R&D chefs. It took multiple iterations to get the curry sauce for this dish juuuuust right. She uses carrots as the key ingredient to make the sauce thick and creamy while adding just a touch of natural sweetness. Then, Oaktown's Japanese Curry Powder brings the perfect balance of savory and sweet spices, as well as a tad of heat.
A new snack that you’ll see on the spring menu actually happened quite by accident. Occasionally our team will prepare existing dishes for photo shoots. I was in charge of preparing the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Dip that you’re likely familiar with if you’ve been with Thistle for a few months.I thought I had grabbed raw cashew butter, but instead it turned out I added creamy peanut butter. When I was scooping the dip into its container, I could tell it smelled differently and thought, “wait, did I add peanut butter?” But when I tried a scoop-full, it was delicious! My mind immediately went to PB&J (one of my favorite combinations) so with just the addition of our Mixed Berry Chia Jam, a new snack was born! It will be served alongside FitJoy gluten-free pretzels, freeze-dried strawberries, and crunchy banana chips—all great scoopers!
While we’re talking about new menu items of the sweeter persuasion, we have a new Deconstructed Carrot Cake Toast that is both hearty and decadent—all in one bite. This was another one of Briana’s creations, inspired by her family’s love of all forms of carrot confections; carrot muffins, carrot pancakes and of course the traditional carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. For Briana’s Thistle-ified carrot cake breakfast, she roasted carrot coins with the warm spices of Oaktown’s Pumpkin Pie Spice, and then topped it with a carrot cake granola made up of walnuts, pumpkin seeds, shredded coconut and golden raisins. To complete this decadent breakfast, she served it with our coconut cream cheese, which features the amazing plant-based coconut yogurt, Cocojune.
While brainstorming our spring menu, we challenged ourselves to explore new meal formats and ideas to increase variety beyond simply creating new recipes. One of the new ideas we will be exploring this spring is baked breakfast treats in a square baking dish. You’ll see this with our new Black Tahini Brownie and Polenta Almond Cake with Chia Jam. The inspiration for the Polenta Almond Cake came from an Italian restaurant in my neighborhood from which my husband and I occasionally order pizza. Their dessert menu always catches my eye, so I can’t help but add a goodie or two whenever we order. When I tried their Polenta Almond Cake, I knew I could absolutely make a Thistle version that would be packed with protein, fiber, and crunchy cornmeal goodness. The base of this cake is almond flour and polenta cornmeal. On its first iteration the two gritty “flours” resulted in a very crumbly (albeit tasty), dry cake. For my second attempt I added oat flour and slightly increased the orange juice, which resulted in a much more moist and cohesive final product. The cake is served with a berry chia jam, which adds a beautiful pop of color along with some bright acidity and a touch of sweetness.
This season’s Lemongrass Lettuce Cups will be another exploration into a new meal composition. Our Chef de Cuisine, Naiha, created a meal where you’ll be able to build your own lettuce cups using crisp romaine with a delicious mince of water chestnuts, mushrooms, ginger, and carrots. Then, it’s topped with an umami-packed housemade vegan “fish” sauce that Naiha created using ulva (sea lettuce) and dried shiitake mushrooms. The crunchy mince will also contain either buckwheat or ground chicken, depending on which meal version you select. If you really love salads, you can easily tear up the romaine leaves, mix everything together, and enjoy it like any of our lunches!
As we move into any new season the team is always excited to share our new creations with the Thistle family. With each new menu, we pour in time, energy and love into each dish—and we can’t wait to hear what you think! Each week, our team pours through the numerous comments and ratings you provide through the Thistle portal and we absolutely take your feedback into account. We love to hear from you (especially when you get specific!) and we can’t wait for you to try what we have in store for you this spring.
Learn about the recipe testing process and the thoughts behind some of our new spring menu meals.
When springtime rolls around, Thistle’s Culinary R&D team revels in the opportunity to make some pretty significant changes to our menu by introducing fruits and vegetables that we haven’t gotten to play with for quite some time. The transition between fall and winter has some subtle changes: less apple, pear, and pumpkin—and more dark red fruit like pomegranate, cranberry, and citrus. But, there are plenty of produce that is abundant throughout both seasons including hard winter squashes and Brussels sprouts. When spring rolls around, our team has an especially fun time overhauling the menu and bringing back some of our favorites such as bright tart berries, spring peas, and hearty root vegetables.
We have a few perfected plates making a reappearance from last year, such as the Toasted Pepita Spread and Spring Cobb Salad. The Blueberry Sorghum Salad is also making a comeback because we wanted to feature sorghum, a plant-based protein with a bouncy bite. It’s packed with B vitamins, antioxidants, protein, and fiber. We also added our tangy tofu “feta” which pairs beautifully with the sweet and vibrant blueberry vinaigrette.
Another new spring salad we’re excited to have on the menu is the Ras el Hanout Roasted Turnip & Radish Salad. We admit, some of our team was at an embarrassingly old age when we first tried cooked radish. When it’s roasted, the crisp and spicy root transforms into a soft, mellow, and almost potato-like consistency with a bit of crunch. We serve these roasted radishes alongside hearty turnips, both tossed in a deep and complex spice blend called Ras el Hanout, crafted by one of our favorite partners, Oaktown Spice Shop. Ras el Hanout translates to “head of the shop,” which means the best spices the shop has to offer—and Oaktown’s Ras el Hanout is composed of over 20 different herbs and spices.
We also partnered with Oaktown Spice Shop for our new spring dinner, Japanese Carrot Curry. This dish is a labor of love made by Briana, one of Thistle’s R&D chefs. It took multiple iterations to get the curry sauce for this dish juuuuust right. She uses carrots as the key ingredient to make the sauce thick and creamy while adding just a touch of natural sweetness. Then, Oaktown's Japanese Curry Powder brings the perfect balance of savory and sweet spices, as well as a tad of heat.
A new snack that you’ll see on the spring menu actually happened quite by accident. Occasionally our team will prepare existing dishes for photo shoots. I was in charge of preparing the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Dip that you’re likely familiar with if you’ve been with Thistle for a few months.I thought I had grabbed raw cashew butter, but instead it turned out I added creamy peanut butter. When I was scooping the dip into its container, I could tell it smelled differently and thought, “wait, did I add peanut butter?” But when I tried a scoop-full, it was delicious! My mind immediately went to PB&J (one of my favorite combinations) so with just the addition of our Mixed Berry Chia Jam, a new snack was born! It will be served alongside FitJoy gluten-free pretzels, freeze-dried strawberries, and crunchy banana chips—all great scoopers!
While we’re talking about new menu items of the sweeter persuasion, we have a new Deconstructed Carrot Cake Toast that is both hearty and decadent—all in one bite. This was another one of Briana’s creations, inspired by her family’s love of all forms of carrot confections; carrot muffins, carrot pancakes and of course the traditional carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. For Briana’s Thistle-ified carrot cake breakfast, she roasted carrot coins with the warm spices of Oaktown’s Pumpkin Pie Spice, and then topped it with a carrot cake granola made up of walnuts, pumpkin seeds, shredded coconut and golden raisins. To complete this decadent breakfast, she served it with our coconut cream cheese, which features the amazing plant-based coconut yogurt, Cocojune.
While brainstorming our spring menu, we challenged ourselves to explore new meal formats and ideas to increase variety beyond simply creating new recipes. One of the new ideas we will be exploring this spring is baked breakfast treats in a square baking dish. You’ll see this with our new Black Tahini Brownie and Polenta Almond Cake with Chia Jam. The inspiration for the Polenta Almond Cake came from an Italian restaurant in my neighborhood from which my husband and I occasionally order pizza. Their dessert menu always catches my eye, so I can’t help but add a goodie or two whenever we order. When I tried their Polenta Almond Cake, I knew I could absolutely make a Thistle version that would be packed with protein, fiber, and crunchy cornmeal goodness. The base of this cake is almond flour and polenta cornmeal. On its first iteration the two gritty “flours” resulted in a very crumbly (albeit tasty), dry cake. For my second attempt I added oat flour and slightly increased the orange juice, which resulted in a much more moist and cohesive final product. The cake is served with a berry chia jam, which adds a beautiful pop of color along with some bright acidity and a touch of sweetness.
This season’s Lemongrass Lettuce Cups will be another exploration into a new meal composition. Our Chef de Cuisine, Naiha, created a meal where you’ll be able to build your own lettuce cups using crisp romaine with a delicious mince of water chestnuts, mushrooms, ginger, and carrots. Then, it’s topped with an umami-packed housemade vegan “fish” sauce that Naiha created using ulva (sea lettuce) and dried shiitake mushrooms. The crunchy mince will also contain either buckwheat or ground chicken, depending on which meal version you select. If you really love salads, you can easily tear up the romaine leaves, mix everything together, and enjoy it like any of our lunches!
As we move into any new season the team is always excited to share our new creations with the Thistle family. With each new menu, we pour in time, energy and love into each dish—and we can’t wait to hear what you think! Each week, our team pours through the numerous comments and ratings you provide through the Thistle portal and we absolutely take your feedback into account. We love to hear from you (especially when you get specific!) and we can’t wait for you to try what we have in store for you this spring.
