Vegetarian food doesn’t have to consist of unpronounceable meat substitutes and bunny chow. The modern take is to find protein and iron in accessible foods. While you’re at it, try including local, organic produce and sustainably raised animal proteins into the mix. We asked four restaurants from carnivorous coast to carnivorous coast to give your vegetarian reformation a kick-start or add a few exceptional dishes to your healthy leafy green repertoire.

Cibo Trattoria, 900 Seymour St., Vancouver, in the Moda Hotel, cibotrattoria.com

Cibo Trattoria is an Italian restaurant that has gotten a prodigious start. Cibo was named the best new restaurant of 2009 in enRoute magazine and was one of Food & Wine magazine’s Best Hotel Restaurants in the world. The London looker chef Neil Taylor, formerly of River Café where Jamie Oliver was discovered, has kept Italian fare high-end yet accessible, incorporating several vegetarian options in among the dishes of meatballs and offal. Cibo also ups their eco involvement by sourcing local produce and offering a bounty of local wines. This dish is evocative of Cibo’s simple sustenance that would seem right for both a late-night meal after seeing Armani at Milan Fashion Week and a dinner after a pastoral grape harvest.

Serves 4

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