if you read my blog, you probably know i’m pretty nuts about follow your heart. i’ve had a few breakfast items, as well as their signature burger, and everything has been memorable. fyh is a tiny little vegetarian restaurant in the valley with heaps of tasty food and a real hippie vibe, shoved into the back of a natural foods supermarket. while a lot of menu items contain dairy, virtually almost anything on the crazy-long menu can be made vegan with the help of their own brand of nondairy cheese.

on my most recent visit, i decided to steer clear of my beloved follow your heart breakfast menu, and opt for one of the lunch entrees…the braised tofu soft tacos. omg, they were awesome. i really wonder what else is hiding out in that thick encyclopedia of a menu that i haven’t gotten around to sampling yet.

braised tofu soft tacos: organic corn tortillas filled with braised tofu, vegan cheese, diced tomato, lettuce and cilantro. served with black beans, spanish rice, guacamole, sour cream and salsa. $11.50

at follow your heart, they just don’t fuck around. if you order an entree, you get enough food to feed you and 3 of your friends. i mean, just look at the description. you get 2 tacos, a side of black beans, a mound of rice and a big scoop of guacamole for under $12. i am repeatedly blown away by just how much they give you at follow your heart and just how good it is.

all the sides were very tasty, and the main dish was absolutely insane. the braised tofu was a whole new experience for me.

according to wikipedia, braising “is a combination cooking method using both moist and dry heat; typically the food is first seared at a high temperature and then finished in a covered pot with a variable amount of liquid, resulting in a particular flavour.”

whatever that means, it turned the tofu into a whole new deal. by the time they were done with it, it didn’t taste or look like tofu. instead, it reminded me of a really good tvp or seitan meat substitute. you really oughta try it.

so count on follow your heart to provide surprisingly great meals time after time. from breakfast to lunch, scramble to burrito, this place has got it nailed.

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follow your heart never ceases to amaze me. they are this awesome entirely vegetarian health food supermarket attached to a kick-ass vegetarian cafe, where almost any dish can be made vegan. the more i shop there, the more i realize how freaking special it is. i mean, it’s been around since 1970, which means they must be doing something right. then they go ahead and offer one of the most extensive, mouth-watering menus in the land. and everything i’ve eaten in their cafe is amazing. sunday’s breakfast was no different. a slice of vegan perfection, indeed…except for one thing. a quarrygirl pet peeve, un-advertized ingredients arrived on my plate. in this case, it was bell peppers (which i despise) sneaking into my side of breakfast potatoes. grrrr.

tofu benedict breakfast special: poached tofu and tomato on a toasted english muffin, smothered in an eggless hollandaise sauce. served with breakfast potatoes, soyrizo, scrambled tofu & spinach. $11.95

despite the bell peppers, this mini-feast was absolutely wonderful! i had really high standards for a tofu benedict, after trying flore’s variation, but i can definitely say that follow your heart brought their A game with this one. the little tofu cutlets were topped with thick, fresh slices of tomato, slathered in the creamiest sauce and topped with slightly cooked leaves of spinach. as if that wasn’t enough, there was a clump of breakfast style scrambled tofu on the side and a mound of perfectly seasoned soyrizo. of course the first thing i did after snapping these photos was cover the whole plate in brother bru-bru’s, the insanely spicy african hot sauce supplied at the cafe. 

i think i am in love with tofu benedicts. vegan hollandaise sauce is some of the most rich and sinful stuff i’ve ever eaten, a perfect compliment to all the fresh vegetables and the modest slices of tofu. the tofu just needs to be heated, not cooked elaborately or even seasoned. once the sauce is poured on, it infiltrates and turns the tofu into a tasty little protein sponge. it doesn’t stop there either, it oozes down and gets totally soaked up by the porous english muffin as well. i’m telling you, this sauce improves everything it touches. thankfully, they basically drown the plate in it, so there was enough hollandaise to scoop on top of the scrambled tofu and soyrizo as well.

luckily, the bell peppers were confined to a small section of the plate. while it could have been a lot worse, unfortunately the whole side of breakfast potatoes had to be quarantined.

so there ya have it, another awesome breakfast at follow your heart. i’ll give it an overall A-, points were deducted for unadvertised ingredients. if you hate any food, you should check to make sure it won’t be arriving on your plate. (the burger also comes with unadvertised pickles!)

definitely a favorite sunday breakfast spot, so i’m sure you’ll be reading about again sometime soon. and i really gotta try out their lunch and dinner menu as well! oh and when you check out the cafe, don’t forget to fill an entire cart with vegan groceries from their market on your way out.

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i’m really diggin’ the food at follow your heart. it’s one of those places that serves a huge menu of dangerously delicious vegetarian dishes, almost all of which can be made vegan. plus they have a great selection of hot sauces. what more do i require?

i think i may have to keep going back until i’ve tried everything on the menu. too bad it’s located pretty bloody deep into the valley and is usually packed on the weekends, which means a long drive and a wait for me if i want to get breakfast on a sunday. oh well, the food definitely makes up for it.

bob's breakfast (veganized): 2 corn tortillas covered w/ black beans, tofu, sauteed in a mild salsa verde. served with spanish rice, guacamole and grilled bananas. $9.95

i don’t know who bob is, but his breakfast is off the hook! you gotta try this out if you visit follow your heart. when i was a vegetarian, one of my weekend traditions was ordering huevos rancheros for breakfast. this definitely scratches the same itch, but uses tofu instead of eggs, which we all know is a lot kinder and also ended up being a hell of a lot tastier.

the tofu was firm, flavorful and covered in the yummiest green salsa. there was also some kind of fake cheese sprinkled all over my plate that was quite melted, but it sure tasted good. the grilled bananas were perfectly cooked and went down well with half a bottle of brother bru bru’s hot sauce. top that off with a huge mound of rice and a ball of guacamole, and you’ve got a great breakfast and good value for just under 10 bucks.

ahhhh. so replete. yes, i will be back.

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follow your heart? of course, they are the ones who make the awesome fake mayonnaise and the vegan cheese that doesn’t melt! yeah, and they have that supermarket in the valley with all neat healthy stuff. but did you know they also have a restaurant? i don’t know why it never occurred to me until recently to try their café (maybe eating in the back of a grocery store didn’t sound very appealing), but now i’m sure glad i did. the food was spectacular, and the atmosphere was just fine—i forgot that the bustling health food market on the other side of the wall even existed.

breakfast burrito: scrambled tofu, black beans and vegetarian ‘chorizo’, wrapped in an oversized whole wheat tortilla. served with spanish rice, guacamole and vegan sour cream. $7.95

follow your heart burger: burger pattie with vegan cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, vegenaise and thousand island dressing, on a toasted whole wheat bun. $7.95

before i even say that the food tastes good, check out those huge portions they give you for under $8! with the economy plummeting and food prices soaring, i challenge you to find a healthy vegan meal in a sit-down restaurant at a better value. on top of that, everything tasted incredible. the burrito was stuffed with the finest of fake meat, and the sour cream & guac garnishes were delicious. the burger was also tasty and hearty—the follow your heart cheese was even melted. how on earth did they accomplish that?

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