Canggu Vegan Cafe
Our Canggu vegan cafe is more than a café since we are also a teaching kitchen, a co-creation, coworking space, community builder through events and a healing space. Our main focus is creating exquisite tasty vegan food and a unique experience for all of our customers.
At Living Food Lab, we soak most of our nuts and seeds before we blend or chop them. This helps to remove the enzyme inhibitors. Whether it’s for a nut milk, a sauce, a wrap, bread, energy ball, cake, or chocolate, all our food is made from scratch with attention to detail. Like with a watercolor painting, we can’t hide behind anything. If an ingredient is spoiled or moldy, there is no hiding. We have integrity by our nature and as a part of our core values and preparing this kind of vegan food also means that the sensitivity of smell and taste is heightened.
Our drinks all have fresh fruit or veggies slow-juiced or blended as their base, as well as almond, cashew, coconut or oat milk. Blended by us with a 1:1, 1:2 or 1:3 ratio, we are generous with the flavor and creaminess, where needed. Guests can customize their own breakfast and salad bowls. The salad bar includes gourmet ingredients as black olives and dried tomatoes and different bases as zucchini and carrot spirals. All of them are fresh and accompanied by tasty dressings as tahini or pesto sauce.
“I think the appeal is in the promise of excellent health and vitality that people who practice this lifestyle promise through their goal. In reality, food alone is not going to give a person glow. It takes more: exercise, non-toxic body care, mindfulness and spiritual practice, as well as love, satisfaction and joy.” – Pauliina Salmenhaara, Living Food Lab co-founder and chef.
We have a lot of dehydrated foods, which are all raw. Especially when making the switch to vegan food, these provide the comfort foods. They are a connection to what used to be old and familiar. When a vegan diet has become the norm, its normal for the body to crave foods with 70% water content, and there is less desire for dehydrated foods. However, the majority of us are still in the phase where we crave foods that are similar to what we used to eat, because we have too many emotional attachments, and for this reason we prepare foods such as nachos, “burgers”, wraps, biscuits, crackers, and breads.
Living Food Lab: Behind the name for our Canggu vegan cafe
Living food is food that is alive with nutrients and enzymes, often called the life-force or energy of a food. Is this the same as raw food? Not quite. Living food is by nature raw, but raw food is not necessarily live food. Raw food is raw food as long as it’s raw, meaning that it hasn’t been heated above 47 degrees celsius. Living food means food that has been activated, through the sprouting of nuts and seeds. It also refers to fermented foods.
Live foods contain high concentrations of “active” enzymes, whilst inactivated raw food contains “dormant” (sleeping) enzymes. Living food is high in antioxidants, has a higher nutrient content and is more bio available (the body absorbs the nutrients better). There’s much more to be said about the variations within living food: some consume mainly fruit, other more sprouts, and others yet focus on juices.
Vegan Café’s in Bali
As Bali attracts many vegans, this island certainly guarantees many restaurants and vegan cafés for its travelers. Previously Ubud was the one area that caters to the vegan lifestyle. Vegan café’s in Bali not only serve healthy and organic dishes but most of them are distinguished by a beautiful decor and peaceful environment.
And now the hipster-friendly Canggu is catching up with the demand, not specifically to plant-based diets but mostly to the health and eco-conscious people, yogis, as well as sports aficionado. So if you are looking for a cool vegan place to eat in Canggu that will tantalize your tastebuds and want to experiment with something different, come visit us at Canggu Square. We also have another venue at the Green School.