More than 35 chefs participated in vegan food training at Northside Den in Northside Dining Hall last week.

Dining Services’ chefs participated in the Humane Society of the United States’ Food Forward Plant-Based culinary training on Jan. 5 and 6.

This free training focused primarily on plant-based recipes to help increase availability of vegetarian, vegan and allergen-free dishes at WSU.

“This has been driven by students,” said Adam Koerner, assistant director of culinary operations. “It isn’t a trend anymore, it’s a movement.”

The Food Forward training allowed WSU chefs to work hands on with plant-based products to create new dishes.

In teams of two, WSU chefs worked together to cook two different recipes and present each of their dishes to their colleagues. Recipes included vegan pizza, cauliflower fried rice, garbanzo bean sliders and vegetable wellington. Other recipes focused on dishes free of wheat and soy, two common allergens present in plant-based cooking.

In recent years, Dining Services has refocused its efforts to provide healthy, sustainable and enjoyable food alternatives for students with vegan, vegetarian or allergen-sensitive diets, Dining Services Associate Director Sarah Larson said.

Larson said that despite the efforts being requested by students with particular diets, “this (movement) isn’t just for vegan customers, it’s for everyone.”

WSU Dining Dietitian Alice Ma said as a whole, Dining Services aims to reframe how it approaches plant-based diets.

“There’s a stigma that makes being vegan seem boring – that it’s all tofu,” Ma said.

Larson said they do not want to limit plant-based foods to the Chef’s Creation stations, but to expand the presence of the dishes throughout dining halls. Many of the recipes from the Food Forward training were dessert dishes that utilized plant-based ingredients such as vegan butter and aquafaba, a brine of beans and other legumes like chickpeas.

On a larger scale, plant-based recipes will also serve to lower prices, effectively giving students more purchasing power, Larson said.

“It allows students to make informed choices and provides potential lower-cost items,” she said.

Dining Services also reiterated that the implementation of plant-based recipes will not be served at the exclusion of animal protein products.

Dining Services is currently examining the recipes from the Food Forward training in the university’s test kitchen and is expected to implement them in dining halls across campus within the next two to three weeks.