Kitchen

We take pride in our fresh, organic and natural house-made food. The house recipes we create are prepared with locally-sourced ingredients to give you a wide variety of dishes including vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, dairy-free, raw, low-sugar and low-sodium options.

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We never use artificial colors, preservatives or synthetic additives.

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The majority of what we prepare is plant-based. It keeps our recipes nutrient-dense and if you’re vegan or vegetarian, you’ll love what we have for you. We enjoy catering to specialty diets, because we know it can be difficult to find places to sit and eat properly prepared food.

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Whether you’re coming in for breakfast, lunch or dinner, you’ll be eating food prepared with the standards we use in our store.

Healthy Oils

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Cooking oils turn rancid when heated past their heat tolerance levels and are toxic to consume. Certain oils are processed with high-heat refining and, according to many experts, are already toxic when bottled for sale. Major natural food chains tend to allow these spoiled products to pass to their customers as they are cheap to cook with and better for their bottom line. We don’t let that happen to you.

At our deli, we only cook with:

• Olive oil: organic, extra virgin, first cold pressed, unrefined and non-GMO
• Coconut oil: organic, extra virgin, unrefined and non-GMO
• Safflower/Sunflower Oil (made for cooking): organic, non-GMO, and high oleic acid.
• Oil that is naturally refined using citric acid (from fruit) and never heated over 250 degrees.

These oils are healthy alternatives to the canola, corn, and soy oils commonly cooked with at other natural food chain delis. Make the comparison and see for yourself – the evidence is clear.

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Locally Made & Prepared Foods

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Ellwood Thompson’s offers you in-house and locally-prepared foods made fresh daily. We believe this is the only way to get you the true quality you deserve. We stay fresh as opposed to other natural food grocers who mass-prepare and ship their “homemade” food from large, regional processing kitchens to their multi-state chain stores. One of the benefits of being a small, independent business is our ability to monitor and control our food preparation and selection. The result is you having healthier, quality prepared foods. We’re certain you’ll notice a difference in freshness and flavor when compared to other grocer’s foods that are handled, packaged, and shipped from faraway kitchens. It’s our market’s signature approach and what differentiates us from those big box natural food chains.

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Environmentally Friendly Plates & Utensils

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Our prepared foods department uses only melamine-free, microwave safe plates. Melamine (or melamine formaldehyde) is a plastic resin that can be found in non-microwave safe dishware. When heated at high temperatures, it can crack, chip or break and release toxins into food. The traces of formaldehyde that can be found in ware made with melamine are a potent carcinogen that should be avoid. In addition to safe plates, we stock reusable metal silverware and reusable drinking cups for you. This way, when you have breakfast, lunch or dinner with us, you can have peace of mind knowing your health is never compromised.

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Sweeteners In Our Prepared Foods

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When necessary, we use honey, maple syrup, cane sugar or light brown sugar to sweeten sauces. Our raw agave is never applied as a sweetener but may be used lightly as an emulsifying agent along with honey in our vinaigrettes to help balance out acids, vinegars or heat. We never use refined sugars as sweeteners.

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Local, Pasture-Raised Eggs

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We only use local, pasture-raised eggs from chickens that are fed non-GMO feed, in our prepared foods. If we are unable to source local, pasture-raised eggs, as an alternative we will carry organic, cage-free eggs.