Giving Compass' Take: 

• A Detroit-based fast-casual vegan restaurant is bringing unique food combinations that are appealing to the masses and proving plants are tasty.

• How can this story inspire others to go forward with their vegan ventures? How can donors help support the production of plant-based foods? 

• Here are 12 plant-based foods coming to market this year. 

With a growing number of eaters adopting a plant-based diet—one in 20 consumers call themselves vegetarian according to Meat Atlas of the Friends of the Earth and the Heinrich Böll Foundation—restaurants are trying to meet the demand. In Detroit, one fast-casual vegan restaurant is working to prove vegan cuisine can be healthy, delicious, and fast with innovative and unconventional food combinations that are appealing to the masses.

The Fuel, a gluten-free, dairy-free, animal-product-free, and oil-free restaurant is thriving in a suburb of Detroit, MI—the fourth most vegan-friendly city in the United States, according to PETA—is dispelling the myth that healthy food is boring and tasteless. Driven by a passion for healthy, vegan food, The Fuel’s menu includes a chocolate shake made with banana, cacao, and mesquite; a cinnamon roll made with dehydrated bananas rolled in soaked raisins; and a caramel sauce made with dates, water, cinnamon, and vanilla.

The Fuel co-creator Kelli McMullen tells Food Tank that inspiration for The Fuel came from wanting something like this for her family’s own consumption. “I have a background in nutrition and understand the benefits of a clean, plant-based diet. I have been eating this way for more than a decade and know the physical and mental benefits. It’s something we wanted to share with our community.”

Read the full article on The Fuel by Stacey Wilcox at Food Tank.