The Perfect New Year’s Day Meal

Souen

326 E 6th St, New York, NY 10009, Open Monday - Sunday 1:00 pm - 9:30 pm

After the bingeing nature of the holidays, I want to eat healthily, or at the very least feel like I’m eating healthily. Souen in the East Village is my first stop when I need a reset. The food makes me feel like I’m being incredibly healthy without punishing myself.

Founded in 1971, Souen cooks food based on macrobiotic diet principles, originally derived from Zen Buddhism, that emphasize a diet of limited animal products, vegetables, and moderate portion sizes. Already a fantastic break from the wine, chocolate, and cheese of the two weeks before. They do serve alcohol, but they also have a variety of teas, both hot and iced, as well as non-alcoholic drinks.

You cannot make reservations for Souen, but you don’t need to, anyway. There is usually always a table available, as, judging by the many Uber Eats and DoorDash delivery drivers who come in, many customers prefer to get Souen delivered. Souen serves a variety of vegan sushi, curries, and noodle dishes like Pad Thai and pesto, but the real winner is their Macro Plate.

The Macro Plate is the only plate of steamed vegetables that I’ve enjoyed. I love vegetables, but growing up in England meant eating a lot of steamed Brussels sprouts, which didn’t make me feel healthy or particularly satisfied. The Macro Plates come with a serving of brown rice, kale, broccoli, wakame seaweed, kabocha (Japanese squash), and a vinaigrette of your choice- I would recommend the carrot ginger vinaigrette for a bright flavor or the miso tahini vinaigrette for a more savory, rich flavor. For an extra dollar, you can upgrade the brown rice to maze rice, which is cooked with burdock, mushrooms, and carrots (I highly recommend it).

If you feel like you’re missing protein from this meal, order a side of the miso-marinated Japanese black cod. It’s the healthy version of Nobu’s famous miso black cod, but it still tastes decadently buttery without any trace of fishiness.

For dessert, if I feel like treating myself without losing that sense of virtuous eating, I order their cornbread with apple butter (on the appetizer menu). While Souen does have a separate dessert menu, their cornbread can’t be missed. The cornbread is dense and moist, more similar to a slice of cake than anything else.

I leave feeling incredibly virtuous and, somehow, perfectly satiated from a plate of steamed vegetables (I also like to assume that my skin looks particularly shiny and clear after this kind of a cleansing meal).

Ready to take on the New Year without the bloat or lethargy of the weeks past.