It’s time to announce the winner of this year’s VeganMoFo Chopped! competition! Our contestants showed up for a vibrant, well-rounded entree round with Oolong tea, fresh prune plums, spicy jalapeños and every Fraggle’s favorite, the hot-headed radish.

Here’s a listing of our fab contestants and their variety of exciting submissions, in random order:

• Sweet Heat Tacos, Veganista Mama 
• Barley Paella with Grilled Tofu & Fresh Plum Salsa, Cadry’s Kitchen
• Plum and Jalapeño Glazed Tempeh with Picked Radishes and Butternut Squash Purée, The Picky Vegan
• Plum & Radish Tart with a savory Jalapeno, Oolong Tea, and Apricot Preserve Glaze, Bedazzled Vegan
• Stuffed Sweet Dumpling Squash in an Oolong-Plum-Red Wine Reduction with Jalapeno-Apple Radish, Rubber Cowgirl 
• Oolong Banh Mi Burger, Zsu’s Vegan Pantry 
• Assam Tofu, with braised radishes topped with Jalapeno, Assam, Plum sauce, Hasta La Vegan 
• Mexican Hot Lips Cake, The Mess in Messenger
• Oolong Marinated Tofu with Plum Chutney and Pickled Apples and Radishes, @marylangmt
• Dumpling Soup with Radish & Radish Leaves, served with Jalapeño, Plum Chutney and Spiced Lentil-filled Dumpling, Eating with the Rabbits
• Channa Masala with Plums, Radish Salad and Oolong Rice, Vegan Needs Sauce 
• Radish cakes with Prune Sauce, Kohlrabi and Quince
• Sweet Heat Sushi, Veganista Mama
•  A Very Special Marinara Sauce, Monsieur Avocado

You can check out all their photos and more on our Chopped! Contestant! Roundup!

Here we go!  After much deliberation on who really got creative and elevated their ingredients, plus much discussion on presentation, perceived taste and the use of those mighty ingredients, our judges (Julia Legume, Dan Reed & Chelsea Hoshi) came to a decision!

Without further adieu, our new VeganMoFo Chopped! Champion is….Emily of the Vegan Needs Sauce tumblr and her Channa Masala with Plums, Radish Salad and Oolong Rice! 

Our judges agreed that incorporating all these flavors into a channa masala, which is a dish they already enjoy, was super special, intriguing and seemed quite balanced in terms of flavor combinations, bonus fresh herbs and that lovely tea-infused rice!

Emily wins a special sweet prize from our friends at Chicago Vegan Foods, a Vegan Iron Chef tshirt to show her vegan cookin’ pride, and the coveted title of VEGANMOFO! CHOPPED! CHAMPION!

More from Emily on her dish:

“So when they announced the ingredients for the Vegan MoFo Chopped! basket, I knew I had to give it a shot. They are: radish, oolong tea, fresh prune plums, and jalapeno. It took me a little time to mull it over (look, I won’t do well on the real “Chopped”), but I decided to look to Indian cooking for inspiration and make channa masala with some plums in the spicy tomato sauce base, radish salad, and basmati rice cooked with oolong tea.”

Love it!

Big ups to Chicago Vegan Foods for donating! Check out their new mini Dandies for  your autumn treats and upcoming hot cocoa rounds!

Thanks to everyone for entering!!

Pssst, Emily, please leave a comment or tweet to us with your email address, so we can connect ya with CVF and send that shirt! – jess