Sept. 8, 2021

A plant-based chef from Brookings has expanded her business to include a food truck that will be in Sioux Falls frequently.

‘Brosia Bowl owner Darcy Green bought the truck a year ago and has been working to get it on the road with the help of her husband, Chris.

“The Green Machine” made its debut Saturday at the Brookings Farmers Market, and it will be in Sioux Falls from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Thursday for the Haiti Earthquake Relief Event at Embrace Church, 2800 E. 57th St.

“It’s a refreshing spin on a food truck,” said Green, who started selling her grain and salad bowls two years ago. She offers online ordering and delivery in Brookings and Sioux Falls, in addition to selling at the Brookings Farmers Market and other venues.

The menu on the food truck will be similar to the packaged meals, which come in 100 percent compostable containers, but customers will be able to customize as they order, much like Qdoba or Subway, Green said.

The meals are completely plant-based, she said, with grains, protein from legumes, salad greens and “lots of fresh veggies.” Green, who is a certified plant-based chef, makes all but two of the dressings and sauces for the bowls.

“They’re plant-forward,” Green, who grew up in Sioux Falls, said of the meals. “I don’t like to say the word ‘vegan’ in South Dakota because people freak out.”

She said, however, that “I’m pretty sure it’s the first vegan food truck in South Dakota.”

‘Brosia is short for “ambrosia,” which “loosely translated is the food of the gods, conferring longevity on whoever eats it,” Green said in an interview last year.

The taco bowl – “that’s the bowl that started everything” — is her bestseller. Seasoned rice is topped with her taco mix of black beans, red kidney beans, tomatoes, taco seasoning, onions and garlic, along with homemade pico de gallo, shredded lettuce and taco sauce.

Another customer favorite is the winter salad, which was intended to be seasonal, but “I can’t get rid of it because people love it,” she said. It starts with a mix of salad greens that’s tossed with roasted chickpeas, apples, cranberries, pears, quinoa, red onion, walnuts and vegan feta cheese. She serves it with a white wine vinaigrette on the side.

Green has been serving her grain and salad bowls once a week at the Sanford Health Stevens Center in north Sioux Falls since March and plans to start operating that out of the food truck this week. She sells food from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesdays and hopes to be able to open that to the public since the truck will be out in the Stevens Center’s parking lot at 900 E. 54th St. N.

She envisions the menu expanding to include sandwiches, wraps and soup on cooler days.

Her packaged meals are available on the SDSU campus in the school’s convenience store, and she’s planning to become one of the rotating vendors who will provide a hot meal every day at the university.

While the food truck season is winding down, she plans to operate as long as the weather stays above freezing. Next year, she expects to be busy with events and private gatherings.

And in a year or two, Green hopes to have a brick-and-mortar location along with the food truck.