Can You Veganize Soul Food?

People often ask me if I can veganize the soul food I grew up as child. That answer to that is a loud resounding YES! I love soul food but so do my hips, butt, and thighs. And my cholesterol used to get a high off of that yummy cuisine too. So practicing a mostly vegan diet has been a real treat for me because I can make my favorite soul food meals low fat and cholesterol free.

I make many of the same meals my mother made but I adjust the ingredients a bit. For example my mother always uses meat in her greens and beans. Of course being married to a man who is 100% vegan,  I can’t do that plus that just adds extra cholesterol to the dish.

What I do is use nutritional yeast, butter, and Chinese mushrooms for that down home taste of my mother’s greens or beans. For every three bunches of greens I make a roux of sorts by cutting up some onions, bell peppers, and garlic and saute them in 2 tbsp vegan butter for about 2 minutes. I then add about 3 tsp of nutritional yeast and stir the mixture really fast for about a minute. I mix in 3 cups of water and let is simmer for 3 to 5 minutes before adding my greens, seasoning and vegetable broth or water. When I season I use a little chili powder, paprika, granulated garlic, onion powder, and some smoke.

Now making macaroni and cheese started off as a bug challenge but I have got it together now. I make a Kraft mac and cheese boxed version and then I have my low fat soul food version. You can find the recipes for these dishes here:

Soul Food Version Macaroni and Cheese

Soul Food Version Macaroni and Cheese 2 - This one has vegan sour cream in it.

Boxed Version Macaroni and Cheese

I even make a vegan version of sweet potato pie that I call Cynthia’s Sweet Potato Pie - Vegan Style. It is pretty yummy, if I must say so myself.

Making a traditional soul food into a vegan meal is not that hard. Yes I make dressing, hoppin’ john, and more soul food  into delicious vegan dishes. And yes, many meat eaters have tried my dishes and loved them. I was a meat eater for 35 years of my life and I still do eat some on occasion, but mostly fish; so I know what it should taste like. I have gone back to the drawing board a few times to perfect my recipes and there are a few that I still am trying to perfect.I just want to encourage you by saying that you don’t have to eat fat ladened, cholesterol high soul food. You can create healthier versions of your favorite Soul Food Dishes and skip the bad stuff.

Hey! If you liked this post, why not subscribe to my RSS feed so that you are notified when we update. Thanks for visiting!

Powered by MightyAdsense