Make Your Own Vegan Deep South Recipes
Learning to cook your own food is a very empowering way to release yourself from having to buy expensive plastic-wrapped ready-meals and takeaways, often made with inferior ingredients. Choose your favourite cuisine, and master it yourself at home. Then every night is restaurant night!
Gumbo (Ela Vegan) is a popular dish in the Deep South state of Louisiana. Very filling, this Creole dish uses the ‘holy trinity’ of celery, onions and bell pepper, with lentils and beans, serve with bread or rice.
Never eat rice after 24 hours (a food poison hazard). Before cooking, read up on food safety for people & pets (many foods like onion, garlic, spices and fresh dough are unsafe near animal friends).
Bin allium scraps (onion, garlic, leeks, shallots, chives) as acids may harm compost creatures (same with tomato/citrus/rhubarb scraps).
Ingredients in Plant-Based Southern Cooking
It’s good to use local ingredients, but cans of beans are not a sin! They are cheap, packed with protein and calcium. Once opened, empty remaining beans into a an airtight tub, and keep in the fridge, recycling the cans.
If you cook dry beans with a modern pressure cooker or slow cooker, know that kidney beans need boiling first, to remove a toxin. For this reason, most people simply use canned.
- Rice is used in many Deep South dishes. Only cook as much as you need, as cooked rice is a food poisoning hazard, is left for more than 24 hours.
- Okra (an Ethiopian vegetable) is used in a lot of Deep South stews. If you prefer to local, just sub with green beans.
- Sweet potatoes are used both for savoury dishes and sweet potato pie. Often flavoured with nutmeg (keep away from pets). Sweet potatoes have more nutrition than white potatoes, and a lower glycemic index.
Vegan Macaroni Cheese
This vegan macaroni cheese is from Madeleine Olivia’s book Make It Vegan. It’s made with cashews and cheesy-tasting nutritional yeast, and only takes 10 minutes to prep.
Vegan Cornbread
Vegan cornbread (Rainbow Plant Life) is a classic staple in the Deep South. Also try this recipe for vegan buttermilk biscuits.
Vegan Crab Cakes
Vegan crab cakes (A Couple Cooks) are worth mastering, for a tasty snack. Serve with vegan tartare sauce.
Canned hearts of palm should only be bought multi-stemmed for sustainability. Having said that, it’s far easier and better to just sub with canned artichoke hearts.
Fresh Peach Cobbler
You can’t get more Deep South than this peach cobbler (Wholehearted Eats). Also try this recipe for a berry cobbler (The First Mess).
A Book of Vegan Deep South Recipes
Southern Vegan includes recipes for:
- Cheesy Biscuit (scones) Vegetable Pot Pie
- Mashed Sweet Potatoes
- Collard Green Carbonara
- Pimento Cheese Spread
- Dill Pickle Pasta Salad
- Berry-Peach Cornmeal Cobbler
- Red Velvet (beetroot-chocolate) Cake
- Mississippi Mud Cheesecake
A Refreshing Glass of Iced Tea, Y’all!
Peach iced tea (Minimalist Baker) is a lovely recipe inspired by the Deep South. The peach tea is mixed with orange juice, then ‘marbled’ in glasses with a mix of raspberries, almond milk, vanilla and lemon, sweetened with maple syrup.
It’s surprising why iced tea is not more popular outside the Deep South (‘can I offer you some sweet iced tea, y’all?!
