Vegan soul food is easy to make at home and in certain areas can be easy to find while dining out.
Today, soul food is typically loaded with animal products like meat, dairy, and eggs — but it didn’t used to be.
Soul food has its roots in Western African cuisine and slavery in America. It originally had little to no meat or dairy but instead focused primarily on humble and limited ingredients like cornmeal, molasses, and a variety of foraged and cultivated vegetables. These ingredients were resourcefully repurposed by enslaved Black people both for survival and also as a means of cultural expression.
Thankfully, there are plenty of soul food restaurants that are exclusively vegan, with more opening up every year. This is in large part due to many Black owners of soul food restaurants both wanting to bring the cuisine back to its roots and becoming active in racial and food justice movements by helping people in their community have access to healthier, higher quality foods.
Staple Soul Food Items & Dishes
Vegan soul food includes foods like collard greens, okra, biscuits, yams, corn bread, mac & cheese, and fried tofu.
Dining Out at a Soul Food Restaurant
Because most soul food restaurants load their dishes with bacon grease, dairy, and meat, it’s best to only visit vegan soul food restaurants.
Vegan Soul Food Recipes
You’ll enjoy a lot more variety by making soul food at home, because you control every ingredient that goes into a dish.
There are lots of blogs and cookbooks out there full of great vegan soul food recipes. The ones listed here are exclusively vegan:
Blogs
Cookbooks
- Vegan Soul Kitchen by Bryant Terry
- Afro-Vegan by Bryant Terry
- Sweet Potato Soul by Jenné Claiborne