Jul

MONTHLY VEGAN RECIPE CLUB: JULY

ABOUT

Each month our Recipe Club will feature a different recipe blog, cookbook author, or crowdsourced contribution. We will explore food from a variation of sources and cuisines, while learning about how many cultures contribute to the foods we eat and the vegan staples we love. If you haven’t already learned about the expansiveness and diversity of vegan options available, you will during our time together!

All are welcome to join our Recipe Club. If you need some inspiration in the kitchen, are curious to learn more, or just want to join in on the fun – this club is for you!

The best part (besides of course eating the food when you’re done), is each delicious and healthy recipe is 100% vegan, meaning no animal products or by-products will be used.

Each meal helps animals and the environment, while also building our community through outreach, education, support, and advocacy.

HOW TO JOIN

Step 1: Sign up to join the club by clicking this link: http://bit.ly/VeganRecipeClub. By signing up, you’ll only receive information and updates about our virtual meeting details, as well as reminders for the club meeting.

Step 2: Check out the featured recipes for this month below and pick one or more of the recipes to try.

Step 3: Gather your ingredients. Send us an email if you have any questions about where you can find something or a modification you need to make.

Step 4: You can now start cooking! You can cook these recipes at any point during the month before our club meeting.

Step 5: Sit back and enjoy! Take pictures if you’d like and share them with us, we would love to see your delicious creations. You can tag us on Instagram or Facebook @capregionvegans or use the hashtag #CapRegionVegans.

Step 6: Join our virtual gathering (via Zoom here) to discuss your experience, including which recipes you tried, what you liked or didn’t like, any modifications you made, and more! This is a perfect opportunity to expand your meal ideas and share vegan cooking tips and tricks.

THIS MONTH’S FEATURED RECIPES

Our third meeting is on Thursday, July 8th, which will feature recipes by Bryant Terry!

Bryant Terry is a James Beard and NAACP Image Award-winning chef, educator, author, and grassroots activist working to create a healthy, just, and sustainable food system. He is currently the editor-in-chief of 4 Color Books–an imprint of Penguin Random House–and has been the Chef-in-Residence at the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) in San Francisco since 2015 where he creates public programming at the intersection of food, farming, health, activism, art, culture, and the African Diaspora.

Terry’s interest in cooking was inspired by how food has been used throughout history as an expression of Black agency: From the rice that African women stealthily wove in their hair before embarking on the Middle Passage; to the proliferation of watermelon as a symbol of Black freedom; to the Black Panther Party’s Free Breakfast for Schoolchildren, which fed children from low-income neighborhoods in the 1960s and 1970s across America.

Throughout his career, Terry has worked to refute the supposed incompatibility between veganism and Blackness by creating vegan recipes in stark contrast to popular culture’s representation of veganism as rife with pricey, esoteric substitutions for the sake of food restriction and thinness better suited for Instagram photos than sustainable, healthy living. Terry believes these class and race exclusions often mean communities of color don’t see veganism as being part of their cultural fabric.

By preaching stem-to-tip usage of seasonal, less-glamorous vegetables (like corn and green beans) he’s debunking the misconception that veganism is purely aspirational for food-insecure Black and brown communities. With the inclusion of cheaper, more accessible ingredients, Terry aims to decolonize and de-center exclusion from vegan eating and focus instead on the cultivation of celebrating plant-based food in communities of color.

As the prevalence of diet-related diseases—largely due to socioeconomic barriers and compounded by the pervasive exposure to racism and discrimination that cause chronic stress—continue to rise, Terry advocates turning to a plant-based lifestyle as a form of biological and social resistance, and as a way to reconnect with Black heritage.

Terry is the author of several, award-winning cookbooks, including: Afro-Vegan: Farm Fresh African, Caribbean, and Southern Flavors remixed; Vegan Soul Kitchen: Fresh, Healthy, and Creative African-American Cuisine; and, Vegetable Kingdom: The Abundant World of Vegan Recipes.

[Bio Sources]

If you would like to read more about Bryant and check out what else he has click here!