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

• Sweet Potato Soul
• Veggie Soul Food

Cookbooks

• Vegan Soul Kitchen by Bryant Terry
• Afro-Vegan by Bryant Terry
• Sweet Potato Soul by Jenné Claiborne

Related

• Vegan-Friendly Food From Around the World
• Vegan Ethiopian Food
• Vegan Indian Food
• Vegan Italian Food
• Vegan Japanese Food
• Vegan Mexican Food
• Vegan Middle Eastern Food
• Vegan Thai Food

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Thai cuisine never contains cheese and hardly ever contains other dairy products because coconut milk and coconut cream are used instead.

Traditional Thai food is loaded with fish sauce, shrimp paste, and egg — all of which can be found ubiquitously in virtually every Thai dish. Despite this, Thai cuisine doesn’t treat meat as an absolutely necessary part of most dishes and many Thai dishes can be easily prepared without the fish sauce, shrimp paste or egg. Meat in a dish is typically replaced with tofu or veggies.

Staple Thai Foods & Dishes

Staple vegan Thai foods include jasmine rice, coconut, coconut milk, coconut cream, rice noodles, tamarind pulp, mango, lemongrass, chili peppers, Thai basil, palm sugar, and lime.

Staple vegan Thai dishes include stir-fry, a variety of noodle dishes, soups, and sticky rice.

Dining Out at a Thai Restaurant

Dining out at a Thai restaurant can be a bit tricky as a vegan. This is because many Thai foods are traditionally prepared with animal products like fish sauce, shrimp paste, and egg.

The good news is that most Thai restaurants are familiar with veganizing their dishes and can easily leave out animal products in most cases.

What to Ask

• Can you make any of your dishes without fish sauce?
• Do your curries contain shrimp paste?

What to Order & How to Order It

• Pad Thai
• Pad See Ew
• Pad Kee Mao
• Tom Yum
• Tom Kah
• Yellow, Green, or Red Curry
• Fried Rice
• Stir-Fry
• Sticky Rice & Mango

Ask your server to leave out egg, fish sauce, shrimp paste, clam juice, or any kind of meat from your dish. 

Some places will offer to swap tofu or veggies in place of the meat that would ordinarily come in a dish. If they don’t offer, just ask and they’ll usually accommodate you.

You can order a (very) sweet beverage called Thai iced tea which is strongly brewed spiced black tea topped with condensed milk, but make sure to ask for non-dairy creamer or skip the creamer entirely. Some restaurants even offer Thai iced coffee, which is also incredibly sweet.

Vegan Thai Food Recipes

You’ll enjoy a lot more variety by making Thai food at home, because you control every ingredient that goes into a dish. There are plenty of traditionally non-vegan Thai foods that can easily be made vegan at home.

Most Thai food cookbooks and recipe blogs have a variety of easily-veganized recipes. Just replace certain ingredients and you’ve got a vegan dish. If you’re fine with looking past the pictures of dishes containing meat and can focus on veganizing the recipes themselves, you won’t have a hard time finding loads of resources for making vegan Thai food at home.

Below are Thai cookbooks that are exclusively vegan:

Cookbooks

• Vegan Thai Kitchen by Sarah & Renoo Jansala

Related

• Vegan-Friendly Food From Around the World
• Vegan Ethiopian Food
• Vegan Indian Food
• Vegan Italian Food
• Vegan Japanese Food
• Vegan Mexican Food
• Vegan Middle Eastern Food
• Vegan Soul Food

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Middle Eastern cuisine includes foods from Israel, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, and Egypt. While cuisine from these regions all varies slightly, there are some consistencies between them that make dining at these types of restaurants pretty easy as a vegan.

Meat is definitely a huge part of most Middle Eastern dishes, but it’s surprisingly easy to avoid. This is because many Middle Eastern dishes are already traditionally prepared vegan without needing any modification.

Staple Middle Eastern Foods & Dishes

Staple vegan Middle Eastern foods include chickpeas, olives, sesame seeds, tahini, lavash, pita, cucumber, tomatoes, pickled vegetables, lemon, olive oil, and kalamata olives.

Staple vegan Middle Eastern dishes include hummus, falafel, baba ghanouj, dolmas, tabbouleh, and kushari.

Dining Out at a Middle Eastern Restaurant

Dining out at a Middle Eastern restaurant is actually extremely easy as a vegan. It’s one of the most reliably vegan cuisines available, provided you know what to ask and order.

What to Ask

• Do any of your dishes contain milk or dairy?
• Are your bean dishes made with lard?
• Is your rice boiled in chicken stock?
• Are your potatoes cooked with butter?
• Is your tahini made with yogurt?

What to Order & How to Order It

• Falafel
• Hummus
• Baba Ghanouj
• Tabbouleh
• Dolmas
• Kushari
• Pita
• Lavash

Many Middle Eastern restaurants will offer what’s called a Falafel Sandwich or Falafel Wrap, which is just a bunch of falafels, Israeli Salad (chopped cucumber, tomatoes, onions, and bell peppers), purple cabbage, hummus, tahini, pickles, and hot sauce stuffed inside of a grilled pita (sandwich) or lavash (wrap).

Ask your server to leave out anything made with dairy, such as tzatziki which is a yogurt-based sauce (not to be confused with tahini, which is vegan and made from sesame seeds, although some Greek restaurants add yogurt to their tahini).

Vegan Middle Eastern Food Recipes

Most Middle Eastern food cookbooks and recipe blogs have a variety of vegan or easily-made-vegan recipes alongside non-vegan recipes. If you’re fine with flipping past the non-vegan recipes to get to the vegan recipes, you won’t have a hard time finding loads of resources for cooking vegan Middle Eastern food at home.

Below are Middle Eastern food blogs and cookbooks that are exclusively vegan:

Blogs

• One Arab Vegan

Cookbooks

• Tahini and Turmeric: 101 Middle Eastern Classics — Made Irresistibly Vegan by Ruth Fox & Vicky Cohen
• Vegan Mediterranean Cookbook by Tess Challis
• Oy Vey Vegan by Estee Raviv

Related

• Vegan-Friendly Food From Around the World
• Vegan Ethiopian Food
• Vegan Indian Food
• Vegan Italian Food
• Vegan Japanese Food
• Vegan Mexican Food
• Vegan Soul Food
• Vegan Thai Food

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Traditional Mexican food uses a lot of meat, cheese, and lard (for cooking), but these things aren’t necessary for a satisfying Mexican meal. This is because vegetables, beans, and rice have always been the backbone of most Mexican dishes.

Staple Mexican Foods & Dishes

Staple vegan Mexican foods include corn or wheat tortillas, rice, beans, avocado, salsa, pickled vegetables, cactus, agave, peppers, limes, cilantro, chili peppers, and mole.

Staple vegan Mexican dishes include guacamole, veggie tacos, veggie burritos, vegan enchiladas, vegan tamales, vegan tortas, and vegan huaraches.

Dining Out at a Mexican Restaurant

Dining out at a Mexican restaurant can be a bit tricky as a vegan. This is because certain Mexican foods are traditionally prepared with animal products like lard or chicken stock.

What to Ask:

• Are your tortillas fried in lard?
• Do your beans contain pork or lard?
• Is your rice boiled in chicken stock?
• Does your guacamole contain sour cream?

What to Order & How to Order It:

• Burrito
• Tacos
• Chips & Guacamole
• Huarache
• Tortas
• Tamales
• Enchilada

Ask your server not to include cheese, sour cream, dairy-based sauces, or any kind of meat. Certain dishes (such as chilaquiles) contain egg and are better not to order at all because removing the egg changes the dish too much.

Some places will allow you to swap avocado for the meat at no extra charge, which is a pretty nice perk. Other common meat substitutions at Mexican restaurants are vegetables, mushrooms, potatoes, and even tofu at some places.

Vegan Mexican Food Recipes

You’ll enjoy a lot more variety by making Mexican 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 Mexican food recipes.

Blogs

• Vegan Mexican Food
• Dora’s Table
• Vegan Richa
• Vegicano

Cookbooks

• ¡Salud! by Eddie Garza
• Vegan Mexico by Jason Wyrick
• Vegan Tacos by Jason Wyrick
• The Taco Cleanse by Wes Allison, Stephanie Bogdanich, Molly R. Frisinger, Jessica Morris
• Vegan Tamales Unwrapped by Dora Stone

Related

• Vegan-Friendly Food From Around the World
• Vegan Ethiopian Food
• Vegan Indian Food
• Vegan Italian Food
• Vegan Japanese Food
• Vegan Middle Eastern Food
• Vegan Soul Food
• Vegan Thai Food

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Italian food focuses on using only a few ingredients per dish, but places a great deal of importance on the quality and freshness of those ingredients allowing them to really shine. The difference between good and bad Italian food often comes down to the quality of the ingredients more often than the way in which those ingredients were prepared.

Unfortunately, Italian food is stuffed full of meat, eggs, cheese and other dairy products. When dining out, this can pose a problem for a vegan, but when cooking at home these ingredients are easily replaced with their vegan alternatives.

Staple Italian Foods & Dishes

Staple vegan Italian foods include tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, onions, shallots, garlic, olives, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, beans, squash, herbs and spices.

Staple vegan Italian dishes include pasta marinara, pasta arrabiata, and salad.

Dining Out at an Italian Restaurant

Vegan options are pretty limited when dining out at most Italian restaurants. This is because most Italian foods are traditionally prepared with animal products like meat, eggs, and dairy. Italian food is notorious for grating generous helpings of parmesan cheese on top of everything.

What to Ask

• Does your pasta contain egg? (Which ones don’t?)
• Which salad dressings don’t contain eggs or dairy?

What to Order & How to Order It

• Pasta Marinara (made with spaghetti and added veggies)
• Pasta Arrabiata (made with spaghetti and added veggies)
• Salad

For pasta dishes, ask your server not to include parmasan cheese, dairy sauces, or butter. For salads, have them not include parmesan cheese, croutons (usually not vegan), and have them swap the dressing for olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Most fresh pasta is made with egg, but you can get around this most of the time by ordering spaghetti or angel hair, as these are dried pastas and are almost never made with eggs.

Because you’ll likely be leaving out a lot of ingredients from each dish you order, ask your server to replace things like cheese or meat with things like eggplant, mushrooms, zucchini, olives, and tomatoes.

Vegan Italian Food Recipes

You’ll enjoy a lot more variety by making Italian food at home, because you control every ingredient that goes into a dish. Veganizing Italian recipes is incredibly easy because of all the vegan meats, cheeses, and dairy alternatives on the market.

There are lots of blogs and cookbooks out there full of great vegan Italian food recipes.

Blogs

• The Vegan Italian Kitchen
• Vegan Richa
• Simply Veganista

Cookbooks

• Veganissimo: Italian Vegan Cuisine by Angelique Roussel
• Vegano Italiano by Rosalba Gioffré
• Chloe’s Vegan Italian Kitchen by Chloe Coscarelli
• Nonna’s Italian Kitchen: Delicious Home-Style Vegan Cuisine by Bryanna Clark Grogan
• Discovering Vegan Italian by Nadia Fragnito

Related

• Vegan-Friendly Food From Around the World
• Vegan Ethiopian Food
• Vegan Indian Food
• Vegan Japanese Food
• Vegan Mexican Food
• Vegan Middle Eastern Food
• Vegan Soul Food
• Vegan Thai Food

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