By Tiffani Patton 

Quarantine life got you feeling less than excited? Exhausting your recipe ideas? Binge-watched all of Netflix’s Tiger King in record time and need something to make you feel less weird and more grounded? Bryant Terry to the rescue. Terry’s recently-released Vegetable Kingdom: The Abundant World of Vegan Recipes will liven up your kitchen and your taste buds with a celebration of vegetables and spices that are sure to brighten your self-isolated days (and impress your friends on Instagram!). Here’s what you can do:

• Tune in to the just-released Real Food Reads episode to hear all about  Bryant’s ethos, inspiration, and work to decolonize veganism and shed myths around soul food. 
• Get the book, and get cooking. 
• Buy some vegetables. Now, perhaps more than ever, small-scale farmers need your support: get a CSA box or, if you’re healthy, visit your local farmer’s market (read this piece in Civil Eats by our friend Brie Mazurek at CUESA for tips on how to safely shop), co-op, or other local food business, while maintaining 6 feet of distance, of course. 
• Buy some seeds and plan your veggie garden. What better time for garden therapy, whether you’re a newbie or seasoned gardener. Don’t forget to support local garden supply stores and organic seed purveyors (we see you True Love Seeds and Kitazawa Seed Company!). 
• Listen to the Vegetable Kingdom playlist by Bryant Terry while chef’ing it up in the kitchen. Each recipe comes with a song, and the whole playlist for the book is now available on Spotify. 
• Enjoy becoming a vegetarian cooking virtuoso while grooving and nourishing your body (and the bodies of those in your household) for stronger immunity! 

And if this sounds like it would be more fun with friends, you can host a virtual dinner party where everyone makes the same dish and eats together over Zoom or another platform.

Can’t get the book because you’re sheltering-in-place? We’ve got two of Bryant’s recipes on our site. “Big Beans, Buns, and Broccoli Rabe” features homemade buns—if you’re really luxuriating in spare time—and, yup, corona beans. And I can’t get enough of Terry’s “Roasted Parsnips with Onion-Mustard sauce,” it is perfectly warming and grounding for these anxious times. Don’t fret if all of the ingredients aren’t available: the recipes are easy to adapt with what you have on hand and still deliver on all of that flavor. 

P.S. 

Got a sweet-tooth craving that must be satisfied? Check out the decadent ‘Bama Mud Pie Mousse from vibrant Son of a Southern Chef, Lazarus Lynch. And listen to our conversation, if you haven’t already. 

Photos used with permission from Vegetable Kingdom: The Abundant World of Vegan Recipes by the Bryant Terry, copyright © 2020. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House.”

Photography copyright: Ed Anderson © 2020

The post Light Up Your Senses with Bryant Terry’s Vegetable Kingdom appeared first on Real Food Media.

By Tiffani Patton 

One of the most satisfying aspects of being part of the movement for a just and nourishing food system is getting to work on such a wide range of issues:  racial justice, land rights, income inequality, environmental justice, and labor rights, just to name a few. The fight for a just food system must be “intersectional” because food intersects with so many aspects of our identities and our society. And while that may seem overwhelming, it is actually an exciting leverage point. Food is something we all have in common: it is a powerful way to open the door to conversations (and action) around many other issues. 

At Real Food Media, we’ve had the pleasure of speaking and working with some brilliant people who are using their platform to drop knowledge, build community, and spark change. This Black History Month, we are showcasing a few of our favorite Real Food Reads authors who are working at the intersection of food, health, sustainability, and Black identity. These authors, farmers, cooks, and activists dig into the history of Black people’s relationship with food and with the land—and inspire the creation of new ways of being in the world that value Black culture, bodies, and communities.

What’s on your Black History Month reading list?

“To farm while Black is an act of defiance against white supremacy and a means to honor the agricultural ingenuity of our ancestors.” 

Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land by Leah Penniman 

Farming While Black is an empowering reclamation of agricultural history: no-till farming, crop-rotation, terrace farming—all started by Africans, yet rarely advertised as such. Equal parts practical guide (applicable to a windowsill planter or a farm), decolonized history book, and love letter to the land: the lessons from Farming While Black are a powerful tool in reconnecting with history, healing ancestral trauma, and finding liberation through, and on, the land. 

Listen to the Real Food Reads episode with Leah Penniman.

“Black farmers acted, not only to improve their own and their communities’ circumstances, but to advance a broader political and activist agenda to challenge racially oppressive rural social structures.”

Freedom Farmers: Agricultural Resistance and the Black Freedom Movement by Monica M. White 

Dr. Monica White’s award-winning research shows how Black people in America used food as a strategy to build power at the intersection of issues from the mid-Atlantic crossing to present-day urban farms in Detroit. The perfect academic cousin to Farming While Black, Freedom Farmers also unveils some little known African-American agricultural history, like that CSAs, cooperatives, and the start of “farm-to-table” dinners were all started and popularized by African-American farmers.

Listen to the Real Food Reads episode with Monica White. 

“How do we as Black queer people celebrate ourselves and love ourselves? I am working to create spaces where we can champion that message and where we can see ourselves in other people—not be weaponized or demonized for who we are.”

Son of a Southern Chef: Cook With Soul  by Lazarus Lynch 

You’d be hard-pressed to find someone as fearless as Lazarus Lynch. His passion for cooking came from his father, the Southern Chef, and every dish in his cookbook merges familial legacy with his own creative spark. The pages are filled with some of the most eye-catching and funkiest (in a good way!) food photography you’re ever likely to see, and affirmations are generously sprinkled throughout: Lazarus brings his whole self into his work. 

Listen to the Real Food Reads episode with Lazarus Lynch. 

“For me, recipe creation is a praxis where I honor and bring to life the teachings, traditional knowledge, and hospitality of my blood and spiritual ancestors by making food.” 

Vegetable Kingdom: The Abundant World of Vegan Recipes by Bryant Terry

Long-time Real Food Media friend Bryant Terry is a triple threat: chef, activist, and author. (And did we forget to mention James Beard Leadership Awardee?) His latest book confirms his status as vegan-food royalty. This beautiful book is organized by ingredient and each recipe is accompanied by a song so you can get your groove on. Like the other authors in our Black History Month reading list, Bryant Terry uses food as a tool to decenter whiteness. One of his aims is to challenge the myth of “ethnic” cooking that exoticizes non-white food traditions. For vegans and omnivores alike, these recipes (and this ethos) are sure to inspire you. 

Podcast coming soon!

“Democracy is about people having a voice, having a say in society.” 

Beginning to End Hunger: Food and the Environment in Belo Horizonte, Brazil by M. Jahi Chappell 

Since 1993, the city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, has significantly decreased rates of infant mortality, malnutrition, diabetes-related hospitalizations. That’s because people were given a voice in shaping how their local food system works in one of the world’s first-ever Food Policy Councils. Diet-related diseases aren’t unique to Brazil—in the US, these diseases disproportionately impact Black (and Latinx and Indigenous) people. And, communities of color are coming together to take a stand and reclaim their health, from taking on Big Soda to organizing for healthier corner stores to farming the land. Beginning to End Hunger is an inspiring example of what can happen when marginalized communities take control of their local food systems. 

Listen to the Real Food Reads episode with M. Jahi Chappel. 

The Big Letdown: How Medicine, Big Business, and Feminism Undermine Breastfeeding by Kimberly Seals Allers 

In The Big Letdown, Kimberly Seals Allers shows how corporate interests influence  hospitals’ (and physicians’) support for breastfeeding—and actually undermine women’s decision to breastfeed. Part exposé of the infant-formula industry, part rallying-cry for breastfeeding mothers, The Big Letdown exposes corporate spin and the racialized structural barriers that prevent mothers and infants from making healthy choices.   

Listen to the Real Food Reads episode with Kimberly Seals Allers. 

Listened to all of the episodes and are hungry for more? We’ve got you covered: here are some additional ways you can deepen your learning, connect to the issues, and organize for change. 

Build Healthier Communities  

• Dive into our toolkit, Taking on Big Soda
• Join the Healthy Corner Store Network
• Find out if there’s a food policy council where you live (or look for resources to start your own)

Dig in to Land and Agriculture Issues

• Check out the Reparations Map for Black and Indigenous Farmers, and see how you can give. 
• Donate to the Land Loss Prevention Project
• Get engaged with the Detroit Black Food Security Network, who inspired Dr. Monica White.
• Learn more about the National Black Food & Justice Alliance

Learn More About Reproductive Justice

• Deepen your learning with GroundSwell Fund  
• Explore “Irth”, Birth Without Bias, a social change app founded by Kimberly Seals Allers that filters hospitals and physicians for bias in the care that women receive.
• Find out about BabyZoos, the latest venture from Tunde Wey that seeks to address infant mortality disparity in Kalamazoo, Michigan. 

Light Up Your Taste Buds

• Stay connected to Bryant Terry’s work as Chef-in-Residence of the Museum of African Diaspora in San Francisco, CA (pro tip: these are my favorite events for learning, connecting, and getting my soul stirred). 
• Check out some of Bryant’s other books: Afro-Vegan and Grub: Ideas for an Organic Kitchen (co-authored by our own Anna Lappé). 
• Get to know the Son of a Southern Chef: check out Lazarus’ YouTube Channel and make sure to follow him on social media.

And, of course, subscribe to Real Food Reads, our monthly book club and podcast. 

Header image: Audre Lorde reading at the International Feminist Book Fair in London, 1984. Photo by Dagmar Schultz.

The post Real Food Reads: A Black History Month Compilation appeared first on Real Food Media.

The book is organized by ingredient, making it easy to create simple dishes or showstopping meals based on what’s fresh at the market. Bryant also covers the basics of vegan cooking, explaining the fundamentals of assembling flavorful salads, cooking filling soups and stews, and making tasty grains and legumes. With beautiful imagery and classic design, Vegetable Kingdom is an invaluable tool for plant-based cooking today.

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Yasmin Khan unlocks the flavors and fragrances of modern Palestine, from the olive groves of Nazareth, the spice markets of Jerusalem, and the fishing ports of Gaza.

Her journey takes her from the pomegranate juice stalls of Akka, on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, to the home kitchens of refugees, surrounded by the Wall in Bethlehem, via the knafeh sweet shops of bustling downtown Nablus. On her travels, she learns how to hand-roll maftool, the plump Palestinian giant couscous, harvests black olives from the groves of Burquin in the West Bank, and even finds time to down a pint with workers at the Taybeh brewery who are producing the first Palestinian craft beer. As she feasts and cooks with Palestinians of all ages and backgrounds, she learns about the realities of their everyday lives, witnessed through the act of breaking bread.

One of the Best Cookbooks of the Year as chosen by The Guardian, BookRiot, The Kitchn, KCRW, and Literary Hub

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In his debut cookbook, Laz offers up more than 100 recipe hits with new takes on classic dishes like Brown Butter Candy Yam Mash with Goat Cheese Brülée, Shrimp and Crazy Creamy Cheddar Grits, and Dulce de Leche Banana Pudding. Packed with splashy color photography that pops off the page, this cookbook blends fashion, food, and storytelling to get readers into the kitchen. It’s a Southern cookbook like you’ve never seen before.

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