Tabitha Brown On The Delicious Vegan Food You Can Find In Her New Cookbook - Exclusive Interview

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If you know the name Tabitha Brown, there's a good chance it's because you've seen her on TikTok. The actress, best-selling author, and vegan food star owes her original claim to fame to social media, where she's developed a massive following of millions of fans who are dazzled by her bubbly, down-to-earth personality and her creative (and utterly delicious) vegan recipes. From carrot bacon to jackfruit tacos to creamy mac and cheese, Brown loves to show the world that anything can be vegan, and it can be mouthwatering.

Now, Brown is finding her way into our hearts and kitchens once more with her first cookbook. "Cooking from the Spirit" is packed with easy recipes that everyone around your table will love, whether they're vegan or not.

In an exclusive interview with Tasting Table, Brown shared some of her favorite recipes in the book and opened up about the journey that got her to this point. She also spilled the secrets behind some of her most popular vegan food hacks.

Were there any unique challenges you faced along the way as you've built this food career as an influencer?

The first part is [that] I don't consider myself an influencer. I just consider myself a person who happens to have influence. The only challenge is sometimes people, they're not open. That was always my goal — to help people open their minds and see food differently. I never wanted to be a person who felt like I was judging anybody, or that I was trying to force my lifestyle on anybody. If anybody follows me for five minutes or watches any of my videos, they know that's exactly how I live my life. I just share.

I want people to be curious about the food or laugh about it. That's the biggest challenge — wanting people to know that it's all love, and it's fun, and the food is good. I'm vegan, but I ain't just eating salads, let me tell you that.

As you've demonstrated, social media presents such a cool way to showcase unique things that we would never think to try before. Do you ever feel like there have been challenges along the way in terms of being recognized as a legitimate chef versus someone who is just making things on social media?

Yeah. I always tell people — and I've never been shy about it — "I am absolutely nobody's chef." I [haven't been to] culinary school. I'm a woman, a mother, a wife who cooks for her family that people enjoy watching. That's more relatable than a chef who went to school. I can help somebody in the kitchen and tell them, in simple terms, how to do something before a chef who has studied and knows all the terminology and the measurements, all that stuff. That ain't going to be Tab. I can't even get confused with measurements, which is why my cookbook is "Cooking from the Spirit." We're going to trust ourselves in the kitchen — that speaks volumes.

I also want people to know anybody can write a cookbook. My granny pretty much wrote her own cookbook without realizing that's what she was doing. She wrote all her recipes down. That was back in the day when people used to keep the little green box in the kitchen, and they would put the little index cards with all the recipes. I realize now, like, "Wow. She was keeping her recipes," and it was no measurements. Anybody can do it. You don't need the credentials to write a book; you don't have to be a chef to write a cookbook.

What is the most meaningful recipe to you in this cookbook?

That is very tough. It goes between the mac and cheese or the deviled eggs. I would probably lean more toward ... as I call them, the angel eggs, because they were a staple in my childhood and as I became a mother.

When I was little, my mom used to let me help her with the deviled eggs and I'd sprinkle the paprika on the top. Then that became something that me and my daughter would do. When I became vegan, I thought I lost that. I was like, "Wow, we'll never get to do that again," because it was such a thing. We did it for holidays and everything.

Then I had a dream about this recipe, and I woke up, and I was like, "Tab, that sounds crazy." But in the dream it was good. I did a video and told people, "I dreamt that I made vegan deviled eggs," aka saved eggs or angel eggs. When I did it, I was like, "Oh my God, I get to have this tradition back. I can still do this with my daughter."

Now my son is saying, "We could even do it." I got this back now. It's one of my most popular recipes. It was one that did not exist anywhere in the world, and now people make it all the time.

I have to ask you about carrot bacon — this is one of your claims to fame. Did you ever expect it to blow up like it did?

Never. I had made it before. That's the crazy thing. I did a video before and it did all right, but when TikTok got a hold of it, they were like, "Girl, this is genius." I'm like, "But I've done this before. Six months ago, nobody cared."

The world was in the mood for carrot bacon.

They were in the mood and in the pandemic, and they were like, "Okay, we need it."

If we want to make this at home, what's the secret to getting it perfect every time?

It's the air fryer. That air fryer makes it crispy — but also that little bit of maple syrup, that little bit of liquid smoke. You can only put a little bit of liquid smoke, not too much, because you'll ruin it. That little bit of that sweetness and smokiness is what gives you that bacon flavor.

That's the thing about real bacon. People think that they crave bacon for the thought of bacon, but it's really the flavor and the texture. That's it. If you can get the same flavor and the same texture, then you've got bacon. That's why you can pretty much bacon-ize anything, as long as you get the texture right and you get the flavor right ... and you tell yourself it's bacon.

We're getting closer to the holiday season. You feature a delicious-looking Thanksgiving dressing recipe in your book that we found intriguing — it got us wondering about what vegan Thanksgiving looks like.

At my house, vegan Thanksgiving, you don't know it's vegan. The only thing is you don't see a big turkey.

What's the main event?

Sometimes we'll do a tofurkey. There's a lot of different vegan Turkey options. I'll do a meatloaf, or I'll do mushrooms and gravy, and I'll still have my greens. I'll still have my yams. I'll have my mac and cheese. I'll have my potato salad, the cranberry sauce, the stuffing, the dressing — all of the things that you have at a traditional Thanksgiving. They're going to still be on my table, other than the turkey.

Are there any staple ingredients that you need to rock a vegan Thanksgiving?

Real food, right? Everybody eats candied yams for Thanksgiving, so you have those. You have your greens. I love kale, and we like collard greens as well. Everybody in the South has to have a good mac and cheese at the holidays. For a vegan mac and cheese, you have to make sure you have your oat milk, or your cashew milk, and then your vegan cheese options. But my key ingredient for mine — because I love a little sweet addition to my mac and cheese — is butternut squash. That's also giving you very Thanksgiving feels.

What are some of your other favorite vegan dishes for the fall season — desserts, entrées, or otherwise?

I don't do desserts, really. Desserts ain't in my ministry. God didn't give that gift. He gave that to my granny and my sister and my mama, but he did not give it to me.

I love soups; I love chili. I have my chili in the book. I love a broccoli cheddar soup, and the mac and cheese — again, it's comfort food. Those are the things that you enjoy during the warm cozy nights when you've got the fireplace on, you want a blanket, and you want cozy food during the holidays and during the winter months.

Do you have any underrated or lesser-known vegan ingredients that you're always turning to?

Nori furikake. I talk about this a lot in the book, too, and I feel like I've made it very popular. But it's a seaweed and sesame seasoning that makes things taste like fish. I add it to my vallops, as I call them, which is oyster mushrooms or king trumpet mushrooms to make vegan scallops. I also add it to my chickpea tuna salad or un-tuna salad. It gives you that flavor of seafood.

Another ingredient is black salt, which isn't black; it's a light pink. Black salt makes things taste like eggs. You only need a pinch. This is an Indian salt. It's an actual salt. It's called black salt, but it's really pink and you can smell it. It smells like sulfur. It smells like eggs. I actually use this in the deviled egg recipe. I put a pinch of the black salt even in my pickle juice so that when I soak my mushrooms, it gives them a pickled egg flavor. Black salt is a game-changer.

Click here to get your copy of Tabitha Brown's cookbook, "Cooking from the Spirit."

This interview has been edited for clarity.