Here's how to make all of Tabitha Brown's favorite vegan meals. | Getty Images/Photo Illustration by Polly Haas for LIVEKINDLY
Social media influencer Tabitha Brown switched to a plant-based diet about three years ago in an effort to address some ongoing health issues. These days, the beloved social media personality is known for her viral TikTok videos, in which Brown shares some of her favorite vegan recipes along with catchy sayings like “that’s your business” and “like so, like that.” She even opened her very own vegan restauarnt, Kale My Name, in Encino, California.
One of Brown’s most popular recipes to date is a TikTok about carrot bacon that she posted in April 2020. That clip, which shows Brown making vegan bacon using carrot ribbons, liquid smoke, maple syrup, garlic powder, and some other spices, has been viewed more than 21 million times.
And Brown’s plant-based creations are a hit with celebrities too. In January 2021, Desperate Housewives alum Eva Longoria whipped up Brown’s version of vegan deviled eggs and documented her cooking process on Instagram. Instead of eggs, the recipe uses mushrooms soaked in pickle juice and a garbanzo bean filling.
Longoria was so impressed with the final product that she declared Brown’s recipe “changed” her life. “I made these three days ago and I’ve been dreaming about making them again since [then],” she gushed at the time.
Since rising to fame on TikTok, Brown has also landed television roles as well as a talk show, and in February 2021 she revealed that she signed a deal to release two books—an inspirational book and a cookbook.
Before she went vegan, Brown had been experiencing chronic pain, blurred vision, panic attacks, and anxiety for a year and seven months straight. She made the switch to a plant-based diet after her daughter encouraged her to watch What The Health. The documentary explores the link between a diet rich in meat and animal products and disease.
“My husband and I, we all sat down together, we watched it, and I was like, ‘Oh, wow, this is very interesting.’ What got me, is that when they were talking about diseases and our heritage, they would eat the same thing causing the same disease. For me, my mom died at 51. She had ALS [Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis]. My dad is 68, he’s the oldest male to live in the family. A lot of my aunts, uncles, and family members died very young of heart attacks, strokes, and rare sicknesses. To me, meat was the common denominator,” Brown explained to Goodful in April 2020.
“And I thought to myself, ‘Well, I haven’t tried that, right?’ And they were talking about plant-based eating on What The Health. So I told my husband, ‘I’m done with the dummy drugs, all the guinea pig drugs that the doctors have given me over this last year and a half. Nothing has worked. If I’ve tried all that stuff, honey, I can at least try to do this vegan thing for 30 days and see if it makes me feel better.’”
According to Brown, the switch had a positive effect on her health almost immediately and she hasn’t looked back since. “We decided, as a family, to do a 30-day vegan challenge and on day 10 my headaches went away. I remember I was walking through my kitchen and was like, ‘My head ain’t hurting.’ I started feeling better from that day. I started getting my energy back. I just started feeling like myself again,” she recalled. “On day 29, I told my husband, ‘I think this is my path, I’m going vegan.'”
Tabitha Brown loves to share a peek at her vegan recipes with her millions of social media followers. She’s particularly fond of dishes that are easy to prepare and family-friendly. She also loves to share recipes for dishes that are vegan versions of classic meals. Here are some of Tabitha Brown’s favorite vegan recipes.
When it comes to vegan cooking, Brown is a pro at taking whatever is in her refrigerator at any given moment and creating a meat-free feast. Case in point: this pasta dish she threw together in July 2021 using leftover noodles, red bell peppers, mushrooms, and more. The dish, which is like pasta primavera, also includes vegan butter and dairy-free cheese shreds.
“It’s very good,” she exclaimed as she took a taste. “Honey, use that old pasta that’s been sitting in there for maybe a day or two. That’s your business.”
After a workout in May 2021, Brown went ahead and made herself a satiating stuffed avocado for breakfast. She began by sautéing some vegan sausage, mushrooms, onion, green bell pepper, peaches, spinach, and several spices.
Once her filling was cooked, Brown removed the flesh from an avocado, cut it up, and tossed it with the rest of her filling. She then stuffed the hearty filling back into the avocado and topped it with vegan garlic Parmesan seasoning and sriracha.
Brown was craving fish tacos in May 2021, but obviously had to get a bit creative with her filling. To mimic fish she sauteed sliced hearts of palm topped with nori furikake seasoning to get the fish-like taste.
After adding a few more spices, Brown completed her taco filling with bell peppers, onions, and sliced avocado. Once she placed the taco “meat” in a shell, she topped it with some salsa, pico de gallo, and cilantro.
Brown was once again craving fish in May 2021 when she whipped up some vegan crab cakes using jackfruit and hearts of palm as her “fish” base. The fish-free “crab” cake was also made with celery, onion, and Brown threw everything in a food processor in order to achieve that true crab cake texture.
After adding an array of spices, including garlic powder, nori furikake, and Old Bay seasoning, Brown tossed in some coconut shreds, vegan mayonnaise, and breadcrumbs so the mixture could come together. She then made each party by hand and tossed them in the air fryer. The result not only looked just like a crab cake, but tasted pretty darn good too!
In March 2021, Brown whipped up a chickpea scramble for breakfast by tossing chickpeas, mushrooms, onion, bell peppers, and spinach into a food processor.
Once the mixture was sufficiently blitzed, Brown added it to a frying pan with a bunch of seasonings such as garlic powder, black salt, and black garlic and sautéed everything together. When the scramble was done, she topped it with some sliced avocado and Old Bay hot sauce.
“Chickpea scramble for the win!” she declared.
When she couldn’t figure out what to make for dinner in March 2021, Brown made a stir fry of sorts using whatever she had in her fridge.
On this occasion that included vegan sausage, a sweet potato, some sliced onion, mushrooms, and a bell pepper. To make this hodgepodge of a dish a bit richer, Brown threw in plenty of spices and some vegan cheddar cheese, and topped the whole thing with a handful of spinach.
“I put whatever I want because that’s my business! You do it how you want to,” she explained. “Make it up as you go!”
While there are plenty of pre-made veggie and vegan burger patties on the market, Brown opted to make her own in February 2021 using vegan meat, bell peppers, onion, spinach, shredded dairy-free cheese, garlic, and other spices.
She then mixed everything together and formed a patty with her hands before cooking it in a skillet.
Instead of a bun, Brown used a tortilla for her burger and put avocado, lettuce, tomato, pickles, and onions inside before placing her patty on top.
Though pot roast isn’t vegan, the stovetop pot “unroast” Brown made in January 2021 certainly is. Instead of meat, Brown makes her “unroast” with jackfruit, carrots, celery, onion, vegetable broth, liquid smoke, and spices. Mmm!
In July 2020, Brown decided to cook some vegan Hamburger Helper for her family, including her daughter Choyce who made a brief cameo in the clip.
While Hamburger Helper traditionally contains beef, Brown prepared her vegan version using dairy-free mac and cheese, ground plant-based “meat” from Impossible Foods, garlic powder, and other spices, as well as vegan cheese shreds and tomato sauce.
Brown called the hearty dish, “My version of a quick vegan hamburger helper for my family❤️.”
Brown first shared her recipe for carrot bacon in April 2020 and it quickly went viral, garnering more than 21 million views.
The meat-free dish is made with carrot strips that have been soaked in liquid smoke, maple syrup, garlic powder, and some other spices, and then thrown in an air fryer or oven. The result is crunchy strips that look and taste like bacon without any of the guilt.
Brown shared the same video again a year later, in April 2021, and reflected on how popular it had become. “Omg family this video was 1 year ago today and you all watched and shared it millions of times!!” she wrote on TikTok. “Thank you!!!”
Can’t get enough of Tabitha Brown’s tasty vegan recipes? Try whipping up Gordon Ramsay’s gazpacho. Or, try making Lizzo’s creamy vegan mac and cheese.
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