Vegan Soul Food

Okra, tofu and vegan — an unlikely trio, thinking of marriages made in food-heaven. You must have heard the comments about okra: “Oh, no — it’s so slimy.” And tofu? On it’s own, it’s bland to the power of zero; experimented with, tofu’s versatility is boggling.
Tamearra Dyson makes a “give-me-more” statement with her okra and her tofu, prepared in her unique vegan style at her Jack London Square soul food eatery, Souley Vegan. The 30-something owner-chef has been vegan since age 16, initially “because the thought of eating flesh off a bone grossed me out.” She didn’t want to eat dairy either, so began, while still in her teens, experimenting with her Southern grandma’s recipes.
Dyson does a lot of deep-frying, Southern style. But, for example, she puts a light cornmeal coating (not the traditional breadcrumbs) on her okra bites and cooks them in olive oil, so they’re light and crispy, and you can eat them like popcorn. The silky-smooth tofu comes wrapped in a
thick, crunchy, garlic-and-spice cornmeal jacket. Yum.
Dyson went into the medical field before committing herself to cooking vegan. She says it was while working as an endoscopy technician helping with colonoscopies that she became committed to the health benefits of the vegan diet. “Really!” she says. “You get to see the effects of what people eat.”
Getting to her delicious flavorings, she will tell you that she uses abundant garlic, onions and rock salt, and the rest is her secret. “But everything is spiced with love, and heart,” she adds.

Souley Vegan, 301 Broadway, (510) 922-1615, open 11 a.m.–9 p.m. Tue.–Sat.

This article appears in the January-February 2010 issue of Alameda Magazine
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