Oyster mushroom fried chicken and jackfruit crab cakes may sound unusual, but that's the way vegan chef Nadira Jenkins-El does her version of soul food. Now, 101 of her creative recipes are availablein her new cookbook "Vegan Soul Food Cookbook: Plant-Based, No-Fuss Southern Favorites."

Jenkins-El, who is also a holistic nutritionist and the co-owner of The Cutting Board Bakery and Cafe in Mesa, wrote the cookbook to share quick vegan soul food recipes, similar to what she serves at her restaurant.

While the cookbook, which is widely available and can be purchased online from local booksellersincluding Changing Hands Bookstore ($15.99), is meant to provide an introduction to accessible vegan cooking, shes also interested in showing people there's diversity in the vegan community.

MORE THINGS TO DO: For restaurant reviews, travel tips, concert picks and more, subscribe to azcentral.com. Get 3 months for $3 during our Fourth of July sale.

There's not a lot of Black representation and that was the other reason for wanting to do my cookbook," Jenkins-El said."I want my people to know that you do have alternatives and can still have the delicious foods that you grew up with. .

Nadira Jenkins-El, the co-owner of The Cutting Board Bakery and Cafe in Mesa, released a new coobook: "Vegan Soul Food Cookbook: Plant Based No-Fuss Southern Favorites."(Photo: Nadira Jenkins-El)

Jenkins-El grew up in Maryland and California, and moved to Arizona eight years ago. Her first career was in nursing, and then she moved on to running an entrepreneurship program with inner city youth in Baltimore. She taught the students how to cook, so they were able to start a business catering meals.

This inspired her to followher dreams of running a restaurantand go to school again for culinary management. When she moved to Tucson, she started Global Fusion, a vegan bakery that specialized indesserts without refined sugar.

She sold her pastries and food at farmers markets in the Tucson area and then expanded into the Phoenix area. Shortly after, the opportunity arose to buy a restaurant, and she opened The Cutting Board Bakery and Cafein 2018 with her business partner Sabrina Metherell.

Her cookbook contains soul food recipes that are typically meat based, like ribs and jambalaya, but she has found creative ways to make these dishes completely animal-product-free with tofu, seitan, jackfruit and mushrooms.

She also features dishes like beans and rice from her time in the Caribbean. Jenkins-El moved to St. Croix for two years to learn more about cooking with fresh fruits and vegetables from the large vegan community there.

She said she learned a lot about creative uses of fruits and vegetables when she worked on a food truck that was all vegan and gluten free. I learned how to work and play with jackfruit while living on the island, because the farmers would bring them right to our trucks in the morning.

Jenkins-El has more food projects in the works and plans touse them to continue being vocal about including everyone in the plant-based community. Veganism is for everybody we can all be playing our part, making the world healthier and ending animal cruelty.

When: 11a.m.-4p.m. Monday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, 11 a.m.- 7 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday. Closed Tuesday.

Where: 2235 S.Power Road, #116, Mesa.

Details:thecuttingboardbakeryandcafe.com.

Reach the reporter at Shaena.Montanari@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @DrShaena.

Support local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com today.

Read or Share this story: https://www.azcentral.com/story/entertainment/dining/2020/06/29/chef-mesa-restaurant-cutting-board-vegan-soul-food-cookbook/3255633001/

Read more:
The reason this former nurse turned her passion for vegan soul food into a new cookbook - AZCentral