On the first day of spring, Bryant Terry was at home in Oakland, transferring the compost from a bin in the yard to the raised beds, planting collards, mustard greens, turnips, bok choy, yu choy and early tomatoes. The tour for his new cookbook, “Vegetable Kingdom: The Abundant World of Vegan Recipes,” had been canceled in the chaos of the coronavirus. Restaurants and bars were closed — schools, too. Those who could be at home were staying put. And Terry, a cookbook author and the chef in residence of the Museum of the African Diaspora, was now, like so many parents, a full-time home-schooler.
“My saving grace is cooking,” Terry said. “I’ve been making a lot of elaborate meals for the family, and having the kids help more in the kitchen, and really step up their duties.” In his new cookbook, his daughters, Mila and Zenzi, ages 9 and 5, are mentioned in the very first sentence. The book was made for them — a collection of what Terry calls Afro-Asian food, which represent his family’s multicultural identities. The recipes come together with flavors and techniques by way of the African diaspora, China, Japan and Vietnam. Many are also a guide to getting a picky child to eat her vegetables.
Terry’s broccoli-dill sandwich spread, a quick purée made with broccoli and dill, seasoned with lemon and garlic, is a kind of delicious all-purpose dip, sauce and spread that quickly became a part of my own repertoire. Terry said it was inspired by a roasted-vegetable sandwich he often picked up after working out at the downtown Y.M.C.A. in Oakland. “I’m always thinking creatively about how I can make these recipes appealing to my kids, and other kids,” he said. “My older daughter has a very adventurous palate, but with our younger, we used to have to push her to eat more than pastas, crackers and bread.” When Terry made the broccoli spread and both children liked it, he didn’t make more iterations, or keep developing the recipe. “I thought, let’s just roll with this,” Terry said. In his house, it’s spread on crackers, used as a dip for crudités or as part of a snack platter, layered inside sandwiches and tossed with hot noodles.
The broccoli spread’s secret is in a straightforward subrecipe that Terry calls “umami powder,” a mix of cashews, pine nuts and dried porcini. And the umami powder’s secret is in a bump of nutritional yeast. “Back in my more. . . . ” Terry paused to choose his words carefully. “My macrobiotic-leaning days, I would use it as a cheese analogue, like a topping for popcorn.” But as a chef now so well known for his contemporary vegan cooking, Terry has been reluctant to use nutritional yeast beyond popcorn. “It’s often associated with the way people imagine vegan cooking to be,” he said. “Harking back to that 1970s, old-school Berkeley hippie perception.” For years, it was used more like a supplement than an ingredient — or aggressively piled on top of vegan dishes to lend them a savory note. Nutritional yeast is made from dried, pasteurized yeast cream — commercial yeast grown on a sugar medium like molasses and then concentrated — and though it does sound clinical, when it’s used with care, it lends the cheesy, meaty, funky quality of a little grated hard cheese.