As much as the holiday season is about spending quality time with loved ones, it's, really, an excuse to break out the recipes that have nourished us our whole lives (see: your auntie's mac 'n' cheese recipe that's whipped up with 20 pounds of love and at least four cheeses). But when it comes to good food that's seasoned, stirred, and sautéed with love, no one's doing it bigger and better than Tabitha Brown, actress, vegan social media star, and "world's favorite mom and auntie."
Our good sis Tab can make a baby back rib-loving carnivore fall hard for her carrot bacon or jack fruit pot roast. Or in other words, "she added the missing ingredient to vegan eating — flavor and energy," says Chelsea Sanders, host of Unbothered's Go Off, Sis and VP of multicultural brand strategy & development. "And she’s keeping the kids entertained with [YouTube’s] Tab Time.”
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If you follow Brown on social, you know she’s not shoving the benefits of plant-based food down your throat. Nope, The New York Times best-selling author of Feeding the Soul: Finding Our Way to Joy, Love, and Freedom prefers to “enlighten” folks with an agave-sweetened spoon. “I’ve never told anybody, ‘You need to go vegan. You need to eat this,’” says the woman who went viral in 2017, while driving an Uber. “I simply said, ‘Honey, this is what I eat. This is how I make it. Oooh, honey, this is how it taste.’”
And since McCormick blessed the queen with her own seasoning (Sunshine by Tabitha Brown), we know some of those recipes are bursting with garlic, pineapple, mango, and ginger. And to think, our beacon of joy was reluctant to create a TikTok account. She originally thought it was “a bunch of kids on there” who wouldn’t take her seriously. But her daughter, Choyce, insisted it was the perfect medium for her healthy recipes and motivational words.
Choyce was right. Her mama went viral during her first week on the platform. It didn’t take long for the North Carolina native to understand her assignment was deeper than making our mouths water with vegan deviled eggs and air-fried BBQ mushrooms. “The comments [on TikTok] were saying things like, ‘Oh, my god, I love her voice. It helps with my anxiety. I watch her to go to sleep. I watch her to feel better,’” says the two-time author. “And those things felt like a responsibility.”
To hear Brown chat about the power of eating dinner as a family, her go-to morning ritual, and activating your dreams, listen to the full episode below.
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