There’s a lot of great, varied vegan food in Toronto, from nutritious to ridiculous and back again. But for Afrobeets owner Kellie Asante, the local offerings were missing one crucial element: “It was hard for me to find cuisine that reminded me of home.”

Asante, a self-taught chef who picked up cooking tips via family members and the Food Network, began blending the West African flavours she grew up with plant-based ingredients and techniques.

“I’m actually not a vegan, but what I am is somebody who wanted to eat a plant-based diet,” Asante explains. “I needed to be able to create, and adapt, and eat things that would not be a stretch, and that I would enjoy.” She also found the people around her were interested in bringing a little more vegetation into their diet.

But when she thought about bringing her recipes out of the kitchen and into the public sphere, she found an even larger void in the dining scene.

“I was really nervous about it,” she says of the decision to launch Afrobeets. “I was looking online at vegan chefs and influencers, and, one, I’m not vegan. Two, I’m a bigger girl. Three, I’m a dark-skinned black woman. Four, I’m kind of an introvert. Five, I know a lot of people have not been exposed to West African cuisine.”

A breakthrough came when she chatted with her uncle about her idea he revealed he was a vegetarian himself. “Even just having that moment with him, I was like, how many people out there are vegetarian or fruitarian or whatever, that can relate to this food, or want to experience food like this? But because they’re not readily seen, people would assume they’re not out there – and that’s not necessarily true.”

Courtesy Afrobeets

For that reason, she sees Afrobeets as a way to mix West African flavours and vegan eating in a way that’s visible, accessible – and delicious. After a string of catering gigs for organizations like BLM – TO, York University and Children Peace Theatre, she’s moving into pop-up dinners. Her next appearance with Afrobeets is June 30 at the Depanneur (1033 College, 416-828-1990, thedepanneur.ca), for a drop-in dinner titled Vegan Food Made Africana.

Asante’s recipes are a mix of veganized South African recipes and others that already come meat-free. As an example, she highlights some items on the pop-up menu: Spicy, tomato-infused jollof rice is frequently found without meat, but it’s paired with a seasoned mushroom kebab, her meat-free take on a popular West African BBQ dish.

Rounding out the menu: kelewele, a fried ripe plantain with spices and roasted peanuts, and sweet potato pie, which Asante sees as a line between African-American Southern food and West African cuisine, thanks to the use of sweet potato and ginger. “It just ties it all up,” she says. On top: Coconut whipped cream. “It kinda changed my life,” she laughs. “First time I had it I was like, oh, no stomachache after this?”

The reaction from diners, she says, “has been, primarily, folks seeing that they had no idea they could have vegan food that tasted so familiar. And for some folks, they didn’t even know vegan food could – I don’t want to say, taste that good, because there’s a lot of good vegan food out there – but, I guess, taste so authentic.”

Courtesy Afrobeets

In the future, Asante would love to open an Afrobeets “restaurant-slash-public kitchen” offering prepared food, a pantry area of products from both Afrobeets and other producer.

“It would also be a place where people can feel comfortable to come and learn, build around how to make their favorite food more plant-based. It would align with the greater goal of helping folks see that there’s more to the food in front of them.”

nataliam@nowtoronto.com | @nataliamanzocco