The Inspired Vegan summary

Terry spent weeks and weeks developing these recipes, building on a lifetime of experience, research, and meditation. You’d forgive him for insisting they be carried out exactly.

But, he promises, he won’t be offended if you make these recipes your own. In the style of jazz jam sessions or hip hop ciphers, he wants you to freestyle these recipes and let fresh seasonal ingredients, what’s available, and your own taste shape your approach to cooking. 

So you’ve got your tomato plants growing on the windowsill. That’s a great start! But what are you going to do with all those adorable red orbs of accomplishment weighing down the vine? However delicious, a person can’t live on tomato sandwiches alone.

The solution isn’t just looking up finicky tomato recipes. In order to make the most of your produce, you’ve got to learn the building blocks. Once you understand how your favorite dishes are layered together, you’ll be able to put your own spin on ingredients that are seasonally available – or whatever you happen to have at home. Got some grains, beans, herbs, nuts, and an onion? You can make it work once you know a few basic methods. 

You might think that vegans are holier-than-thou when it comes to indulgent eating. But, as it turns out, even vegans like Terry have post-holiday bloating and regret. 

One January, after an end-of-year visit to his parents’ place in Alabama, Terry was atoning for his holiday sins at a 6:00 a.m. boot camp class. His struggles didn’t go unnoticed by his pals, who teased him for being out of shape. “I’m full of grits, greens, and molasses,” Terry laughingly shot back. 

Terry was hardly the first to notice chronic food injustice in the Bay Area. In fact, his pursuits have largely been possible because of groundwork laid by other activists, especially the Black Panther Party. 

In 1969, the Panthers established the Free Breakfast for Children Program to serve food to underprivileged children in the Bay Area. By providing free meals to kids before school, the Panthers were tackling thorny issues such as poverty, malnutrition, and institutionalized racism from a grassroots level. The project was wildly successful; within a year, they were feeding over 10,000 kids every morning all over the US. 

It didn’t take long for Grace Lee and James Boggs to fall in love. A year after they first met in Detroit in 1952, they were already married. Their subsequent 40-year partnership – both romantic and political – was formidable. Grace and James’s devotion to social change movements, and to each other, went on to influence generations of activists, including Terry. 

In 1992, they founded the Detroit Summer collective to work on food justice, among other things. Detroit Summer started pairing local youths with elders who grew their own food. Together, these groups built hundreds of community gardens in a city where there wasn’t a single major grocery outlet. It was radical, political work – decades before its time. 

Terry attended college at Xavier University of Louisiana, but he got his true education from New Orleans. Since his days as a student, Terry has been continually inspired by the Big Easy’s Cajun and Creole flavors, which were developed from centuries of layering cultures and optimizing enjoyment. When people from Africa, Western Europe, Asia, and the Caribbean joined indigenous Americans to settle in the city we now call New Orleans, something magical happened: they combined their diverse traditions to create some of the world’s most delectable food.

The vitality, rich history, and especially diversity of New Orleans contributed to Terry’s culinary awakening – and continue to dazzle him to this day. From red beans and rice at Dooky Chase in the Fifth Ward to raucous Mardi Gras parades to the sugary-sweet frozen daiquiris from the city’s drive-through bars, NOLA’s ineffable joie de vivre is at the core of Terry’s cooking style.