Kamala Harris was, in part, raised on vegetarian food. In a cooking video with comedian and actor Mindy Kaling, the Vice President said that her Indian grandmother was strictly meat-free. “If it had a mother, it wasn’t getting eaten,” she explained. Now, she’s a little more flexible about what she eats but still conscious of the issues associated with meat consumption.
When Harris visited Las Vegas plant-based restaurant Tacotarian in 2021, she told chefs she tries to eat only plant-based foods before 6pm. And in 2019, during an interview with CNN, she expressed a desire for the government to do more about educating the public about the environmental and health impacts of eating red meat.
“I love cheeseburgers from time to time, right? But there has to be also what we do in terms of creating incentives that we will eat in a healthy way, that we will encourage moderation, and that we will be educated about the effects of our eating habits on our environment, and we have to do a much better job of that.” —Vice President Kamala Harris
So it makes sense that Harris, who loves to cook, has plenty of plant-based recipes in her repertoire. And many of them can be found on the new platform Kamala’s Recipes.
The website was designed by Seattle-based brand strategy and interactive studio People People in a bid to bring together the Vice President’s best recipes (“and those inspired by her”) in one place. The platform was also designed to encourage people to register to vote and donate to Harris’ campaign as she runs for president. The tagline reads “Let’s get cooking with our next commander in chef.”
7 vegan recipes from Kamala Harris
Not all of the recipes on Kamala’s Recipes are plant-based (including Taylor Swift-style Cat Lady Chai Cookies and Tim Walz’s Minnesota State Fair Turkey Leg), but many of them are animal-free. We’ve gathered the best below.
Kamala’s Recipes
1 Mindy’s Masala Dosa
After discussing their shared Indian heritage in a cooking video for the YouTube series Cooking With Kamala, Kaling and Harris set about making traditional South Indian dosas and potato curry. The dish is packed with flavor, thanks to the spiced potato filling and mildly tangy sourdough-like dosa. It’s also surprisingly quick to make—the whole thing comes together in just 20 minutes.
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Kamala’s Recipes
2 The Purple Powersuit
Okay, so this isn’t a recipe by Harris herself, but it was inspired by her taste in power suits. It’s also delicious, so it’s well worth mixing up next time you’re hosting a cocktail evening. It’s made with a blend of Aperol, pineapple juice, lime juice, sparkling water, gin, and California Falernum. “The Falernum is made in the Bay Area using a Jamaican-style rum base … a nod to Kamala’s roots,” notes People People.
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Kamala’s Recipes
3 D’Eilish Stew
Another recipe dreamed up by People People, this one is in honor of singer Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas, who have both officially endorsed the Harris campaign. “We are voting for Harris and Walz because they are fighting to protect our reproductive freedom, our planet, and our democracy,” said Eilish. The Irish Stew recipe is, of course, plant-based (Eilish is a passionate vegan), and it’s a nourishing, hearty, flavor-packed, veggie-dense choice for fall.
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Kamala’s Recipes
4 Kamala-Colada
Speaking about her mother at a White House event in 2023, Harris said: “My mother used to … she would give us a hard time sometimes, and she would say to us, ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with you young people. You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?’ You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.” Since then, the coconut tree phrase has become a viral social media trend. In a nod to the saying, this tasty recipe is filled with not just fresh coconut, but also coconut rum and coconut water, too.
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Kamala’s Recipes
5 Raisin Bran With Almond Milk
Simple but delicious. If you want to “start your day the Kamala way,” stay away from cow’s milk and instead, pick up the almond milk. Pour it over raisin bran and you’ve got yourself a nourishing, tasty breakfast meal.
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Kamala’s Recipes
6 Spiced Rice ala Vice
Food expert, writer, and TV personality Padma Lakshmi is a fan of Harris. She recently penned an essay for The New York Times stating that she believes that the vice president’s love for cooking and the skills she shows in the kitchen help qualify her to run the country. “Talking about food is a way to relate to more Americans, even those uninterested in her politics,” she wrote. “We’ve all been eating since we were babies, and we’re experts on our own tastes. Talking about food paves the way to harder conversations. Food removes barriers and unites us.”
In celebration of this support, People People has featured Lakshmi’s recipe for spiced rice on Kamala’s Recipes. It’s aromatic, a little spicy, and incredibly rich—enjoy it on its own or balance it out with some vegan cucumber raita or coconut chutney.
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Kamala’s Recipes
7 Break-Emhoff-a-Piece-of-That Matzah
Harris’s husband Doug Emhoff created this tasty unleavened bread recipe. It’s incredibly quick and simple to make (it comes together in less than 20 minutes and requires just two ingredients: flour and water) but it’s very tasty. “All rise for your favorite First Husband’s spin on traditional unleavened bread,” writes People People.
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Charlotte is a VegNews editor and writer based in sunny Southsea on England's southern coast.
