Cruelty-free comfort eats

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This article was published 19/10/2020 (2122 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Kirstie Brooks is one step closer to taking her vegan food truck on the road. She just needs to finish renovating said truck.

The 30-year-old Winnipegger has been vegan for nearly a decade, after a family tragedy pushed her to adopt a cruelty-free lifestyle.

“In 2008 was when I first gave up meat. That year was an incredibly hard year for me. My cousin was murdered and my family was going through so much pain,” Brooks says. “I just couldn’t bear putting another living being through that sort of pain just because I felt that they tasted good.”

While veganism — a diet that involves giving up any animal-derived products, including meat, fish, eggs and dairy — has gained mainstream popularity in recent years, vegans were few and far between when Brooks adopted it.

“I would have to explain to people what being vegan meant,” she says. “So I had to do a lot of my cooking on my own. I couldn’t go out to eat like I can now. So it just made me very creative with food and developed into this passion.”

These days, many restaurants offer vegan menu items, and fully vegan establishments, such as Roughage Eatery on Sherbrook Street, have started popping up in Winnipeg. However, the local food truck scene is sorely lacking.

Brooks has had a famously hard time finding a good meal at summer festivals and events such as the Food Truck Wars at ManyFest, which draws more than 50 vendors.

“(There) will be a vegetarian option with a sauce you can’t have and cheese you can’t have,” she says. “So you have to strip it down to basically being, like, a taco with cabbage on it and you’re like, ‘I don’t want to spend $15 on this.’”

Despite having no formal cooking training — save for a part-time job doing food prep at a retirement home as a teen — Brooks decided to take matters into her own hands.

She started looking for a set of wheels and found a 1974 Chevrolet Grumman on Kijiji last year. She had just finished stripping the interior of the boxy former electric-company service vehicle when the coronavirus pandemic hit.

“I was looking at my bank account and times are tough, so I wasn’t sure how I was going to make it possible,” Brooks says.

Financial relief came by way of a project grant from Earth’s Own Food Company, a Canadian manufacturer of plant-based beverages, such as oat and almond milk. The company launched its Plant Project this year, offering awards of up to $25,000 for community initiatives and business ideas aimed at promoting plant-based lifestyles.

Brooks was overcome with emotion when she learned her food truck was one of four winning submissions during a video call.

“Oh my god, I sobbed,” she says. “They told me that they are granting me the full $25,000 and I couldn’t even believe it.”

The money will go towards building a kitchen, outfitting the truck with plumbing and electrical, and painting the exterior. Brooks hopes to have Bright Side Kitchen up and running by summer 2021.

Until then, she’s been developing recipes to fit with her vegan-comfort-food concept and sharing her creations on Instagram (@brightsidewpg). The menu will be a mix of indulgent dishes, like nachos, and lighter options, such as buddha bowls (one-dish meals that include grains, veggies, beans and/or plant proteins), made with locally sourced ingredients.

“I think that’s one of the things that could use some work in the vegan realm or lifestyle, because often vegans say that their food is cruelty-free, but the reality is, many farmers are migrant workers that have really poor conditions,” she says. “So I’d love to make connections with some of the local… farmers that we have here in Winnipeg and use local ingredients when possible.”

Cooking inspiration comes from a childhood spent watching her parents in the kitchen. She describes her mom as an “incredible” baker and her dad as an “exceptional” cook.

“Seeing him in the kitchen growing up taught me how to be creative with food and follow my instincts,” Brooks says. “We always have used food as a love language in our (family).”

She’s also been learning how to make authentic pupusas, empanadas and tamales with her partner’s mother, who is Salvadoran.

Brooks plans on keeping her day job as a product manager at a tech company and working the food truck on weekends and evenings with hired help. Right now she sees the pandemic as an opportunity, rather than a hindrance, for her business model.

“I’m really excited about the opportunity for Winnipeg to rethink how we socialize,” she says. “I think something like a food truck is a really great opportunity to create different avenues of revenue, and just different ways to gather.”

eva.wasney@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @evawasney