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Plant-based recipes that point back to the city

Weeknight plates inspired by Seedz, Terror Tacos, Bombay Food Junkies, Plant Italia, and Adina’s — plus three vegan recipes from Rupert Wheldon’s 1910 No Animal Food, public domain, with Jay’s, Local Harvest, and Global Foods as the shopping list.

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Weeknight sandwich · 35 min · About $11 for 2

Cashew mushroom melt

Roasted mushrooms, caramelized onions, and a quick cashew sauce on sourdough. Inspired by the creamy cashew melts around St. Louis — not a restaurant recipe.

Creve Coeur, at home · 40 min · About $12 for 4 (chickpeas) or $16 (seitan)

Weeknight butter chick’n

A cashew-tomato gravy over seitan or chickpeas, in the spirit of Bombay Food Junkies.

South Grand, at home · 30 min · About $14 for 8 tacos

Seitan chorizo tacos

A Terror Tacos-adjacent weeknight: spiced seitan, mango salsa, lime.

Italian night in · 50 min · About $9 for 4 bowls plus pasta

Cashew Sunday gravy

A slow tomato sauce with cashew cream — the Plant Italia move, from your stove.

Soul food dessert · 45 min · About $9 for 6

Skillet peach cobbler

A vegan cobbler in the Adina’s tradition — fruit, biscuit lid, no dairy.

From the archives, 1910 · 55 min · About $10 for 8 bowls ($1.25 a bowl)

Wheldon’s vegetable soup

Red lentils, the whole vegetable drawer, tomatoes. Public domain. About $10 feeds a crowd.

From the archives, 1910 · 50 min · About $24 with pine nuts, or $12 with walnuts

Wheldon’s nut roast

Pine nuts, olive oil, crumbs, tomato — a 1910 vegan loaf. Walnuts from Local Harvest cut the bill in half.

From the archives, 1910 · 40 min · About $6 for 8 cakes

Wheldon’s lentil cakes

Red lentils, onion, gravy, fried in nut fat. Grape-Nuts as written, or extra crumbs. About $6 for a skillet.