Every region has its own unique fare, like a culinary accent. The Southwest has Tex-Mex, coastal regions love their fish, and the South seems keen on oranges, limes, and peaches. Midwestern cuisine, however, is essentially what would happen if a toddler were granted absolutely no dietary supervision. Read: a little weird, but completely delicious. And, sadly, chock-full of animal products that a lot of us are now choosing to avoid. Fear not, animal-lovers: here are 5 delicious vegan Midwestern foods (to buy or DIY).
1. Puppy Chow
It’s NOT dog food and it’s NOT called “muddy buddies”! Puppy chow is the greatest mix of sweet and salty: just rice square cereal, peanut butter, chocolate chips, and powdered sugar. This one’s an easy swap: just change out the normal milk- or semisweet-chocolate chips for a vegan dark chocolate, and make sure the cereal and powdered sugar you are using is vegan. Even if you aren’t a fan of dark chocolate, you won’t taste the difference with the peanut butter and sugar.
2. Chippers
Mmm, sweet and salty— sensing a theme? Chippers are just chocolate covered potato chips, which you can find in a lot of ice cream shops or other sweets shops— usually made with milk chocolate, though. Again, just swap out the milk chocolate for vegan chocolate, and make sure the potato chips are vegan (don’t worry, most of them are!). Or if you’re feeling lazy, place an order here.
3. Corn Dogs
Sometimes, your body is a temple. But sometimes, you just want a hot dog fried in cornbread and smothered with ketchup and mustard. Try these amazing mini corn dogs from Field Roast— they’re good enough to eat the bag in one sitting. Not that you would ever do that…
4. Blue Moon Ice Cream
Are you even a Midwesterner if you didn’t spend half of your childhood with blue teeth, blue lips, and possibly blue clothing? This is definitely more of a Northern Midwest thing, but it’s migrating its way south. Check out Ice Cream Plant (or Venture Soft Serve in Petoskey) to find where to buy the veganized version in Michigan, or check out this DIY version.
5. Ranch
Ranch. Add it to salads, use it as a chip dip, or drizzle it over absolutely any vegetable you can think of. Ranch is as vital a part to the Midwestern ecosystem as crops and cattle. Good Karma’s new plant-based ranch dip tastes just like the real thing, has live and active cultures, and is totally free from soy, nuts, and dairy (duh). Talk about a win-win-win-win… You get the picture. Check out some amazing recipes here and here.
Comment any Midwest classics that I missed, or write your favorite swap below!
Note: I received samples from Good Karma Foods, but all opinions are my own.