As a vegan living in eastern Kentucky, Jan Brandenburg has a lot of experience converting her favorite Appalachian comfort foods and to plant based options.

Now she's taken those recipes and published her own cookbook called The Modern Mountain Cookbook.

With over 130 plant based recipes.

As a long time vegan and native Appalachian, Jan Brandenburg has specialized in creating plant based versions of her favorite traditional recipes.

Now they're all written down in The Modern Mountain Cookbook, a plant based celebration of Appalachia.

It is traditional Appalachian recipes, the foods that I grew up eating my whole life only adapted into vegan foods.

It's just a colorful, beautiful, Bountiful way to cook.

Her love of cooking began in childhood with her first Easy-Bake oven.

Because as soon as I got that, it was like kind of magic.

And watching her family run two restaurants in Pulaski County.

You know, I grew up in those kitchens, and, my grandmother would make, like, 10 to 12 pies every Saturday morning to sell at those two restaurants.

It helped my drive to cook.

You know, it was just it was just kind of what we did.

And I think about that sometimes, too, is just like, that is the news that the continually plays in my head.

Brandon Burks cookbook shares stories of her life in Appalachia and transforms traditional mountain recipes with plant based alternatives.

Some of our favorite recipes are Shepherd's pie.

I really love that one.

That something that I made in college and we called it deep dish hamburger pie.

But now I make it as a shepherd's pie, using either a meat substitute or lentils as the base.

And then I cook very seasonally, too, so I like to.

Peaches are really great right now, so I've been getting a lot of peaches for Peach Crisp.

If people are afraid that they might get something weird if they're getting vegan food, I always just think this is a really good one to have because it feels very it feels very familiar.

From spaghetti to cornbread to chocolate chip cookies, traditional tastes of the mountain are present in this cookbook, but the plant based ingredients provide an extra health benefit to these dishes.

You know, you can say, hey, guess what?

This is cholesterol free.

So, for people who, you know, most of us, even if we are not vegetarian or vegan, have got people in our family with dietary restrictions.

And so this is just an excellent resource for accommodating them.

You know, nothing in the book contains any cholesterol, and that's just really beneficial to a lot of people.

Brandenburg isn't a professional chef.

She's a pharmacist by trade and currently works in a local hospital.

She says in addition to all the measuring that they have in common, pharmacy and cooking both provide a level of human connection.

I think it's serving others.

You know, when you take time with somebody at the pharmacy counter, you're serving them.

They feel important.

When you cook for people, they feel important.

They feel a sense of belonging.

Brandenburg says one of her favorite parts of creating the cookbook was learning the histories of these traditional dishes and discovering new innovations in the plant based world of cooking.

For Kentucky Edition, I'm Mackenzie Spink, so this is a thank you.

Mackenzie Brandenburg says the majority of her own family isn't vegan, so she encourages you to not be afraid to serve plant based meals because in her experience, quote, if the food tastes good, nothing else matters.