AN OASIS IN THE FOOD DESERT

JUICE, SMOOTHIES AND HEARTY PLANT-BASED MEALS

THERE ARE LOTS OF GOOD restaurants in Oak Cliff east of Interstate 35 — Rudy’s Chicken, Catfish Floyd’s, Sweet Georgia Brown.

But only one, Recipe Oak Cliff, is vegan.

Tisha Crear, who opened Recipe almost two years ago, stopped eating meat at age 14 and sharpened her cooking skills hanging out with vegetarian friends as a student at New York University.

Crear later owned Reciprocity, a poetry space in the 200 block of North Tyler in the ’90s.

Now an arts administrator for the City of Dallas, she started putting on pop-up markets in Oak Cliff to activate empty lots, and she sold her juices and vegan dishes.

Philanthropist Lauren Embrey came to one of the markets and helped Crear get a loan from The Real Estate Council via the Embrey Family Foundation in 2016. That’s how Crear bought her building on South Ewing, and she opened Recipe Oak Cliff almost two years ago.

It now offers “indigenous cultural soul” food, all plant-based, amid south Oak Cliff’s food desert, where access to fresh foods is inadequate.

Everything on the Recipe menu is plantStory by RACHEL STONE Photography by KATHY TRAN based and under $10. There’s no soy, and most of it is raw.

The barbecue plate is made with jackfruit and comes with slaw, salad and fruit.

The barbecue plate is made with jackfruit and comes with slaw, salad and fruit. There’s a taco salad that comes with “meat” made of walnuts and sundried tomatoes.

Smoothies include the “wu being,” blended with banana, dates, kale and hemp milk. Choose from a menu of juices or create your own concoction.

“I can make all kinds of vegan and vegetarian food,” Crear says. “But the menu here is to prove a point.”

Vegan food is hearty and delicious, and you will like it.

Recipe Oak Cliff

Address: 1831 S. Ewing St.

Hours: WednesdaySaturday, 11 a.m.-7 p.m. recipeoc.com

Shayna’s Place

Now Open daily from 7am-9pm. Come enjoy delicious sandwiches, salads, smoothies and pastries, as well as a local selection of coffee and sodas. BYOB.