for me, food videos kind of serve as a useful window into how other people handle the challenges of a vegan diet. when i'm falling in a rut, not eating as healthfully as i want or being as creative as i like to be with recipes, it helps to draw on what i've seen from other people! because videos are audio and visual it can be easier for me to call back to and get excited to try food i've seen in a video than food i've read a recipe for.
SWEET POTATO SOUL
very high energy and enthusiastic woman yet somehow a calming presence. she is always smiling and looks like she loves what she is eating and doing! her way of cooking is very advance meal-prep and whole food diet focused. i can't eat the way she eats most of the time but i love to see the way she cooks and get ideas from it. she sums up her way of staying healthy as enforcing an 80-20 rule, 80% of her diet coming from whole plant foods and 20% being processed food, and though i don't hit that benchmark easily or often, just aspiring toward it will make you eat a bit better! in fact, i would say her way of cooking is aspirational, it's not what i expect of myself (at least not all the time) but i enjoy it as a model! she made videos while pregnant and now makes videos including meals for her child (whose face she omits and blurs which is very responsible and admirable), overall very cool videos.
A CHILL VEGAN
as the name suggests, lowkey and fun to watch. i also find her voice relaxing and her editing and cadence have made me laugh out loud quite a few times. she frequently does 'what i eat in a week' and pantry tour type videos where she discusses what she has on hand and comes up with ideas for how to use it, then shows what she ended up doing. this is close to how i personally like to cook, so it's really enjoyable for me to see a similar process and helps me come up with ideas. she is very casual in her approach to cooking and not super ~influencery~ about it, she will openly acknowledge when things do not look or taste pretty and i appreciate that genuineness. it makes me feel normal and massages my little peanut brain to see someone throw something together and say 'you know what. it was food'. often her week of food videos will be themed around a restriction of some kind, such as only shopping from one market, coming under a certain budget amount, or omitting a common allergen like soy or nuts, all of which are great at showing how planning and experience can make all of these things doable.
THEE BURGER DUDE
this guy. he's nuts. and i mean that in the best way possible. i've seen him around on vegan/vegan stoner subreddits which shows that he's legit and also... explains a lot. he pretty much exclusively focuses on recreating well-known fast food items. it's really pretty high effort cooking! his videos are short and well-paced, very satisfying to watch even if you don't plan on making any of the things he cooks. he makes it look easy, gives you a lot of options in terms of what to use, and frequently explains why he does things one way rather than another. he also seasons the FUCK out of his food which i respect. though i haven't personally made any of his recipes i watch his videos regularly because they're fun and a good reminder of just how much you can accomplish with vegan ingredients. it makes me feel like anything is possible with enough collective experimenting and sharing of information... also. i love when he films a pot of oil for deep frying and you see his face and the camera in the oil before the food goes in, it's a very funny little homemade touch.
