The Vegan Muva Experience (Sumpters Facebook tag) has been up and running for a little more than a year. A personal chef and small-event caterer, Sumpter offers a range of plant-based entrees and even homemade ice cream with a rotating menu that drops each Thursday and Sunday with deliveries throughout Berkeley and Dorchester counties.

Some of her clients favorites include the Buffalo Chickn Eggrolls, a sandwich made with Sumpters famous jackfruit-based Barbie Q, the Grinder Salad Sandwich and the comforting Veggie Pot Pie, not to mention her dairy-free ice creams, with flavors such as butter pecan, vanilla and oatmeal chocolate chip. With Thanksgiving right around the corner, The Vegan Muva is offering her Veggie Lasagna as a plant-based holiday alternative to turkey, at $50 a pan.

Sumpters favorite kitchen staples feature an array of mushrooms, including lobster mushrooms, many fresh peppers and an extravaganza of seasonings. Her Lobster Mushroom Pasta and "Lobster" Bisque almost always make it on her revolving menu, as do the Jerk Fried Chikn Pasta and Chikn Philly Fries. The signature pink-clad kitchen magician often says shes using 122 seasonings at her stove on any given day.

Sumpter said the two main concerns people have about a vegan diet are they wont get enough protein and it just wont taste good. Many vegetables and grains, and even some vegan condiments such as nutritional yeast contain protein, though. Combining them well, such as pairing chickpeas or black beans with sunflower seeds or spooning a little peanut or almond butter into your oatmeal, offers the complete protein and the amino acid chains the body needs to function, even at highly athletic levels.

Some well-known vegan athletes include tennis stars Venus Williams and Martina Navratilova, champion boxer Mike Tyson and Olympic track-and-field gold medalist Carl Lewis.

My meals are geared toward those who are afraid to step away from meat-based diets but are looking to transition into a vegan or vegetarian approach to food. My particular specialty is making dishes that are similar to meat-centered cuisine. I take the fright out of making that transition, Sumpter said. The Charleston area is just now gearing toward plant-based lifestyles, but Ive been doing vegan markets, so between that and Facebook, people are starting to recognize me, and I have made some converts to a plant-based life. Its been a very humbling and exciting experience.

More here:

The Vegan Muva: cuisine with conscience | Business ... - Charleston Post Courier