If you’ve spent any time eating in the American South, you know that meat-based fare dominates the food scene. Vegetarians can at least pass over the barbequed meats and indulge in hearty biscuits (without the gravy) and count themselves lucky if they find collards without bacon. But what if you are vegan? It’s hard to find a vegan BBQ party in the south. So what do you do? You host your own southern vegan picnic! Here we’ll cover plenty of mouthwatering vegan soul food recipes and more fun ideas so you can truly celebrate southern-style regardless of whether your diet includes animal-based food or not. I hope you’ve recently eaten because if not, you’re about to get hungry!
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How to Throw a Southern Vegan Picnic Party
1. Create the Scene with ‘Southern’ Decorations
A vegan picnic is naturally all about the food! But if your home isn’t already southern as can be, there are a few fun ways you can spice it up southern-style with inspired decorations.
I’ve lived in the American South for 15 out of my (tender age of) 39 years. What I’ve seen in the way of style is quite varied, depending on where you are (as goes for any general geographical area). There’s New Orleans, Nashville, Louisville, and Savannah. There’s Richmond, Charleston, Charlotte and entire swaths of Appalachian mountain towns and swampy coastal beach towns. So while it isn’t possible to celebrate every specific area and nuanced style, you can still embrace some of the South’s universal basics: rocking chairs on porches (highly recommend for your picnic!), pineapples – both real or decorative – as a solidified symbol of hospitality, magnolia tree sprigs and blooms (preferably real, depending on your locale and the season), and plenty of bright, happy colour.
Unless the weather complicates things, you’ll naturally host your vegan picnic outdoors. Hosting outside is a joy! Cleanup is easier, sunshine is happier, and fresh air is refreshing. Trees, grass, or other native plants offer a naturally inviting gathering space. However, summer sunshine can also be scalding, humidity sweltering, and mosquitoes relentless. Still, don’t let those inconveniences deter you from having an outdoor party! See the summer patio party post for more tips on hosting outdoors.
To create a southern scene for your delicious vegan picnic, check out these fun finds:
- ‘Talk Southern to me’ sign (limited amount!)
- ‘Say what you want about the South…nobody retires and moves up north’ sign (limited amount!)
- Southern translations sign (limited amount!)
- ‘Bless your heart’ decorative metal sign
- ‘Bless your heart’ cross stitch wall art
- ‘Bless your heart’ wood-framed wall art
- ‘Hey y’all’ pineapple door hanger
- ‘Bless your heart’ throw pillow
- ‘Sunshine and sweet tea’ door hanger
- More wall décor and door hangers from Cordially Charleston shop
- Laser cut wooden pineapple
- Decorative white-washed wooden pineapple
- Artificial magnolia bloom centerpiece
- Pineapple cups, plates, and/or napkins
- ‘Cheers, Y’all!’ metallic gold party cups
- ‘It’s day drinking weather’ party napkins (limited amount!)
2. Prepare Vegan Versions of Southern Staples
Now to get to business: the food! Below you’ll find plenty of recipes for vegan versions of classic southern fare. If you’re a newly-converted vegan who lives in the South (or a longtime vegan who’s new to soul food), some recipes might seem daunting. Don’t worry; everything new seems so at first. Give yourself time weeks in advance to perfect a few favourite recipes so that you become comfortable with them, and then you’ll be confident to serve those at your party.
For drinks, provide plenty of sweet tea or course, but it’s a good idea to also provide un-sweet tea (or at least halve the sugar) for those watching their sugar intake. Muscadine wine (or muscadine juice) is always a good idea, as are muscadines if you host in the late summer or fall! Moonshine is another classic southern libation. As always and especially for outdoor parties, remember to provide plenty of cold water. And remember to have bottles of Tabasco sauce, Texas Pete, or any good hot sauce for guests to douse their food with a spicy southern punch.
- Vegan biscuits
- Vegan mushroom gravy
- Vegan southern-style collard greens
- More vegan southern collard greens
- Fried okra or roasted okra
- Okra and green beans
- Southern-style vegan potato salad
- Another vegan southern-style potato salad
- Southern-style vegan green beans
- Vegan pimiento cheese [NF]
- Vegan cornbread
- Vegan barbecue ‘ribs’
- Texas vegan 3-bean chili
- BBQ kidney bean burgers
- Veggie burger or another vegan burger
- Vegan jambalaya
- Sweet tea
- Sweet tea lemonade
- Vegan peach cobbler or another vegan peach cobbler
- Vegan blueberry cobbler
- More southern vegan recipes
3. Invite Southern Vibes with a Southern-Inspired Music Playlist
Good southern music is what will turn your picnic into a party! As mentioned above, the American South covers a variety of smaller cultural geographical regions, each with its own musical heritage. So while you could certainly focus on more specific genres like New Orleans jazz or Blue Ridge old-time music, there are broader categories of soul, country and rock that feature their own distinctive southern roots (check out the playlist below). And you can’t go wrong with the Queen of Country! If you enjoy Dolly Parton, you’ll find music playlists and other fun ideas in the Dolly Parton party post.
- Southern soul playlist
- Bluegrass playlist
- Southern country playlist
- Southern jazz playlist
- Southern classic rock playlist
4. Add Sweet Scents (more relevant for an indoor vegan picnic)
When you’re hosting outside (as with a picnic), scented candles are more or less irrelevant since you’ll likely have a grill smoking, a breeze whipping by (if you’re lucky), and any other natural outdoor scents wafting in the area. But there’s always the possibility of hosting an ‘indoor picnic’ due to weather or other circumstances, and that’s when any of these aromatic candles come into play! Guests will love walking into a space dripping with the scents of the south:
- ‘Southern as sweet tea and sunshine’ candle
- ‘Perfectly peachy + magnolia petals’ candle or this peach magnolia candle
- South Georgia peach candle
- Magnolia candle
5. Plan Southern-Inspired Games or Activities
If you and your guests aren’t already too busy noshing, challenge them to some soul food trivia or engage them in a customizable southern mama sayings activity. Set up a cornhole set so people can play a round of cornhole, or invest in a bocce ball set for a classic picnic pastime. Whatever you do, don’t worry too much about an agenda. Southern time is, after all, time to relax and forget about time! Can you or any of your friends play guitar (or better yet, banjo)? Invite instruments and open ears, and treat your guests to a song or ten!
Storytelling is another great way to engage people, especially if some guests don’t yet know each other very well. If you are generous with the moonshine, they’ll likely know each other well enough before the party’s over! You and your friends will surely have fun enough without needing much in the way of structured activities, but it’s always a good idea to have some storytelling prompts up your sleeve. For example, for people who don’t already live in the south, ‘where in the south have you been?’ What was it like?’ ‘What is your favourite part of the south?’ ‘Describe your southern fantasy.’ Things like that!
6. Declare Guest Participation
Guest participation involves how you’d like your guests to participate in or contribute to your vegan picnic. You could invite folks to ‘dress southern’, for example. (Let them decide how to interpret that; the results will likely be at least a little entertaining.) If you want to make your party prep easier, you could specifically make it a vegan picnic potluck and invite others to bring a veganized southern dish to share. You could even have a ‘party meal train’ set up online where people ‘sign up’ for which vegan southern staple they’ll bring. That way, you won’t have five different vegan mac ‘n’ cheeses! Making your picnic a potluck is especially helpful when you’re short on time, money, or both. Just make sure you clarify this up front in the invitation.
Summary of Tangible Items You Need
We’ve covered how to prepare for a southern vegan picnic. So here’s a bullet list of the tangible items involved:
- Outdoor necessities: sources of shade, chairs, tables, etc. (see patio party post for details)
- Cooler(s), and grilling equipment (recommended)
- Vegan southern food and beverages
- Southern-inspired decorations
- Southern music
- Southern-inspired scented candles (optional)
- Southern-inspired games (optional)
Preparation Checklist for Your American Southern Vegan Cookout
Most of these steps for party preparation apply to any event you host. So while we covered specific ideas for a vegan BBQ above, below are basic party planning guidelines to neatly order each step of the process (you can find more thorough details in the Best Party Practices posts):
1. First, confirm that guests can come on any chosen date
- Choose party date/time, and preferably alternative date(s) as well. Whenever most people are off work is the obvious ideal, and that’s usually on a Saturday or Sunday. (Afternoons or evenings best lend themselves to picnics, but there’s nothing wrong with serving up vegan southern food at 10 in the morning if that’s how y’all roll!)
- Choose guest list and establish minimum number of guests you’d like (to make hosting worth your effort)
- Six weeks out, confirm guests’ interest in the party and availability on chosen party date(s). The only details you’ll need to share at this time include what type of party it will be (southern vegan picnic); any requested participation (this is where you share if it’s a potluck, or BYOB, etc.); party date and general time of day; and your address (or address of whichever location you’ll use)
- This first step is simply to get people to confirm that, barring unforeseen circumstances, they’re able and willing to attend and will save the date. If your preferred minimum number of guests confirm interest and availability, have them lock your hot vegan BBQ in their calendar!
2. Then, proceed with planning
Once you have your picnic date established, get out your calendar and map out when you plan to do every step of prep. This means you schedule time for each preparation activity. If you don’t schedule time on your calendar early enough, you can find yourself overwhelmed and unprepared the day of the picnic. Don’t do that to yourself! Check out the How to Be a Good Party Host post for more clarification on what you can do to be confident, prepared, and relaxed. Party planning naturally requires some thought and effort (which people do notice and appreciate). So here’s a general overview of what you can expect to do leading up to the party:
- First, sit down and schedule time on your calendar for each step of party prep as listed below
- Create invitations with all the details and send them out 4 weeks before the party
- Order any party supplies and decorations 3 weeks out (so they arrive in time to set up)
- Shop for any party supplies/decorations you don’t order online, as well as non-perishable food/drinks. This goes for outdoor furniture/equipment, coolers, or any equipment needed to make recipes
- DIY any party supplies and decorations. For example, if you have access to a magnolia tree, you could make your own gorgeous magnolia centerpiece!
- Acquire perishable food/drinks early enough in advance to prepare in time
- Set up decorations
- Prepare food/drinks (depending on how long things keep)
3. Day of Picnic
It’s wise to get as much party prep done far enough in advance that you have some time to yourself to relax come party day, especially if you tend to stay busy. So be sure to plan your day-of-party preparations early enough to have that time and space to yourself as well. Within those amply planned/set-aside time slots, expect to do these preparations on the day of your party:
- Complete any last-minute food/drink prep that you can’t do any earlier
- Set up any quick/easy last-minute supplies and decorations (if not up already)
- Prepare music/speakers, as well as candles if the picnic has to be inside
- Get dressed in your favourite southern party outfit that makes you feel relaxed, comfy, and sexy
- Once everything’s ready, take some time for any preferred self-care activities that get you in a good headspace. Not only is this important for your own peace of mind, but it also helps you to be a relaxed, energized, and happy host who’s ready to greet guests with genuine southern hospitality!
All Set to Host a Sweet and Southern Vegan Picnic
Now that you know how to host a southern vegan picnic, it’s time to get started and add your own flavour! This one’s all about the food, so if you have to skimp on décor or games, that’s okay. Focusing on the menu and making sure everyone’s comfortable are the most important things (see more details in the hosting a party post). Every part of the planning process should be enjoyable – from planning the mouthwatering soul food menu to putting up sassy southern decorations. Ultimately, the goal is for you and your guests to have a delightful time, even if it looks different than you originally planned. Just put thought and care into party preparation and keep a flexible mindset. Your southern vegan picnic will be a great time that guests fondly remember!