Soul Cocina was, to my delight, a vegan restaurant serving filling, healthy, authentic, and delicious food--a combination very difficult to come across. Vegan food has a tendency to feel millennial, insipid, and so healthy it seems negatively caloric. Soul Cocina combines a culinary backbone of traditional Colombian cuisine with sustainable, locavore veganism to create an experience unlike any other in the Chapel Hill area.
Eating the roasted chickpea and eggplant tamale was an experience in itself. Playfully wrapped in banana leaves with striped twine, the tamale had a relatively firm corn flour-based interior, with chickpeas cooked just enough to add a bit of texture and hints of roasted red pepper for flavor. It wasn’t soggy or mushy, and the flavor was concentrated in a savory fashion. However, the black bean, zucchini, and plantain arepa may be the way to go if you want that strong umami punch that is so hard to come by in vegan food. Crowned with fresh greens, the arepa itself is clearly homemade--non-greasy, without a strong corn flavor but very light in texture with a nice crust on the outside. Inside the arepa is a delicious, well-spiced-but-not-spicy mixture of mostly black bean and plantain, with the plantain adding just a hint of fruity depth to the black bean’s salted flavor. On the side, the yuca puffs, my personal favorite menu item, provided a warmly filling starch component to the meal. They were airy, yet pleasantly and meltingly doughy, gently baked with herbs and complemented with a dipping sauce reminiscent of a red pepper yogurt sauce, but vegan! To finish off, the passion fruit cheesecake replaced the tartness of cream cheese with a slightly fruitier tartness of passionfruit, without sacrificing its creaminess. Although slightly icy around the edges, the cheesecake was rich with a base of dates, nuts, and coconut. It was the perfect healthy-tasting ending: each ingredient can be tasted individually, yet each complements the other to form a cohesive whole.
Soul Cocina, for me, is a definite come-again. The fact that it’s local and healthy, supporting both an immigrant culture and serving as a sustainable addition to the Chapel Hill food economy, makes it a no-brainer when considering the truly enjoyable quality and deep flavor of the food itself. Thank you, Silvana!
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