THE OPENING PAGES of Timothy Pakron’s about-to-be-released cookbook aren’t pictures of plates of food, but rather gorgeous flower photos – some dreamy cosmos, followed by a double-page spread of silvery mountain mint, or Pycnanthemum, gleaming against a moody dark background. That all makes sense, because the cookbook is titled “Garden Variety: Plant-Focused Recipes Inspired by My Garden,” and his garden is a color- and flavor-filled space in his New Orleans backyard with 12 big raised beds that he’s now transitioning to what he calls more of a food forest.

Timothy, who is known to many of his followers as Mississippi Vegan – the title of his popular 2018 cookbook, his Instagram handle and also the url of his website – describes himself as “a vegan from Mississippi living in New Orleans.” Besides developing his signature recipes, he’s a photographer and food stylist—and also a gardener, thanks to his father to whom he dedicated the new book in thanks for giving his son his green thumb, he says.

I learned many new things—about some new herbs I’d never even heard of that I could even grow in a pot, like pandan plant, and also that rice can be baked in the oven for a whole new result.

meet timothy sept. 12 in the hudson valley

Also: Timothy will be in conversation with James Beard award-winning cookbook author Amy Chaplin on Sept. 12 in my neighborhood, at HGS Home Chef in Hillsdale, N.Y. – a very special event in a very special shop. More information, and reserve a spot.

Plus: Comment in the box near the bottom of the page for a chance to win a copy of the new cookbook.

Read along as you listen to the Aug. 24, 2026 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on Apple Podcasts (iTunes) or Spotify (and browse my archive of podcasts here).

‘garden variety’ cookbook, with timothy pakron

Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 00:25:26 | Recorded on August 21, 2026

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Margaret Roach: I’m so glad to meet you, Timothy. And we’ve talked on the phone and it was great to finally connect because of course I’ve known about you and followed you on social media and things like that. And so you might be the Mississippi Vegan, but you’re New Orleans-based since what, 2018 [laughter]? So just tell us a little bit about that.

Timothy Pakron: Well, what’s funny is I started—I call it a concept—the concept of Mississippi Vegan when I was living in New York actually, and I think that was around 2014. And so I created that concept merging my past of growing up on the Gulf Coast in Mississippi and close to New Orleans, and then merged it with my newer journey of being vegan, which I went vegan when I was 20. So it really merged my past and my present, and it actually merged all of my passions in life, because I went to college for studio art and I was always a passionate cook. And so when I started Mississippi Vegan, it really combined everything that I love: writing, food styling, photography, art in general, and really just working on a body of work. I love curating a collection of things, and so that’s why cookbooks are really special to me.

Margaret: And they’re multi-year projects. It really is; it’s not an instant thing. It is like a curation exercise over a period of years [laughter].

Timothy: Yeah. Well, and I was exposed to that in college in studio art. I was introduced to the idea of a body of work, and I call it now in this digital age an ecosystem, because there’s so many things that are connected to it. But cookbooks are definitely my pride and joy and what are most fulfilling to me, just because I love that they’re a physical object and they’re a tactile experience. And I think people are really craving that in this digital age.

Margaret: Definitely. And the new book is called “Garden Variety,” as I said earlier, and because that backyard of yours plays a big role in your life and in your cooking. So set the scene quickly for us just about that, your landscape, your garden. Are you in the city? What’s it like?

Timothy: So I’m in New Orleans. I’m close to City Park, if anyone’s been to the city. And we’re subtropical, so I’m zone 9B here. And so we do get usually one freeze a year, which as you know, will set things back. But I actually appreciate a good freeze; I kind of find it like a hard reset. But the point I’m making is that it’s subtropical. I have banana trees, I have passionflower vines, and right now I have a ton of okra and eggplant.

And then of course I have a huge pollinator garden. I love collecting native wildflowers and host plants for butterflies. So my home and my front garden and back garden definitely stick out on the block. If I were to invite you over, you would definitely be able to pick out my house [laughter] because every other house is kind of a manicured lawn of grass.

And I got rid of all my grass, and my front yard has two massive peach trees and I have a whole bunch of candlesticks in it and all kinds of native flowers. So it’s abundant, and it’s almost like a jungle vibe just because New Orleans –

Margaret: Yeah, of course.

Timothy: And it’s so hot and muggy right now. If you were here, it’s whoa. It kind of feels like a jungle.

Margaret: Yeah. And now you’re making us, when we spoke on the phone recently, you told me you’re transitioning to more of a food forest feeling you have these 12 raised beds, but like what you’re describing, it’s more. It’s more.

Timothy: Yeah. Well, and after having the 12 raised beds, I realized as much as I love growing annuals and growing specialty produce items—and I’ll always do that—but what I learned after doing that was I would much rather invest my precious real estate living in a residential neighborhood in New Orleans to fruit trees and to shrubs, perennials that I can maintain and take care of. But once they get a grip, I mean, the peach trees are the best example I have because now that they are about five years old, I mean, I literally ate over 200 peaches this year [laughter]. And what’s so nice about it, and I’m sure you can relate as a fellow gardener is there’s something to be said about just being able to go into the garden and harvest and eat something immediately as opposed to something like eggplant, which I adore, but it needs a little love. You can’t just take a bite out of an eggplant.

Margaret: Well, you could, but ugh. [Laughter.]

Timothy: And I have a whole bunch of really hot peppers right now and it’s so fun and I adore them, but I have way more than I need.

Margaret: Yes. Yes.

Timothy: But when it comes to peaches or fruit, I’m obsessed with fruit. I love consuming it and it makes me feel good. And so that’s kind of where I’m at now is that.

Margaret: Yeah. So let’s talk about some food. And I’m not a vegan as you are, but I’ve been a vegetarian for probably 45 years or so. So you’d think all of what’s in your cookbook would be familiar-ish turf for me. But many things were really kind of eye-opening, even some really basic things. Like I make rice every single week. I make a pot of rice, except you don’t make a pot of rice, you bake your rice. I never, never… And the proportions of water by comparison to the stovetop method of doing it. Wow. Tell us about that.

Timothy: I love that. It’s so funny because for the longest time I had a rice cooker, and then it broke, and then I got another rice cooker. And every time I tried to make it on the stovetop, I always just felt like it was a little bit fussy. And I’ve made it on the stovetop before and had good results, but there’s something about baking the rice, I’m telling you, I think because it’s exposed to heat all around. And I also love that you can bake it in an all-glass vessel and then whenever you’re done, you can just pop it in the fridge and then whenever you need some, you can just scoop it out. And it’s also nice if you need to make a larger batch.

But what I love most about it is you can just pop it in the oven and let it do its thing. And then you have the stovetop to focus on other components of the meal. And so what I always do every week, I usually make a pot of beans on the stovetop, and then I bake a batch of rice, and then I have both of those staples. And then it’s really easy to grab both of those from the fridge, throw a big spoonful of each into a skillet, and then whatever produce I have on hand. And then you have this wholesome bowl, which is really how I like to eat many of my daytime meals is a bowl of wholesome food. You know what I mean?

Margaret: Yeah. Well, and as I said quickly before, the proportion, my traditional proportion or what you see in recipe books a lot of times is 2 to 1 water to rice-ish.

Timothy: Too much water.

Margaret: And it’s too much water. And so yours is, I think, 2-1/2 cups of water to 2 cups of rice. So it’s not anywhere near the same proportions. Plus you add in these flavorful little bits and pieces, a little garlic powder or a little something else, a spring of rosemary, a little bit of…

Timothy: Bay leaves, my favorite.

Margaret: Yeah, bay leaf, or a little bit of red wine vinegar. So it makes a big difference. And it just was like, wow, that sounds really, really, really good.

I also loved how you start the book by really taking us through your palate or your whatever of ingredients. And I was also glad that you have a page on your website with specific brands recommended, because as those of us who use pantry items know not all brands are created equal and you can spend a bunch of money on stuff that turns out not to be the best version.

But for instance, nutritional yeast. So you’re vegan, you don’t use, say, cheese and certain other things that might be-

Timothy: Umami-rich.

Margaret: Yeah. But you use nutritional yeast in different amounts in different things sometimes, and you like the flakes, not the powder, and you recommend a particular type. I mean, I really appreciated that.

And I loved the leafy herbs. Maybe you could just tell us about a couple of those because some of them I don’t even know—like the pandan plant, Pandanus or whatever.

Timothy: Yeah, so lovely. You can grow it. It has blade-like leaves and it looks similar to a palm, but you can find the leaves in the freezer section of your local Asian market. And it actually freezes really well, but it has the most gorgeous buttery vanilla-esque flavor. And let me tell you, baking a batch of rice, you fold in one of those leaves. When you bake the rice, the whole house smells like. And it’s just an intoxicating scent. And if you use something like Louisiana popcorn rice, which has a really nutty-buttery flavor, that combined with the pandan, it’s unbelievable when you bake it because the whole house just smells like this intoxicating scent.

Margaret: So for people who think “Rice is boring, I don’t like rice,” this is a whole other way to look at it. And there’s lots of different kinds of rice that you explain. They have different cooking times and different add-ins that you recommend.

Timothy: Yes.

Margaret: And again, this baking process, less water, etc. So for instance, the pandan, you also use the curry tree, which I think Murraya is the Latin name for it, but it’s pronounced more like maria.

You use makrut lime. Shiso, bay, lemongrass. These are things that we can grow even in our northern gardens, the various subtropical and tropical woody ones. We can buy them. I mean like Logee’s, the plant company, rare plant company, in Connecticut, they sell them by mail as small plants. I can grow all these in a pot. I didn’t know about half of these, but they’re all available. So it’s not just in your zone [laughter]. I love that. We could grow them. And we don’t need a 10-foot tree of something to have enough for culinary use, right?

Timothy: No, for sure. That’s what I always tell people when they’re starting to garden. An herb garden is the perfect place to start, just because I find that they’re lower maintenance than say something like cucumber or tomatoes for me especially. But it’s so refreshing to hear this. The book really is not out yet. And so to hear your feedback as a fellow gardener and to say that you’re learning things and being inspired is exactly why I wrote the book, and it really touches my heart. So I really appreciate you saying all this.

Margaret: Oh, well, it was fun. It was really because I thought, “Oh, I’ll know all these things.” But guess what? I didn’t. I didn’t know how to cook rice. I didn’t know how to cook rice [laughter].

Timothy: Well, and when you do bake the rice, what I want to point out is you’ll find your oven sweet spot with your favorite rice. I find that with white basmati, I can get away with doing that for 25 minutes at 450. But something like a short-grain brown rice is going to take a little bit longer. But you’ll find your sweet spot. And what’s nice about the rice is it’s forgiving. So if you take it out and you taste a bite and it’s a little al dente, you can pop it back in the oven for an additional five to 10 minutes. It’s more forgiving in my opinion.

Margaret: Yes. And this is in a covered Pyrex, just so people understand what we’re talking about. Generally speaking, that would be an ideal kind of a vessel.

Timothy: And you can also use a Dutch oven, like a little crusade. And if you don’t have that, you can also, I like to double wrap it with foil if you don’t have a tight-fitting lid. I actually learned about this from Paul Prudhomme who is. Yeah, Paul Prudhomme, one of his first cookbooks. He actually suggested baking the rice in a loaf pan. And he would put minced celery green bell pepper and onion and different Creole spices, and that’s the rice that he would serve with his gumbo. And so that’s what really was eye-opening for me.

And so I had to play with it and play with the ratio because I found that the cooking time was too long and the water was too much. So I did find the sweet spot with the ratios, but I do want to give him credit. And he also taught me to use different sources of pepper and different sources of heat, because they all hit the tongue differently. And I thought that was fascinating. So that’s why having paprika, cayenne pepper, and a little bit of a fresh chili and maybe a pinch of white pepper, then you’re getting this multitude of spice that hits your tongue in a frenzy and it makes a dish notable.

Margaret: Yeah. So I want to talk about a couple of recipes that I noted that are for things that maybe a lot of us are making right now because of what’s in our garden, what’s in season, so to speak, that you’ve sort of put a little bit of a spin on. And they caught my eye, again, like what we’ve just been talking about. But one was your pesto. The Toasted Almond Pesto, which also has cashews in it, I think. So again, I think pesto (or a lot of people think): like basil, oil, garlic, and cheese, right? But you don’t use cheese. O.K. So what’s in your pesto?

Timothy: So I’ve been working on this pesto recipe since I started Mississippi Vegan in New York. I remember I would go to the Union Square Green Market all the time, and this one farm had ‘Blue Spice’ basil. Have you had that basil?

Margaret: No.

Timothy: It’s citrusy and pungent, and it just gave me a new appreciation for basil. And so now in my garden, my favorite basil to grow is lemon and lime basil.

Margaret: Yes.

Timothy: And they’re just so citrusy and fragrant. So those two basils really inspired my love for making it citrusy. So that’s why I like to add lemon zest and lime zest because it really enhances the citrusy flavor that I think basil has. And you can of course use ‘Genovese,’ any basil that you love. But the combination of the toasted almonds with the cashews have a sweetness, and I think it’s important to have both of those sources of fat. And so because there’s no cheese, those two nuts offer a nice richness.

And you mentioned nutritional yeast, and I know it’s a very vegan ingredient, but the reason for that is because I don’t use cheese and I don’t use butter. And I actually refer to nutritional yeast as it’s like the cousin to salt and pepper for me. It’s like the umami version.

But when you eat the pesto, I don’t use so much that you would be like, “This tastes like nutritional yeast.” What it does is it offers a well-rounded umami flavor that enhances the pesto. And so I do love it, because it’s pantry-friendly, and you can keep it in a tightly sealed jar. It’s a great hack for cooking to make things taste delicious.

And then the basil, for the pesto, I do call for quite a bit of basil just because I think if you’re going to get the food processor out, it can be a bit of a production. So I like to make a big batch. And I say this in the headnote, this isn’t the recipe for you to go buy 10 little plastic packs of basil from Whole Foods. That’s not the gig. You want to make this when you’re either growing basil or you go to the farmer’s market and you see a huge bunch of fresh basil, that’s when you make this recipe, and you make enough to store some in the freezer and then enjoy some and then give some to a friend.

And that’s really what I want the book to be. I want the book to not be like you have to have a garden to appreciate this book. I wrote this book to be a kitchen resource for cooking with the seasons. So even if you buy a bunch of basil from the store, from the farmer’s market, or you harvest some from your very own garden, I want you to be able to open the book and then feel inspired for what to do with it.

Margaret: Right. You have a recipe for roasted tomatoes or cherry tomatoes in the book and they’re slow-roasted, 250 degrees on parchment paper on a baking sheet. Might take up to two hours you say. And then you have this—speaking of the pesto and speaking of those slow-roasted cherry tomatoes—you then have this orecchiette, this pasta recipe, Pea Pesto Pasta [laughter] [photo below]. Which just looks so delicious. And you add, I think those two things in it, and then also peas, yes?

Timothy: Yes. I love to add peas. They’re a great punch of protein. And I love using the ‘Sugar Snap’ peas, too. And I love when a recipe has like a little hack. So when you make the pasta, you can throw in the fresh peas and then frozen peas when the pasta’s almost done. And that way you kind of blanch them, get them bright green, then you drain everything.

And what’s really special is if you want to make that dish in the winter, you can grab a little container of the frozen pesto and you can throw it into that hot pasta, and then you get to relive the excitement of the summer in a cold, dreary month. And it’s so magical when you can grab something from the freezer and throw it into a hot pot of pasta, and then it feels like summer again.

Margaret: Yeah. No, there are so many great things. I mean, there’s crispy polenta, something I used to bake all the time that I now want to start making again. And dal, you have a beautiful doll recipe. And then just in the one minute version of seed brittle from one of our mutually favorite restaurants from the East Village of New York City years ago, Angelica Kitchen. The seed brittle, just tell us real quick, what is that?

Timothy: Oh my God, the seed brittle is such a lovely, easy snack. You just combine different seeds. And Angelica had pecans in it, but I wanted to make the recipe nut-free. So it’s pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and then I like to do both black and white sesame seeds, but you could just do whatever sesame seeds you can find. And then it’s a simple combination of maple syrup. I put a little coconut sugar just because I like the toasty flavor, and flaky salt. And the trick with that recipe is you want to pile the mixture into little mounds with space in between them on the baking sheet. And then when you bake it, it melts into this bubbly mass and it kind of just merges all together. And after about 15 minutes, depending on how toasty you want it, once it cools, you can pick up this large sheet of brittle and you can break it up.

And what I remember about when I worked at Angelica Kitchen, they would sell little Baggies of that brittle, and it was kind of like a hidden item on the menu. So it felt like a treat, but people would buy it on their way out as a little sweet bite.

Margaret: It was delicious.

Timothy: Yeah. So that’s why it was special for me. I love to weave in stories from my past into the concept of whatever cookbook I’m working on, and it just felt like the perfect fit for “Garden Variety.”

Margaret: Well, the cookbook, as you just said, is “Garden Variety,” Timothy Pakron. I’m glad to speak to you again, and I look forward to seeing you at the event in Hillsdale, N.Y., on Sept. 12th. And thank you.

Timothy: Thank you so much for having me. It’s my honor to be here.

(All photos from the book “Garden Variety.” Used with permission.)

enter to win a copy of ‘garden variety’

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What herbs are your mainstays that you always grow for use in the kitchen?
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MY WEEKLY public-radio show, rated a “top-5 garden podcast” by “The Guardian” newspaper in the UK, began its 17th year in March 2026. It’s produced at Robin Hood Radio, the smallest NPR station in the nation. Listen locally in the Hudson Valley (NY)-Berkshires (MA)-Litchfield Hills (CT) Mondays at 8:30 AM Eastern, rerun at 8:30 Saturdays. Or play the Aug. 24, 2026 show using the player near the top of this transcript. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes/Apple Podcasts or Spotify (and browse my archive of podcasts here).