Hi! I’m Cadry Nelson. I’m the recipe creator, writer, and photographer behind the blog, Cadry’s Kitchen.
I started Cadry’s Kitchen in 2009, a couple of years after I went vegan.
At that time, I was learning so much about food, and exploring cooking in a whole new way than ever before. I was excited to share what I was learning, as well as grow my own repertoire of recipes.
What you’ll find on Cadry’s Kitchen
I specialize in classic comfort foods made vegan. Most of my recipes can be made in about a half an hour.
Think three bean vegan chili, vegan potato salad, vegan French dip sandwich, and chicken-style vegan pot pie.
Occasionally, a smoothie, juice, or salad recipe finds its way onto my blog by mistake. Haha!
I am also fairly obsessed with my air fryer. It’s an appliance that I use almost daily.
So vegan air fryer recipes like fried pickles, air fryer baked potatoes, fried green tomatoes, and fried artichoke hearts make regular appearances here.
With step-by-step instructions and photos, as well as answers to the most common questions, you’re guaranteed to have success in the kitchen time after time.
Check out all of my recipes in my recipe index.
As seen on
Cadry Nelson and Cadry’s Kitchen have been featured on Mashable, Delish, Shape, Reader’s Digest, Brit + Co, Care2, Greatist, Parade, PureWow, Buzzfeed, Huffington Post, and Vegan Food & Living.
I spoke at the Iowa VegFest on the topic of going vegan for good, as well as Vida Vegan Con in Portland on bringing your own unique creativity & vision to your blog. Additionally, I have done vegan cooking demos locally.
Vegan travel
The only thing I love as much as vegan food is travel + vegan food.
I adore sharing highlights from my trips – which restaurants to visit, which farmers markets to shop, and what food specialties you don’t want to miss.
You can find all of my vegan travel posts on my travel page.
My favorite places for vegan food are Los Angeles, New York City, Washington DC, Portland, Seattle, and Minneapolis.
Also, I live in Iowa. So if you’re looking for vegan food in Iowa, you’re in the right place. I have lists for Des Moines, Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, Cedar Falls, and the Quad Cities.
Fun facts about Cadry
I got the name Cadry, because my cousin had trouble learning how to spell her name.
As a kindergartener, she would scramble the letters when writing her name at the top of her papers. Her name is Darcy, but she would move the letters around to Cadry. (Same letters, different order.)
My mom was pregnant at the time, and she’d teasingly call her Cadry. The more she said it, the more it grew on her. And she decided to name me that!
The job that I held the longest was working as a touring children’s theatre performer. For 11 years I went into schools across Southern California to perform plays for kids.
The show that made me fall in love with theatre was The Music Man. I played Zaneeta Shinn when I was 14 years old at a now-defunct dinner theatre in Des Moines.
Other favorite things include good mail days, trips to one of the Disney parks, a soy latte in the afternoon, cute summer dresses, and stationery stores.
My cats are the lights of my life. I feel endlessly lucky to spend my days with Avon & Cally, and Spike and Jezebel before them.
My husband, David, and I are both from Iowa, but we actually met in California. A mutual friend wrangled us into being in a play that never got produced, even after a year of rehearsal.
Even though the show never saw any stage time, we still got a lot out of it.
David’s claim to fame is that he was the guy Alicia Silverstone pushed away in Clueless when she said, “Ugh, as if!” Her loss is my gain!
Let’s connect on social media
Follow Cadry’s Kitchen on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, and Twitter. You can also email me at cadryskitchen@gmail.com.
And if you have a vegan or vegan-friendly business, check out my Work With Me page for more information on ways we can collaborate.