A music video for the song “Greasy Frybread” is a key promo for the first season of “Reservation Dogs.” So when we picked the show (which just finished its second season) for a blog pairing, the food choice was very obvious.

According to Smithsonian Magazine, “Navajo frybread originated 144 years ago, when the United States forced Indians living in Arizona to make the 300-mile journey known as the ‘Long Walk’ and relocate to New Mexico, onto land that couldn’t easily support their traditional staples of vegetables and beans. To prevent the indigenous populations from starving, the government gave them canned goods as well as white flour, processed sugar and lard—the makings of frybread.”

As this is a vegetarian blog, we will be using a coconut-based shortening in place of lard. We’re also making this recipe, which makes 4 (small) loaves or “servings,” gluten-free and vegan.

Ingredients
2-3 cups oil and/or shortening, for frying
1 cup 1-to-1 gluten-free flour
1.5 teaspoons baking powder
0.25 teaspoons salt
0.5 cups vegan milk
toppings such as butter and jam, taco ingredients or cinnamon sugar

Instructions
Heat the oil/shortening in a pan over medium heat. We used about 1.5 cups of a coconut-based shortening and 0.5 cups of canola oil.

In a bowl or stand mixer, whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together.

When the dry ingredients are thoroughly mixed, add in your vegan milk. We used oat milk.

Split the dough into four balls. Flatten them out so they’re about a quarter inch thick.

Fry them (1-2 at a time, depending on the size of your pan) in the heated oil for about 1-2 minutes on each side or until the outside of each loaf is golden brown.

Rest the loaves on some paper towels for 5 minutes.

You can eat the frybread with butter and jam or go for a more savory meal by making a frybread taco. We enjoyed ours in both of these ways.

You can also roll a freshly baked loaf in cinnamon sugar and/or simply drizzle it with a little maple syrup. We tried one of ours rolled in cinnamon sugar, and it was quite yummy!

The Easy Route
Depending on where you live, you might be able to find fresh frybread at a food truck or restaurant.

You also can find frybread mix online or at a store instead of mixing the dry ingredients together yourself.

The Pairing
We started watching “Reservation Dogs” when it debuted last year. The mix of teenage drama with irreverent comedy and some magical realism really sucked us in, and we finished watching the show’s incredible second season this week.

The show stars Devery Jacobs as Elora, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai as Bear, Paulina Alexis as Willie Jack and Lane Factor as Cheese, a group of friends who long for a life bigger than the one they’re living in Oklahoma.

After stealing a truck loaded up with snacks, they form a rivalry with another group for who is the most badass.

In their slowly escalating life of petty crime, the four friends also befriend Uncle Brownie (Gary Farmer), an elder known for getting up to shit.

While the first season was great and really drew us in, the second season really takes some deep dives with the characters that are not to be missed.

Sarah Podemski is absolutely phenomenal as Bear’s mom, Rita, and she really gets to shine in the second season.

I’m really looking forward to the third season so we can continue to get to know all of these characters better.

If you decide to make frybread and/or watch “Reservation Dogs,” let us know! Tag us in your Instagram posts & stories, tweets or TikTok videos: @veg_out_recipes