Soul Food Love: Healthy Recipes Inspired by One Hundred Years of Cooking in a Black Family by Alice Randall, Caroline Randall Williams
“The kitchen has historically been a fraught place for many black Americans. Our family is among the many,” write New York Times best-selling author Alice Randall and her daughter, Caroline Randall Williams, in their new book, Soul Food Love: Healthy Recipes Inspired by One Hundred Years of Cooking in a Black Family (Crown Publishing Group, 2015).
The black American kitchen “has been a place of servitude and scarcity, and sometimes violence, as well as a place of solace, shelter, creativity, commerce and communion,” the Randalls write. In their book, the authors share stories and memories from not only their kitchens, but those of a grandmother and two great-grandmothers from their family.
Author Caroline Randall Williams with her mother, author, screenwriter, and songwriter Alice Randall. (Photo: TheBrownBookshelf.com)
“In our family, and in many Southern families, the abundant kitchen has become an antidote for what pains and afflicts us,” the women write. But, they add, “somewhere along the way, abundance became excess. Then excess became illness.
“And it’s not just black America,” they add. “The Sun Belt is now the Stroke Belt. Fat-fueled diseases—diabetes, hypertension, stroke and cancer—ravage the nation. But black America is particularly hard-hit.”
The authors explore 100 years of family cooking and eating from three generations of women who each weighed more than 200 pounds, and a fourth generation that “absolutely refused to ever weigh this much.” The authors then present recipes that honor their cultural and culinary heritage by translating family recipes into easy, economical, and indulgent—yet healthful—soul food dishes.
Included in the book are such mouth-watering dishes as African Chick Pea Soup, Red Bean and Brown Rice Creole Salad, Deford’s Spicy Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Pomegranate, and Honey Peanut Brittle.
“We’re talking about connecting with our mothers’ mothers through taste,” the authors write. “We’re talking about celebrating all we created and all we endured by holding close to some of the flavors that were with us when we were creating and enduring.
“And,” they write, “We’re talking about letting some of them go. Anything that’s killing us is poison, not food.”
The best cookbooks in the world don’t simply teach one to prepare a dish—they educate us about how those dishes came to be and what they meant to the people who prepared them. Soul Food Love continues the legacy of these books with its delicious blend of tradition, taste, history and health.
Chicken, Vegetable and Wild Rice Stew
Ingredients:
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups wild rice
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 3 cups chopped carrots
- 8 cups chicken broth
- 10 sprigs fresh thyme
- Pepper
- 3 cups shredded cooked chicken
Bring six cups of water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Season with 1/2 teaspoon salt and add the wild rice. Bring to a boil again, then reduce the heat, cover and simmer until the rice is tender, about 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Sautee the carrots and celery in the butter until slightly browned, about four minutes. Add the broth and thyme and season with pepper. Simmer over medium heat until the vegetables begin going soft, about 20 minutes.
Drain the rice and add it to the broth along with the chicken, mixing gently with a wooden spoon Heat through, about five minutes. Serve hot.
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