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Soul Food Love: Healthy Recipes Inspired by One Hundred Years of Cooking in a Black Family : A Cookbook
A mother-daughter duo reclaims and redefines soul food by mining the traditions of four generations of black women and creating 80 healthy recipes to help everyone live longer and stronger.
NAACP IMAGE AWARD WINNER • “ Soul Food Love has preserved our traditions but reinvented how they’re prepared. Its focus on health is a godsend.”—Viola Davis
“This beautifully written compendium is literary history, cookbook, family album, motherwit, daughter-grace, and the gospel truth. I’ll be cooking from this book for years to come.”—Elizabeth Alexander, poet and professor
After bestselling author Alice Randall penned an op-ed in the New York Times titled “Black Women and Fat,” chronicling her quest to be “the last fat black woman” in her family, she turned to her daughter, Caroline Randall Williams, for help. Together they overhauled the way they cook and eat, translating recipes and traditions handed down by generations of black women into easy, affordable, and healthful—yet still indulgent—dishes, such as Peanut Chicken Stew, Red Bean and Brown Rice Creole Salad, Fiery Green Beans, and Sinless Sweet Potato Pie .
Soul Food Love relates the authors’ fascinating family history, which mirrors that of much of black America in the twentieth century, explores the often-fraught relationship African American women have had with food, and forges a powerful new way forward that honors their cultural and culinary heritage.
NAACP IMAGE AWARD WINNER • “ Soul Food Love has preserved our traditions but reinvented how they’re prepared. Its focus on health is a godsend.”—Viola Davis
“This beautifully written compendium is literary history, cookbook, family album, motherwit, daughter-grace, and the gospel truth. I’ll be cooking from this book for years to come.”—Elizabeth Alexander, poet and professor
After bestselling author Alice Randall penned an op-ed in the New York Times titled “Black Women and Fat,” chronicling her quest to be “the last fat black woman” in her family, she turned to her daughter, Caroline Randall Williams, for help. Together they overhauled the way they cook and eat, translating recipes and traditions handed down by generations of black women into easy, affordable, and healthful—yet still indulgent—dishes, such as Peanut Chicken Stew, Red Bean and Brown Rice Creole Salad, Fiery Green Beans, and Sinless Sweet Potato Pie .
Soul Food Love relates the authors’ fascinating family history, which mirrors that of much of black America in the twentieth century, explores the often-fraught relationship African American women have had with food, and forges a powerful new way forward that honors their cultural and culinary heritage.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published February 3, 2015
83 people are currently reading
515 people want to read
About the author
Alice Randall
18 books169 followersAlice Randall (born Detroit, Michigan) is an American author and songwriter. Randall grew up in Washington, D.C.. She attended Harvard University, where she earned an honors degree in English and American literature, before moving to Nashville in 1983 to become a country songwriter. She currently lives in Nashville, Tennessee and is married to attorney David Ewing.
Randall is the first African American woman to write a number one country hit. Over 20 of her songs have been recorded, including several top ten and top forty records; her songs have been performed by Trisha Yearwood and Mark O'Connor.
Randall is also a novelist, whose first novel The Wind Done Gone is a reinterpretation and parody of Gone with the Wind. The Wind Done Gone is essentially the same story as Gone with the Wind, only told from the viewpoint of Scarlett O'Hara's half-sister Cynara, a mulatto slave on Scarlett's plantation. The estate of Margaret Mitchell sued Randall and her publishing company, Houghton Mifflin, on the grounds that The Wind Done Gone was too similar to Gone with the Wind, thus infringing its copyright. The lawsuit was eventually settled, allowing The Wind Done Gone to be published. The novel became a New York Times bestseller.
Randall's second novel, Pushkin and the Queen of Spades, was named as one of The Washington Post's "Best fiction of 2004."
Randall is the first African American woman to write a number one country hit. Over 20 of her songs have been recorded, including several top ten and top forty records; her songs have been performed by Trisha Yearwood and Mark O'Connor.
Randall is also a novelist, whose first novel The Wind Done Gone is a reinterpretation and parody of Gone with the Wind. The Wind Done Gone is essentially the same story as Gone with the Wind, only told from the viewpoint of Scarlett O'Hara's half-sister Cynara, a mulatto slave on Scarlett's plantation. The estate of Margaret Mitchell sued Randall and her publishing company, Houghton Mifflin, on the grounds that The Wind Done Gone was too similar to Gone with the Wind, thus infringing its copyright. The lawsuit was eventually settled, allowing The Wind Done Gone to be published. The novel became a New York Times bestseller.
Randall's second novel, Pushkin and the Queen of Spades, was named as one of The Washington Post's "Best fiction of 2004."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews
April 14, 2021
Mother and daughter writers, Alice Randall and Caroline Randall Williams, respectively, have written a family history as told through food and cooking. Caroline Randall Williams has rewritten traditional soul food recipes so that the dishes are healthier, and in some cases even tastier. Their family history is based on "five kitchens and three generations of women who came to weighing more than two hundred pounds, and a fourth generation that absolutely refused ever to weigh two hundred pounds. It is the story of a hundred years of cooking and eating in one black American family." The family’s history goes back to slavery, and the original matriarchs, Nancy Johnson (born enslaved in 1858) and Lucy Hill (born circa 1872). The genealogical tree is called "Our Kitchen Family Tree", and traces daughters born to the two matriarchs. The first two generations of women do not cite any male ancestors, and it is not until the twentieth century that the tree cites marriages. The tree is a proclamation about women held as slaves, who were raped by their owners. There is a gaping hole of specific identity for two generations. Last year Caroline Randall Williams addressed this history of women slaves, their children and descendants in: “You Want a Confederate Monument? My Body is a Confederate Monument”. In the first five chapters of the book, in rich, bold narrtives, the two writers tell us about those who cooked and why, and what they cooked and why. These cooking histories of women and men speak volumes about slavery and discrimination, and provide revelations about causes and effects. Those first 77 pages are so evocative with truth-telling that celebrates families and descendants, and those who endured and realized full lives despite slavery and oppression. There is a recognition of Southern traditions that Caroline Randall Williams values and those she does not. She is one of the funniest writers in being candid about her own preconceptions and how they got punctured, and turned around. One example comes from her teaching experience in 2010 in the Delta, where she discovers in that place at that time, " ... almost without exception, the best groceries--the only groceries--come from Walmart ... they're often locally sourced--and the consistency isn't matched anywhere else in the region." Caroline Randall Williams surprises herself and us with other ways to look at all parts of our lives, and not to be afraid to change our minds about our past and our present. The storytelling writing styles of both women have a full-bodied cadence and abundance that comes from their own lives, their families and their past.
The recipes are in chapters and each one has an introduction, where readers learn more specifics about family history and Black history. Reasons are given for not including certain recipes, such as, "On the soul food table, "salad" can also mean fruit suspended in Jell-O and molded into a Bundt pan. We don't play that. Here are two healthier options ..." Not just healthy, but scrumptious. All recipes are on a two-page spread, and most have full-page color photographs that feature the finished dish.
Reviewed by Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Literature & Fiction
The recipes are in chapters and each one has an introduction, where readers learn more specifics about family history and Black history. Reasons are given for not including certain recipes, such as, "On the soul food table, "salad" can also mean fruit suspended in Jell-O and molded into a Bundt pan. We don't play that. Here are two healthier options ..." Not just healthy, but scrumptious. All recipes are on a two-page spread, and most have full-page color photographs that feature the finished dish.
Reviewed by Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Literature & Fiction
July 12, 2015
This book was the choice for the club I am a part of and I'm really glad for it. This is the first cookbook I've done more than peruse, so I can't provide much comparison. What I was impressed by was the extensive family history that preceded the recipes. Though the history was very personal, I think anyone interested in Black American History or American History at all should find it interesting and well worth the read.
What's important about this book is that it clarifies a lot of existing myths about soul food and what "good" food really is. The purpose of the book is to expand the concept of traditional black cuisine. I remember seeing somewhere online a joke about how the person who brings the salad to a black cookout gets side-eyed. If it's not true, I don't know what is. But this book address the reality of slaves diets and thus the fact that a lot of the things we consider "traditional Black food" is not what slaves were eating on a day to day when they had to go into the field. These were never meant to be eaten everyday, as I have seen many do.
Also it was cool that one of the authors casually dropped that she studied with Julia Child at Harvard. I don't know much about the cooking world, but I do know that name. Plus she spent part of her formative years in DC and went to a school that I'm familiar with (and competed against in sports). It's always nice to read about anyone who has spent any substantial amount of time in DC.
I have not tried any of the recipes yet but we will all be bringing a dish to the meeting next week and I am very excited about it!
What's important about this book is that it clarifies a lot of existing myths about soul food and what "good" food really is. The purpose of the book is to expand the concept of traditional black cuisine. I remember seeing somewhere online a joke about how the person who brings the salad to a black cookout gets side-eyed. If it's not true, I don't know what is. But this book address the reality of slaves diets and thus the fact that a lot of the things we consider "traditional Black food" is not what slaves were eating on a day to day when they had to go into the field. These were never meant to be eaten everyday, as I have seen many do.
Also it was cool that one of the authors casually dropped that she studied with Julia Child at Harvard. I don't know much about the cooking world, but I do know that name. Plus she spent part of her formative years in DC and went to a school that I'm familiar with (and competed against in sports). It's always nice to read about anyone who has spent any substantial amount of time in DC.
I have not tried any of the recipes yet but we will all be bringing a dish to the meeting next week and I am very excited about it!
July 21, 2015
This cookbook starts with a family history of the women that are the great grandmothers, grandmothers, in laws and mothers of Alice Randall and her daughter Caroline Randall Williams. I love to read cookbooks and this one was written for people like me. Then again, Caroline did inherate over 2,000 cookbooks from her grandmother.
After the histories, the recipe section begins. Each recipe has an intro that is a must read. I think I am most excited about trying the blackeyed pea hummus, the sweet potatoe broth and the healthy Nashville Hot Chicken. I'll have to make a mess of greens to go with the chicken.
After the histories, the recipe section begins. Each recipe has an intro that is a must read. I think I am most excited about trying the blackeyed pea hummus, the sweet potatoe broth and the healthy Nashville Hot Chicken. I'll have to make a mess of greens to go with the chicken.
December 9, 2021
This is more than just a great cookbook - it's part family memoir with contributions from women on both sides of the family tree, and their histories spanning three centuries, various highlights of African American life and the complex relationship women have had with food and the kitchen. Expect highs like the details of a clubhouse lifestyle, one woman's passion for collecting cookbooks and high tea with Julia Child, and lows like enduring a "kitchen rape".
Through the autobiographical chapters at the beginning and the annotated recipes that round out the second half of the book, this settles into the story of how two women, an accomplished black mother and daughter duo, have reclaimed a position of strength, taking the good parts of soul food and enhancing it with love so that it feeds instead of slowly hurts their bodies.
Lots to love in this book. My copy was a gift from the publishers that I browsed when it was first released in 2015 and left unopened on my bookshelf after the feature. I am so happy that I finally picked it up again and this time, read the stories in their entirety because I feel inspired to make my kitchen a special place again, this time with a view to teaching my daughter to also develop a healthy passion for food that feeds the soul and body.
Through the autobiographical chapters at the beginning and the annotated recipes that round out the second half of the book, this settles into the story of how two women, an accomplished black mother and daughter duo, have reclaimed a position of strength, taking the good parts of soul food and enhancing it with love so that it feeds instead of slowly hurts their bodies.
Lots to love in this book. My copy was a gift from the publishers that I browsed when it was first released in 2015 and left unopened on my bookshelf after the feature. I am so happy that I finally picked it up again and this time, read the stories in their entirety because I feel inspired to make my kitchen a special place again, this time with a view to teaching my daughter to also develop a healthy passion for food that feeds the soul and body.
February 28, 2015
Embracing their cultural heritage, both the good and the bad, Alice Randall and Caroline Randall Williams share the stories of the women who shaped their family's past and their hope to build a healthier future upon that foundation in their book Soul Food Love. It's a compelling story which leads to even greater appreciation for the recipes included in the text.
I come from a long line of Upper Midwestern women who's family heritage includes a solid girth and hearty work ethic--farm wives, blue-collar workers, and homemakers who needed to find a way to stretch the family food budget to feed many mouths. That meant lots of potatoes, pasta and bread. (My grandmother's favorite family gathering meal was chicken and noodles served over mashed potatoes with a side of homemade dinner rolls and jelly. There may or may not have been peas or beans on the side. Meals always concluded with your choice of pie or cake.) This model for eating has left us in the "stocky" category and candidates for stroke and heart disease.
I loved that Soul Food Love includes so many wonderful recipes for getting vegetables on to the table! I find great inspiration in Williams' story of eating the same vegetable (sweet potato) different ways simply depending on the herbs or spices used. Brilliant! You will also find that many of the traditionally fried foods have been redone to include baking and roasting. Even the desserts center on getting fruits to the table and eliminating (or at least significantly cutting) amounts of processed sugar.
The fact that their family could go from large hams to a side of salmon for family celebrations gives me hope that it is possible to change my own food future and steer my family's health in a new direction.
If you grew up with soul food, or have enjoyed the wonderful Southern food traditions in your travels, you will find the requisite flavors present in Soul Food Love. There are recipes for greens, sweet potato pie, peanut chicken stew, shrimp salad and a host of other favorites, although the recipes have been updated and made more healthful.
The book also includes many dishes which were new to me, but contain exciting, mouth-water flavor profiles: carrot ginger soup, broccoli with peanuts and raisins, sweet potato skewers, warm onion and rosemary salad, and "new school" fruit salad which incorporates watermelon, cherry tomatoes, avocado, and feta cheese. Are you salivating yet?
There are many recipes in this book which I will be trying out on my family. I would add that Williams makes no bones over the fact that these dishes can be made quickly and simply with ingredients available at Walmart -- no high-end, specialty shops required. What's not to love about that? Don't forget--these recipes are healthier alternatives to her family's past repertoire of recipes. I love that! While I am enjoying eating my way through this new tradition thanks to Randall and Williams, I will be thinking of ways to remake my own family's recipes.
From the Publisher . . .
A mother-daughter duo reclaims and redefines soul food by mining the traditions of four generations of black women and creating 80 healthy recipes to help everyone live longer and stronger.
In May 2012, bestselling author Alice Randall penned an op-ed in the New York Times titled “Black Women and Fat,” chronicling her quest to be “the last fat black woman” in her family. She turned to her daughter, Caroline Randall Williams, for help. Together they overhauled the way they cook and eat, translating recipes and traditions handed down by generations of black women into easy, affordable, and healthful—yet still indulgent—dishes, such as Peanut Chicken Stew, Red Bean and Brown Rice Creole Salad, Fiery Green Beans, and Sinless Sweet Potato Pie. Soul Food Love relates the authors’ fascinating family history (which mirrors that of much of black America in the twentieth century), explores the often fraught relationship African-American women have had with food, and forges a powerful new way forward that honors their cultural and culinary heritage. This is what the strong black kitchen looks like in the twenty-first century.
About the Author . . .
Alice Randall is the author of The Wind Done Gone, Pushkin and the Queen of Spades, Rebel Yell, and Ada's Rules. Born in Detroit she grew up in Washington, D.C.. As a Harvard undergraduate majoring in English she studied with Julia Child as well as Harry Levin, Alan Heimert, and Nathan Huggins. After graduation Randall headed south to Music City where she founded Midsummer Music with the idea she would create a new way to fund novel writing and a community of powerful storytellers. On her way to The Wind Done Gone she became the first black woman in history to write a number one country song; wrote a video of the year; worked on multiple Johnny Cash videos and wrote and produced the pilot for a primetime drama about ex-wives of country stars that aired on CBS. She has written with or published some of the greatest songwriters of the era including Steve Earle, Matraca Berg, Bobby Braddock, and Mark Sanders. Four novels later, the award winning songwriter with over twenty recorded songs to her credit and frequent contributor to Elle magazine, is Writer-in-Residence at Vanderbilt University. She teaches courses on Country Lyric in American Culture, Creative Writing, and Soul Food as text and in text. Randall lives near the University with her husband, a ninth generation Nashvillian who practices green law. Her daughter graduated from Harvard and is now teaching and writing in the Mississippi Delta. After twenty-four years hard at it Randall has come to the conclusion motherhood is the most creative calling of all and health disparity is the dominant civil rights issue of the first quarter of the 21st century.
Caroline Randall Williams--the third-generation poet and author (her great-grandfather is Arna Bontemps, and her mother is The Wind Done Gone author Alice Randall)--is following in her family’s footsteps with her writings (including kids’ book The Diary of B.B. Bright, Possible Princess) that promote African-American culture. Caroline, who is currently pursuing her MFA at the University of Mississippi, published Soul Food Love, a cookbook and African-American culinary anthology co-written with her mother. The book redefines traditional soul food cooking with a healthful spin.
I come from a long line of Upper Midwestern women who's family heritage includes a solid girth and hearty work ethic--farm wives, blue-collar workers, and homemakers who needed to find a way to stretch the family food budget to feed many mouths. That meant lots of potatoes, pasta and bread. (My grandmother's favorite family gathering meal was chicken and noodles served over mashed potatoes with a side of homemade dinner rolls and jelly. There may or may not have been peas or beans on the side. Meals always concluded with your choice of pie or cake.) This model for eating has left us in the "stocky" category and candidates for stroke and heart disease.
I loved that Soul Food Love includes so many wonderful recipes for getting vegetables on to the table! I find great inspiration in Williams' story of eating the same vegetable (sweet potato) different ways simply depending on the herbs or spices used. Brilliant! You will also find that many of the traditionally fried foods have been redone to include baking and roasting. Even the desserts center on getting fruits to the table and eliminating (or at least significantly cutting) amounts of processed sugar.
The fact that their family could go from large hams to a side of salmon for family celebrations gives me hope that it is possible to change my own food future and steer my family's health in a new direction.
If you grew up with soul food, or have enjoyed the wonderful Southern food traditions in your travels, you will find the requisite flavors present in Soul Food Love. There are recipes for greens, sweet potato pie, peanut chicken stew, shrimp salad and a host of other favorites, although the recipes have been updated and made more healthful.
The book also includes many dishes which were new to me, but contain exciting, mouth-water flavor profiles: carrot ginger soup, broccoli with peanuts and raisins, sweet potato skewers, warm onion and rosemary salad, and "new school" fruit salad which incorporates watermelon, cherry tomatoes, avocado, and feta cheese. Are you salivating yet?
There are many recipes in this book which I will be trying out on my family. I would add that Williams makes no bones over the fact that these dishes can be made quickly and simply with ingredients available at Walmart -- no high-end, specialty shops required. What's not to love about that? Don't forget--these recipes are healthier alternatives to her family's past repertoire of recipes. I love that! While I am enjoying eating my way through this new tradition thanks to Randall and Williams, I will be thinking of ways to remake my own family's recipes.
From the Publisher . . .
A mother-daughter duo reclaims and redefines soul food by mining the traditions of four generations of black women and creating 80 healthy recipes to help everyone live longer and stronger.
In May 2012, bestselling author Alice Randall penned an op-ed in the New York Times titled “Black Women and Fat,” chronicling her quest to be “the last fat black woman” in her family. She turned to her daughter, Caroline Randall Williams, for help. Together they overhauled the way they cook and eat, translating recipes and traditions handed down by generations of black women into easy, affordable, and healthful—yet still indulgent—dishes, such as Peanut Chicken Stew, Red Bean and Brown Rice Creole Salad, Fiery Green Beans, and Sinless Sweet Potato Pie. Soul Food Love relates the authors’ fascinating family history (which mirrors that of much of black America in the twentieth century), explores the often fraught relationship African-American women have had with food, and forges a powerful new way forward that honors their cultural and culinary heritage. This is what the strong black kitchen looks like in the twenty-first century.
About the Author . . .
Alice Randall is the author of The Wind Done Gone, Pushkin and the Queen of Spades, Rebel Yell, and Ada's Rules. Born in Detroit she grew up in Washington, D.C.. As a Harvard undergraduate majoring in English she studied with Julia Child as well as Harry Levin, Alan Heimert, and Nathan Huggins. After graduation Randall headed south to Music City where she founded Midsummer Music with the idea she would create a new way to fund novel writing and a community of powerful storytellers. On her way to The Wind Done Gone she became the first black woman in history to write a number one country song; wrote a video of the year; worked on multiple Johnny Cash videos and wrote and produced the pilot for a primetime drama about ex-wives of country stars that aired on CBS. She has written with or published some of the greatest songwriters of the era including Steve Earle, Matraca Berg, Bobby Braddock, and Mark Sanders. Four novels later, the award winning songwriter with over twenty recorded songs to her credit and frequent contributor to Elle magazine, is Writer-in-Residence at Vanderbilt University. She teaches courses on Country Lyric in American Culture, Creative Writing, and Soul Food as text and in text. Randall lives near the University with her husband, a ninth generation Nashvillian who practices green law. Her daughter graduated from Harvard and is now teaching and writing in the Mississippi Delta. After twenty-four years hard at it Randall has come to the conclusion motherhood is the most creative calling of all and health disparity is the dominant civil rights issue of the first quarter of the 21st century.
Caroline Randall Williams--the third-generation poet and author (her great-grandfather is Arna Bontemps, and her mother is The Wind Done Gone author Alice Randall)--is following in her family’s footsteps with her writings (including kids’ book The Diary of B.B. Bright, Possible Princess) that promote African-American culture. Caroline, who is currently pursuing her MFA at the University of Mississippi, published Soul Food Love, a cookbook and African-American culinary anthology co-written with her mother. The book redefines traditional soul food cooking with a healthful spin.
February 12, 2015
I’m sure the name Alice Randall doesn’t need an introduction…
But just in case you haven’t heard of Alice Randall…allow me to do the honors.
Alice Randall is the first African American Woman to write a number one country song, she is also Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution Nashville Ambassador, and has been recognized by the National Institutes of Health as a Health Champion, she is a screen writer, and an author... A New York Times bestselling Author to be exact.
And Alice Randall has returned to the literary world with her daughter Caroline Randall Williams for a second time with their new cookbook “SOUL FOOD Love” and with a title like that…what better time for this cookbook to make its debut… but in the month of February… the month synonymous with love…the month of Valentine’s Day…the month of Black History.
SOUL FOOD Love is not your ordinary cookbook…it’s a love story…a love story paying homage to three generations and five kitchens. The recipes tell a story of love, family, culture, tradition, history, and the joys and pains of being a woman in Black America.
The authors give us a unique opportunity to travel back in time as they trace their family culinary tree.
As spectators we see that each kitchen created a tapestry that created the very fabric that resulted in the recipes in this cookbook. The Mother and Daughter duo has taken traditional recipes that has been passed down from generation to generation and created healthier versions.
SOUL FOOD Love is one of those cookbooks that you have to take to the living room and read cover to cover to really appreciate the stories and the 80 recipes… before taking it to the kitchen. The family photographs, along with the amazing food photography, makes you feel like you’re sitting at the table with a long lost relative at a family reunion.
I especially appreciated the story and the recipe of Dear’s Sweet Forgiveness.
Actually there were a few recipes I couldn’t wait to dive into, and who can blame me with such amazing food photography…and the results… Amazing! However “Dear Sweet Forgiveness” was my favorite story, making the recipe that goes with it unforgettable. I would love to tell you the story but I don’t want to spoil it for you because I know this is definitely a cookbook you will want to add to your collection.
However feel free to check out 3 of the 6 recipes that I kitchen tested for this book review by following this link---> http://soulfoodlove.com/soul-food-lov... . You haven’t had chicken… until you have had “Spicy Pepper Chicken.”
I think this cookbook is a must have for any cook who is looking for a healthier alternative to cooking soul food. The recipes were definitely versatile enough to please any vegan, vegetarian, and our meat lover in your family. The recipes were easy to follow, the ingredients were easily accessible at my local farmers market and supermarket, and the recipes were absolutely… Delicious. This is a cookbook that I highly recommend if you want to start off your New Year with some healthy and affordable recipes.
Dear Sweet Forgiveness
1 finger of elderflower liqueur, such as St. German
1 cup sparkling water
3 Dears’ Ice Cubes (recipe follows):
12 fresh raspberries, blueberries, or Clementine pieces. Put 1 piece of fruit in each compartment of a 12-slot ice cube tray, fill with water, and freeze until solid.
In a rocks or old fashioned glass, pour the elderflower liqueur over the ice cubes, and top off with the sparkling water.
Sip and Enjoy!
Full Book Review: https://nerisaewaterman.wordpress.com...
Review written as it appears on The Book Blog and Etc.http://myohosisters.webs.com/apps/blo...
But just in case you haven’t heard of Alice Randall…allow me to do the honors.
Alice Randall is the first African American Woman to write a number one country song, she is also Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution Nashville Ambassador, and has been recognized by the National Institutes of Health as a Health Champion, she is a screen writer, and an author... A New York Times bestselling Author to be exact.
And Alice Randall has returned to the literary world with her daughter Caroline Randall Williams for a second time with their new cookbook “SOUL FOOD Love” and with a title like that…what better time for this cookbook to make its debut… but in the month of February… the month synonymous with love…the month of Valentine’s Day…the month of Black History.
SOUL FOOD Love is not your ordinary cookbook…it’s a love story…a love story paying homage to three generations and five kitchens. The recipes tell a story of love, family, culture, tradition, history, and the joys and pains of being a woman in Black America.
The authors give us a unique opportunity to travel back in time as they trace their family culinary tree.
As spectators we see that each kitchen created a tapestry that created the very fabric that resulted in the recipes in this cookbook. The Mother and Daughter duo has taken traditional recipes that has been passed down from generation to generation and created healthier versions.
SOUL FOOD Love is one of those cookbooks that you have to take to the living room and read cover to cover to really appreciate the stories and the 80 recipes… before taking it to the kitchen. The family photographs, along with the amazing food photography, makes you feel like you’re sitting at the table with a long lost relative at a family reunion.
I especially appreciated the story and the recipe of Dear’s Sweet Forgiveness.
Actually there were a few recipes I couldn’t wait to dive into, and who can blame me with such amazing food photography…and the results… Amazing! However “Dear Sweet Forgiveness” was my favorite story, making the recipe that goes with it unforgettable. I would love to tell you the story but I don’t want to spoil it for you because I know this is definitely a cookbook you will want to add to your collection.
However feel free to check out 3 of the 6 recipes that I kitchen tested for this book review by following this link---> http://soulfoodlove.com/soul-food-lov... . You haven’t had chicken… until you have had “Spicy Pepper Chicken.”
I think this cookbook is a must have for any cook who is looking for a healthier alternative to cooking soul food. The recipes were definitely versatile enough to please any vegan, vegetarian, and our meat lover in your family. The recipes were easy to follow, the ingredients were easily accessible at my local farmers market and supermarket, and the recipes were absolutely… Delicious. This is a cookbook that I highly recommend if you want to start off your New Year with some healthy and affordable recipes.
Dear Sweet Forgiveness
1 finger of elderflower liqueur, such as St. German
1 cup sparkling water
3 Dears’ Ice Cubes (recipe follows):
12 fresh raspberries, blueberries, or Clementine pieces. Put 1 piece of fruit in each compartment of a 12-slot ice cube tray, fill with water, and freeze until solid.
In a rocks or old fashioned glass, pour the elderflower liqueur over the ice cubes, and top off with the sparkling water.
Sip and Enjoy!
Full Book Review: https://nerisaewaterman.wordpress.com...
Review written as it appears on The Book Blog and Etc.http://myohosisters.webs.com/apps/blo...
January 23, 2017
This is the first cook book that I've ever read from cover to cover - I finished it last week, but keep flipping through to re-read something that I've been mulling over since. I usually don't lean toward memoirs or historical nonfiction, but the story of the daughters, mothers, grandmothers, and great grandmothers, their family history, their food history -- it was captivating. Reading about the authors' food decisions reminded me so much of the story of my own parents' family history with food, and their own decisions to go down a different path when it came to feeding their bodies and children. This was a fast read, and one I know I'll turn to again in the future. (And as a bonus in the afterword, the authors included a grace for meals that was so fitting with how my husband and I, as non-religious parents, approach thankfulness at our own family table, that we've adapted it to go along with the brief words we say with the kids before eating. So far, it's a huge hit with my four year old.)
I came across an interview with the authors on NPR quite a long time ago - kicking myself for not having sought out this book immediately. It was such a fun read.
I'm rating it five stars based on that part alone -- I haven't tried any of the recipes, yet, but there were several that I have marked for making soon.
I came across an interview with the authors on NPR quite a long time ago - kicking myself for not having sought out this book immediately. It was such a fun read.
I'm rating it five stars based on that part alone -- I haven't tried any of the recipes, yet, but there were several that I have marked for making soon.
February 7, 2015
Talking about good reading...enjoying food is a process and it starts with how it looks and morphs into how you describe it. Randall and Williams use creative prose to discuss how they came to love the kitchen and turned cooking into one of the joys of life. How I would love to take a class with Randall...I understand she teaches - "Soul Food in Text, as Text"...someone enroll me right now!
Your soul will be blessed by their tale of five kitchens and your senses will be pleased by the descriptions of their recipes.
Your soul will be blessed by their tale of five kitchens and your senses will be pleased by the descriptions of their recipes.
March 29, 2015
I first read an article about this cookbook in an issue of Southern Living Magazine. This article discussed this book and published a few of the recipes. The article discussed the handing down of recipes to each generation. A lot of soul food recipes have heavy salt, fat and sugar content. This book decided to flip the script and bring a change in the preparation of soul food.
This was also a mini-biography of sorts about the author's family and it's relationship to food. It was more than a cookbook, it was about how food had an impact on a family.
This was also a mini-biography of sorts about the author's family and it's relationship to food. It was more than a cookbook, it was about how food had an impact on a family.
April 4, 2016
I love the recipes, love the concept, healthy and delicious Southern food. Who knew it could be done??! But what I loved most was the family history she chronicles with honesty and love. Beautiful cookbook. And she's the granddaughter of poet Arna Bontemps!
February 22, 2023
What I love about this book, beside Baby Girl's kitchen, which has its own spirit, is that it has given me my favorite recipe to meal prep. It's the Breakfast Casserole. Simple, yes, but it is exactly what I need when I need it. And that is apart of the "philosophy" of Baby Girl's kitchen. She says, "you will be tasting us (her generations of great-grandmother's recipes) using what we got to get where we want to go - to Fitland without forgetting, shaming, or blaming traditional soul foods or traditional soul foodways". If you are fitness health conscious, then you'll understand why Baby Girl's Breakfast Casserole is in regular rotation, it is delicious, low-fat, high in protein, provides your greens and I look forward to my morning post-workout breakfast. I love, love, love that she captures the kitchen memories and gossip from the sacred kitchens of Dear, Grandma, Nana, Mama and herself. My kitchen is my sacred space as well. It is my creative hub, my home gym and the place where I nourish my temple. Mine is Queen's Kitchen, or "The Diamond Kitchen"...namesake of my blog. Thank you Alice for so thoughtfully reworking the "Breakfast Casserole". I also love the "Crowns" section. Recipes for sure fit for our royal legacy.
July 3, 2019
There is a lot of family history in this book! More history than I was expecting. But, being a history nerd, I enjoyed it. The recipes all sound delicious, but I didn’t save as many as I had expected. I like the mix of the traditional and the new. I also love how the book was organized and the artwork on the category pages.
August 5, 2019
The author thoughtfully weaves stories and memories of five generations of soul cooks in her family from Tennessee, Michigan and Louisana into her wonderful cookbook. The influences are French, African and Southern with a nod to the lighter side of the preparation. The African Chickpea soup is very good and I love the sweet potato broth. Looking forward to trying even more recipes.
July 7, 2020
This is a perfect example of how a cookbook is so much more than a collection of recipes. I am so thankful that the authors wrote this book, and shared their family's history, culture, and food with the rest of us. Alice and Caroline are now heros in our household, and it is now a goal to build a kitchen as welcoming and loving as theirs.
August 29, 2021
While this style of cooking is not one I would naturally gravitate toward, the stories of each woman in this family was powerful and soulful. I did not consider or know how fraught food history is for Black people and I’m grateful for the opportunity to learn.
February 28, 2023
A memoir and cookbook. This mother-daughter duo describe 5 kitchens in their African American family. A beautiful view of history through the lens of food. The cookbook portion is a reimagining of soul food with a healthy twist. Really well done.
February 27, 2019
The recipes are wonderful and I loved reading about the history and family.
July 4, 2020
The personal is political and fascinating. Kinda hard to recreate reciples though, unless you already have some cooking background.
July 21, 2020
Filled with a rich family history and plenty of tasty food, but nothing stood out for me.
August 3, 2020
This will become a permanent addition to my library.
February 21, 2021
I love a good cook book but especially with such rich family stories and written by this amazing mother-daughter team.
February 23, 2021
A mother and daughter rework beloved family recipes to make them healthier to avoid health problems.
April 4, 2021
Exceptional food writing/memoir/family honoring. Easy, accessible recipes. Perfect for CSA boxes daily meals and family gatherings. Must own.
July 22, 2021
Introduction was captivating, but the recipes weren't that amazing looking.
December 31, 2021
I appreciate the healthy soul food recipes and really enjoyed the generational family stories. Who knew there could be so much strength and courage revealed in a cookbook?
January 30, 2024
After hearing the author speak, I purchased her book. Both the family stories and the recipes captured my interest. I can’t wait to get home and start cooking. Healthy, fresh, low-fat soul food.
July 10, 2019
Family History, story sharing, simple healthy recipes, lots of food photography. Excited to add some of these recipes to my menus.
January 6, 2016
Alice Randall and Caroline Randall Williams, a mother-daughter team, published, through Clarkson Potter, a 224 page “cookbook” that is truly a tale of five kitchens. This volume is a history of three generations and one hundred years of cooking and eating in one African American family.
Soul Food Love: Healthy Recipes Inspired by One Hundred Years of Cooking in a Black Family is an extensively well-researched historical account of struggles and successes.
The kitchens include:
Dear’s Kitchen
Grandma’s Kitchen
Nana’s Kitchen
Mama’s [Alice’s] Kitchen
Baby Girl’s [Caroline’s] Kitchen
The kitchens celebrate forgotten food staples such as sweet potatoes, peanuts and sardines. The volume is separated in two parts. The first half is the history of the family and how the recipes came to be and the second, recipes and dishes, drinks and desserts.
Alice and Caroline have taken the same admired Southern soul food delicacies and managed to replicate the same dishes to be healthier for the body. A few recipes include Peanut Chicken Stew, Red Bean and Brown Rice Creole Salad, Fiery Green Beans and Sinless Sweet Potato Pie.
This book focuses on how a kitchen has been a myriad of places for black Americans, places of servitude and hunger, places of violence, of shelter, and places of peace, artistry and sacredness.
The stories and food shared within these pages are direct from those enslaved from generation to generation handed down. Their children and grandchildren recognized that their family learned and relearned how to feed themselves during times of great prosperity and in times of extreme poverty.
The admiring and heartfelt aspects of Soul Food Love are discovered when opening a random page. While reading about a recipe or dish, one is reading about history from Selma, Alabama and horrific lynching’s onto first marriages and the happiness of buying a new home. There are photos throughout the book to show the reader how much dedication has gone into the research behind the dishes, from the lives of the people who created them, cooked them and lived in times extremely different from present day.
Even in the early twentieth century, there were concerns about health and diet, especially fat and sugar. When times changed, so did diet. Carry in, TV dinners, and processed foods became popular and mainstream.
My favorite part is Grandma's Kitchen, perhaps due to the strength, perseverance, the self-respect and courage.
During WWII, in Nashville, Tennessee, in a Jim Crow society where black people were consistently reminded that they were not worthy, when there were separate drinking fountains for black and white, when whites only were allowed to sit at the front of the bus or at lunch counters, this is where Grandma excelled. Cooking as protest and mingling with various clubs, respected, and often the muse of renowned poet, Langston Hughes.
There are recipes ranging from desserts to fish to meat, simple to complex. Easy to follow, ingredients one can find in their own cupboards or locally, at any store and do not require a long time to prepare.
The last kitchen, Baby Girl [Caroline Randall Williams] is where one finds a 1,500-page collection of cookbooks, love of cooking and hosting handed down from Grandma to Caroline. Caroline learned early on that health was of utmost importance and she kept this lifestyle abroad as a student, later, teaching her students as an educator and in her personal life.
From Caroline’s own words:
“For now, standing on the shoulders of these brilliant, big, black women, I go ahead and feed my friends from my small kitchen. I feed them from my history, from our history, our past, our present, and from the fresh start of what I hope our future looks like.”
This is a not just a cookbook. This is historical biography, of times still silenced, times people have yet to study. This is a volume of precious stories of five generations chock full of delicious homemade food beginning in 1897.
This is a story of struggle and success, of quality and inequality, and most of all, this, is a story of love.
Soul Food Love: Healthy Recipes Inspired by One Hundred Years of Cooking in a Black Family is an extensively well-researched historical account of struggles and successes.
The kitchens include:
Dear’s Kitchen
Grandma’s Kitchen
Nana’s Kitchen
Mama’s [Alice’s] Kitchen
Baby Girl’s [Caroline’s] Kitchen
The kitchens celebrate forgotten food staples such as sweet potatoes, peanuts and sardines. The volume is separated in two parts. The first half is the history of the family and how the recipes came to be and the second, recipes and dishes, drinks and desserts.
Alice and Caroline have taken the same admired Southern soul food delicacies and managed to replicate the same dishes to be healthier for the body. A few recipes include Peanut Chicken Stew, Red Bean and Brown Rice Creole Salad, Fiery Green Beans and Sinless Sweet Potato Pie.
This book focuses on how a kitchen has been a myriad of places for black Americans, places of servitude and hunger, places of violence, of shelter, and places of peace, artistry and sacredness.
The stories and food shared within these pages are direct from those enslaved from generation to generation handed down. Their children and grandchildren recognized that their family learned and relearned how to feed themselves during times of great prosperity and in times of extreme poverty.
The admiring and heartfelt aspects of Soul Food Love are discovered when opening a random page. While reading about a recipe or dish, one is reading about history from Selma, Alabama and horrific lynching’s onto first marriages and the happiness of buying a new home. There are photos throughout the book to show the reader how much dedication has gone into the research behind the dishes, from the lives of the people who created them, cooked them and lived in times extremely different from present day.
Even in the early twentieth century, there were concerns about health and diet, especially fat and sugar. When times changed, so did diet. Carry in, TV dinners, and processed foods became popular and mainstream.
My favorite part is Grandma's Kitchen, perhaps due to the strength, perseverance, the self-respect and courage.
During WWII, in Nashville, Tennessee, in a Jim Crow society where black people were consistently reminded that they were not worthy, when there were separate drinking fountains for black and white, when whites only were allowed to sit at the front of the bus or at lunch counters, this is where Grandma excelled. Cooking as protest and mingling with various clubs, respected, and often the muse of renowned poet, Langston Hughes.
There are recipes ranging from desserts to fish to meat, simple to complex. Easy to follow, ingredients one can find in their own cupboards or locally, at any store and do not require a long time to prepare.
The last kitchen, Baby Girl [Caroline Randall Williams] is where one finds a 1,500-page collection of cookbooks, love of cooking and hosting handed down from Grandma to Caroline. Caroline learned early on that health was of utmost importance and she kept this lifestyle abroad as a student, later, teaching her students as an educator and in her personal life.
From Caroline’s own words:
“For now, standing on the shoulders of these brilliant, big, black women, I go ahead and feed my friends from my small kitchen. I feed them from my history, from our history, our past, our present, and from the fresh start of what I hope our future looks like.”
This is a not just a cookbook. This is historical biography, of times still silenced, times people have yet to study. This is a volume of precious stories of five generations chock full of delicious homemade food beginning in 1897.
This is a story of struggle and success, of quality and inequality, and most of all, this, is a story of love.
April 7, 2017
I was raised with recipes that combined agrarian Scottish/Irish with Southern/Soul Food recipes. The My maternal grandmother (Mamaw) was a cook and learned everything she knew from her "little house on the prairie" upbringing and a lager-than-life coworker, a black woman with skills beyond their meager jobs. My genetic make-up demands that I be a hard laborer and stock up on fats and carbs to survive the starving times. But my life of sedentary, cerebral pursuits creates a high probability of short lifespan, diabetes, certain cancers, heart disease, and other such risks correlated with big belly obesity.
Just to be clear, I am 100% body positive. I destroy fat-shaming and health-trolling whenever possible, starting with myself. However, taken as an individual, with my family history and a desire to create a loving and sustainable relationship with my own body, I choose to actively seek ways to eat more vegetables, less saturated fat, less sugar, and more healthy fats. A Southern diet is the most delicious food you will ever eat, but for some of us, it will be our doom! That's why this book is really important for me. I love the expression of emotion throughout (Southern people express love through food), the history, the familiar tones to the relationships within the family, and these delicious recipes. I'm not sure how white northerners interact with this book, but for me, it connected.
Just to be clear, I am 100% body positive. I destroy fat-shaming and health-trolling whenever possible, starting with myself. However, taken as an individual, with my family history and a desire to create a loving and sustainable relationship with my own body, I choose to actively seek ways to eat more vegetables, less saturated fat, less sugar, and more healthy fats. A Southern diet is the most delicious food you will ever eat, but for some of us, it will be our doom! That's why this book is really important for me. I love the expression of emotion throughout (Southern people express love through food), the history, the familiar tones to the relationships within the family, and these delicious recipes. I'm not sure how white northerners interact with this book, but for me, it connected.
November 24, 2015
Love encapsulates every page of this cookbook/family history. The first fourth of the book takes readers through five kitchens, through multiple generations, and many cooking styles. It is a wonderful tribute to their family. While the authors (a mother daughter duo) praise and venerate the previous generations they also realize how unhealthy some traditional soul food has become and spruce up old recipes and create some to fill the void. Kitchens are a place of solace and they don't want to remove the experience and pleasure for anyone so they created and tweaked recipes for the benefit of all. "In our family, and in many Southern families, the abundant kitchen has become an antidote for what pains and afflicts us. Somewhere along the way, abundance became excess. Then excess became illness."
There are literally dozens of recipes I can't wait to try: southern hummus, warm onion and rosemary salad, spicy roasted sweet potatoes with pomegranate, fiery green beans, and more. This book is not vegetarian based, but it is certainly very vegetarian friendly and a welcome addition to my bookshelf. The descriptions are mouthwatering, the pictures sumptuous, and the recipes fairly simple.
I received this book for free from Blogging for Books in return for my honest, unbiased opinion.
There are literally dozens of recipes I can't wait to try: southern hummus, warm onion and rosemary salad, spicy roasted sweet potatoes with pomegranate, fiery green beans, and more. This book is not vegetarian based, but it is certainly very vegetarian friendly and a welcome addition to my bookshelf. The descriptions are mouthwatering, the pictures sumptuous, and the recipes fairly simple.
I received this book for free from Blogging for Books in return for my honest, unbiased opinion.
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