Soul Food Recipes
Soul Food Recipes
What's the essence of a true soul food feast? Well, everyone and their mama (and especially their mama!) has their own opinion, but we just love the honest, down-home dishes that have been passed along through the generations. Soul food is rooted in the cooking done by poor folks making the most of meager ingredients, and it's since flourished into a cuisine that's both vibrant and soothing, humble and grand, and above all, soul-satisfying. We're sharing our favorite versions of collards, dumplings, chitterlings, red velvet cake and plenty of other family classics, and we'd be much obliged if you'd do the same.
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Smothered Chicken and Chops
A sea of savory gravy makes a sumptuous flavor bath for chicken and pork alike.
- Soul Smothered Chicken
- Smothered Pork Chops & Collard Greens
- Upload Your Own Recipe
Oxtail Soup and Stew
From this humble cut comes just the most tender, succulent meat imaginable. Simmered for hours, the bones just slump to jelly, making for incredibly enticing soups and stews.
- Oxtail Soup
- Braised Oxtail Stew
- Upload Your Own Recipe
BBQ Ribs
Stack up extra napkins when you're serving these finger-lickin' luscious ribs, cooked 'til the meat's just flopping off the bone.
- First Timer Ribs
- Molasses Mustard Baked Beans with Ribs
- Slow Cooker Barbecue Ribs
- Ribs & Chow Chow
- Browse All Rib Recipes
- Upload Your Own Recipe
Collard Greens
What's the best part of cooking up a mess o' greens -- the heady scent of long-simmering hamhocks, or lapping up the pot likker after?
- Kickin' Collard Greens
- Tasty Collard Greens
- Smothered Pork Chops & Collard Greens
- Skate BBQ & Collard Greens
- Upload Your Own Recipe
Beans and Rice
Hearty, humble beans and rice are the backbone of this Creole staple. Keep extra hot sauce on hand so guests can season accordingly.
- Louisiana Red Beans & Rice
- Carribean Beans & Rice
- Red Rice & Beans
- Upload Your Own Recipe
Fried Catfish
Fried fish is extra delish with a smear of homemade tartar sauce or a crunchy, nutty coating. Thaw frozen fillets in milk to bring back a just-caught flavor.
- Cornmeal Crusted Catfish Goujenettes
- Will's Spicy New Orleans Catfish Fries
- Cajun Pecan-Crusted Catfish
- Browse All Catfish Recipes
- Upload Your Own Recipe
Okra
Pity the Northern folks who don't know from okra, or turn up their noses at the texture. They're missing out on one of nature's tastiest treats -- or they've just never had it cooked right.
- Stewed Okra & Tomatoes
- Rice & Okra
- Okra & Tomatoes
- Browse All Okra Recipes
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Shrimp
Soul food doesn't skimp on the shrimp. Peel & pop 'em or stir 'em into savory stews or creamy grits.
- Russell's Fish Stew
- Charleston Shrimp and Grits
- Shrimp Creole
- Browse All Shrimp Recipes
- Upload Your Own Recipe
Black-Eyed Peas
Some folks eat 'em for luck in the new year. We just think they're awfully tasty.
- Black-Eyed Peas
- Candy's Southern Hoppin' John
- Black-Eyed Pea Dip
- Black-Eyed Peas & Greens
- Upload Your Own Recipe
Recent Comments
mikesandy999 07:26:46 AM Oct 30 2009
I am so in total agreement with you Grandabcd, My folks are from Kentucky but had to come north to Chicago to find work. My Pappo was a coal miner, but ended up working in a factory there. Most of the family followed and all lived either in the same apartment or right close by, Cause Mammo did all the cooking and oh what she could do with very little for a whole bunch of hungry people. her corn bread cooked in a iron skillet always smelled like cake to me, a big pot of beans, potatoes, collard greens, mustard greens, turnip greens, fried chicken, black eyed peas. I could go on. Oh how I miss those days too, when family did everything together and not just Mom Dad and the kids but cousins, Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents. and in a lot of families then the great grand parents. And even the neighbors were always welcome and neighbors welcomed us. We were Family no matter our color. Everyone would jump in and help with any work that was going on to make it easier for the main cook. We never h
anderson3820 12:30:14 PM Oct 29 2009
My recollection: music called soul. the food they ate got the name soul too, given by ignorant outside people (like California liberals). My mom and grand mom made this food all the time - regular food. We ate poke, because that is what grew outside the kitchen. (It's great like nothing else - get some if you can)Grandma did not learn it from black people - there were no black people around in our isolated smokey mtn areas and never had been. It seems to me that mainstream media and general public thought it was a black thing because of the large migration of black people out of the south. It is really just a southern thing, enjoyed by peasants and kings alike - cuz it's good. I like a nice Beef Wellington now and then, but...I moved north - what can I say.
wdecobear1 03:09:40 PM Sep 27 2009
LL DENT'S IN CARLE PLACE LI, BEST SOUTHERN FOOD IN THE EAST
mizboo12865 09:20:17 PM Aug 13 2009
I loves me some soul food ,but the soul food in jacksonville REALLY SUCKS !!!
speedyneutrino43 10:25:14 AM May 24 2009
I went into a "soul food" restaurant in NYC once and the food was TERRIBLE. All these people knew how to do is open cans. I'm from south Alabama and I KNOW what soul food is supposed to be. If I opened a restaurant in NYC I'd have unfortunate transplanted southerners flocking in from all over. IF I wanted to live in NYC, that is.
surfinron 12:45:53 PM Feb 12 2009
SOUL FOOD IS MADE FROM THE HEART. SO LOVE IT OR JUST LEAVE IT ALONE
surfinron 12:44:07 PM Feb 12 2009
SOUL FOOD IS FROM THE HEART. SO LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT ALONE
timeformusic 08:25:29 AM Jan 30 2009
grandabcd, I agree very strongly with what you said ("Takes me back, WAY back, to another time and place, and I miss it.") I miss it, too. I'm sad for today's youth because chances are, they'll never get to experience what we miss.
timeformusic 08:22:26 AM Jan 30 2009
chazmonka, you're not a dummy. I don't think there's a "story" to go with these comments. I only saw the photos to click through, and I know I'm not a dummy. AOL does this with a number of their articles. You open the page thinking you're going to read something and most times the only thing to read are a bunch of nasty, hateful comments in the message section. Thank goodness there were only a few of those this time around.
grandabcd 08:17:22 AM Jan 30 2009
I grew up on "soul" food, also known as downhome, country cooking where I came from. The receipts mentioned brought back wonderful memories of family gatherings, holidays, and just everyday living. NOTHING on earth can match it, when it comes to food. BTW: I'm from Texas, and I'm white. Good old fashioned home cooking binds the gap between all races, IMHO. Nothing better than a pot of collard greens, a pan of hot cornbread, a platter of southern fried chicken, black eyed peas simmered with okra, and a dish of peach cobbler with homemade ice cream. Takes me back, WAY back, to another time and place, and I miss it.
