African American Heritage Diet desserts are often fruit based or utilitarian, low sugar custard based pies, ice creams or rice puddings. So the fact I used to make Cheesecake Elegante as a kid is perhaps an anomaly. I saw the recipe in a cookbook at around 11 years of age, liked it, thus it became…
Category: Vegetarian
Creamy Cushaw Squash
Indigenous to Africa, squash is a treat that both my Grandmothers truly enjoyed. Cushaw, a slightly sweet winter version is a winner because it is one of the foods my sensitive stomach never resists. Brimming with Vitamins A,B,C and Carotene you won’t go wrong pairing Creamy Cushaw Squash with fish, fowl or lamb. Creamy Cushaw…
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Red Lentil Soup
My father’s first cousin lived in Ethiopia in the 1980’s where her husband served as an ambassador from Jamaica. She taught me how to make these lentils shine in East African style. The result is very different than French Lentil Soup but no less beguiling. Red Lentil Soup is a great dish to welcome in…
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Classic Southern Sauteed Cabbage
The first recipe I gave you for Sauteed Cabbage was so popular I decided I’d give you another. A good source of quercetin, Vitamin C, and fiber, African-American staple Cabbage and its’ cruciferous cousins such as Collard Greens, are likely the healthiest foods on the planet. My mother’s version of this dish, which I call…
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A Plant-Based Pyramid: Broccoli Salad
Mrs. Alelia Murphy, the oldest person in the United States, died a few months ago November 28, 2019. She was 114 years old and an African-American woman. Her successor, 114 year old Mrs. Hester Ford is also African-American. In fact, 6 out of the 10 oldest Americans on record were all African-American women born in…
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Six Minute Brussel Sprouts
I can never do anything right enough for my mother. Well into my 30’s, my mother would still call asking what I was going to eat for dinner that evening or what had I eaten. I could have said I prepared a 5-star Michellin meal yet she would inevitably ask – but what was your…
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Vegan French Lentil Soup
I am in detoxing mode from Thanksgiving food and drinks, so soup is on the menu until we get nearer to Christmastime. First up, a superb Vegan French Lentil Soup that is hearty, healthy and something that won’t make you feel deprived. Try to purchase your lentils at a store where the inventory frequently turns…
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Elderflower Gin & Tonic
The Elderflower Gin & Tonic is the signature cocktail we need to carry us through the holidays into 2021. No carbs or GMO’s, this low sugar cocktail is simply sublime.
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Cranberry Quinoa
A vegan side dish worthy of any holiday table, Cranberry Quinoa tastes fantastic.
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Nana’s Green Beans
The first year I went away to college I came back home for the weekend and prepared some fresh green beans as a side dish for my family. I probably would not remember the encounter if my paternal grandmother Nana, a professional baker and cook in her own right, could not stop raving, saying they…
