This soup recipe begins with a foundation of onion, carrot, and celery. It’s usually referred to as Mirepoix. This mixture of ingredients is the base of so many wonderful dishes, and for this mushroom barley soup, it all begins here. From Ayurvedic point of View: Mushrooms have an earthy flavor like a dark, rich, loamy […]
I like small-plate meals: leisurely dining with a group of folks and ordering a diversity of things. In fact, some of my most memorable meals involve tapas at Spanish bars, small bites at Japanese izakayas, and dim sum at Chinese restaurants. If you’ve never had dim sum, it is a traditional meal of steamed, fried, […]
Back in 2014, I was a guest speaker at the thirtieth Veg Food Fest in Toronto, and I had a ball! I gave a talk to hundreds of people about the contemporary food justice movement in the United States, followed by a cooking demonstration and book signing of Afro-Vegan. To all my fans in The 6ix […]
I dedicate this recipe to my baby girl, Zenzi, who would be happy if all she could eat was bread, crackers, and (you guessed it) pasta. This easy, delicious weeknight recipe is one of her favorites. The first time I made it, she asked why I used rigatoni instead of penne, her favorite at the […]
The idea of combining beans with grits came during a meal at Kin Khao, a fantastic Thai restaurant in San Francisco. One of the starters was nam tok beans, a combination of ayocote negro beans with lime, chile, rice powder, light soy sauce, shallots, scallions, mint, and cilantro. The mix of flavors was impeccable, and […]
If you’ve never eaten sunchokes—also known as Jerusalem artichokes, earth apples, and sunroot—don’t be intimidated. Think of them as a cooler cousin of potatoes. While many conventional supermarkets carry them these days, you are most likely to find them at specialty grocery stores and farmers’ markets when they are in season from fall through spring […]
Now, I know you’re thinking, “Why go through the trouble of roasting sweet potatoes in ash when I can cook them in the oven?” I get it—lighting up coals just to have them burn to ash so you can cook food is a lot of effort. But guess what? You can feed two birds with […]
If you don’t like sweet dishes, you might want to skip this recipe. There is no getting around the flavorful syrup that is the hallmark of candied yams. This recipe is my nod to the classic side dish that is ubiquitous on holiday tables throughout the South. Traditional versions rely heavily on lots of butter […]
Inspired by Jamaican brown stew, aka brown stew chicken, a classic dish popular throughout the Caribbean, this slightly sweet, savory, and spicy stew is a great way to showcase root vegetables. The original dish is “brown” from cooking chicken in fat and then simmering it in a mixture of brown sugar, aromatics, and spices, which […]
In August 2017, Mitchell Davis, chief strategy officer of the James Beard Foundation, asked me to help curate the menu (along with chefs Dan Barber and Mary Sue Milliken) for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Global Goals Awards ceremony. The awards recognize outstanding activists and campaign groups who have made a demonstrable positive impact […]
My Smashed Potatoes, Peas, and Corn with Chile-Garlic Oil from Afro-Vegan got so much love, I had to remix it. That recipe was a deconstructed version of irio, a staple of the Kikuyu people consisting of pureed white potatoes with green peas and sweet corn mixed in. In Afro-Vegan, I smashed steamed potatoes and baked them before covering […]
