Baking for My Family With “Sweet Potato Soul”
As southerners, we’re all connected by the food we love
When searching for a vegan cookbook, I wanted the author to be a black woman, like myself. I found Sweet Potato Soul by Jenné Claiborne because I was familiar with the author’s online persona, but as I began reading the book and baking her recipes, I also found similarities in our southern backgrounds. It felt like I was meant to find this particular cookbook. I found the recipes somewhat challenging but familiar, different, and not too far out of my comfort zone.
There is a deep history of Southern cooking and soul food which can be linked to and traced back to slavery; also held by elder relatives and their stories. One of the reasons I chose Sweet Potato Soul is for the historical context Claiborne gives in the introduction.
“The history of soul food started hundreds of years ago in West Africa, where much of our favorite ‘Southern’ produces originated: peanuts, okra, black-eyed peas. As the people from West Africa were stolen across the Atlantic as slaves, they brought nothing but their culture along with them.”
Claiborne also brings up the misconception that soul food is unhealthy and low-class, something that should only be reserved for special occasions in the company of other black folks…
