Healthy Soul Food Recipes

Chock-full of shrimp, chicken, sausage, okra and tomatoes, this flavorful stew is a staple in Louisiana. Make it a meal and serve with Real Cornbread (see associated recipe).

Spicy sausage--in this case, chorizo--pairs beautifully with hearty greens. If you like, substitute collard or mustard greens for the kale. If you can't get chorizo, hot Italian sausage will also work in this soup.

Garlic cloves, cooked along with the potatoes, give this puree extra body and lots of flavor.

This easy-to-make chocolate cake is dark, moist, rich--and only dirties one bowl! Not quite as easy as boxed cake mixes, but those often contain trans fats. Our simple “from scratch” recipe gives you a home-baked cake with healthful canola oil and whole-wheat flour.

To keep it simple, we've opted for just the essential ingredients in this rendition of the hearty Creole favorite: sausage, okra, rice and a little spice.

Plenty of dark leafy greens deliver the moisture needed to balance lean ground pork and beef in this spicy meatloaf recipe. Serve any leftovers with extra ketchup as meatloaf sandwiches.

This version of chicken and dumplings provides plenty of vegetables with 5 grams of fiber per serving. Dumplings are made with 1 part flour and 1 part cornmeal to make them standout from a traditional flour dumpling. This hearty dinner option is the perfect comfort meal.

Dark leafy collards add bold flavor and boost the calcium in this healthy skillet mac and cheese recipe with a crispy topping. If you don't have collards, kale, Swiss chard and spinach are delicious substitutes.

This easy vanilla-bourbon homemade whipped cream recipe makes a sophisticated topping for any pie, crisp or crumble, or dollop in after-dinner coffee for an elegant treat.

With all that delicious fruit an apple pie should be healthy, but the truth is a slice can have as much as 750 calories and 30 grams of fat. For the most part, the culprit is the crust. We use whole-wheat pastry flour to add fiber and lower the saturated fat by replacing some of the butter with canola oil. The brown sugar-sweetened filling in this pie is made with two kinds of apples for the perfect balance. A slice has half the calories of a typical version and only 10 grams of fat--sweet!

Toss leftover cooked chicken with barbecue sauce and crunchy carrots for a quick and healthy lunch.

Smooth, lacinato kale (aka dinosaur kale) is topped with barbecue chicken, carrots and cabbage in this healthy, gluten-free lettuce wrap recipe. Try them for a low-carb dinner or light lunch.