soul food

[ sohl food ]

noun

1. traditional African American cooking, originally developed by enslaved Black people in the rural South and including such foods as chitterlings, pig’s feet, collard greens, and cornbread:

   The cuisine of New Orleans is heavily influenced by Creole and Cajun cooking as well as soul food.

   Soul food is grounded in the ways African Americans have always fashioned a way out of no way, taking scraps and creating a food tradition that has stood the test of time.

2. the traditional cooking of a specified culture:

   Kimchi, the magical soul food of Korea, is popular worldwide.

   We talked with the restaurant’s founders about Ashkenazi soul food and the misunderstood gefilte fish.

soul food

noun

1. informal.
   food, such as chitterlings or yams, traditionally eaten by Black people in the southern US

Other Words From

• soul-food adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of soul food¹

An Americanism dating back to 1960–65

Example Sentences

Minus the red drink, Lionel Chauvel-Maga has more or less based Gumbo Yaya on what Miller would include in his definition of soul food.

From Eater

If soul food came to Paris, it was to eventually be françisée and get sent back.

From Eater

The postwar Paris that Baldwin knew had a handful of soul food restaurants, places like Chez Inez, which Baldwin visited, and Gabby and Haynes.

From Eater

It also happens to be a gold mine of soul food restaurants that are anything but corporate in character.

From The Daily Beast

No personal photos or memorabilia cover the walls, as is true of the other worthy soul food places around town.

From The Daily Beast

P&D Soul Food Kitchen: 927 S. Goldwyn Ave., Ste. 120, Orlando.

From The Daily Beast

If you are planning to visit, we must warn you that P&D Soul Food Kitchen looks very boring.

From The Daily Beast

Cory would come over several times a week to schmooze and cook ‘kosher soul food’ to which he and I invited many students.

From The Daily Beast

But we want it high—we love it high—we're restless—we're keyed up, taut-strung, and hungry for soul food.

From Project Gutenberg

Get the best soul-food, the long tried manna that forms upon these pages day by day, for him who will be at pains to gather it.

From Project Gutenberg

When it has none God sends poets to invent them as soul food for the nation's youth.

From Project Gutenberg

Afterward history stores up these noble achievements of yesterday as soul food for to day.

From Project Gutenberg

The history that can be seen is a strong and stimulating soul-food, entirely different from vague and wearying written history.

From Project Gutenberg