A British kitchen exploring American soul food
Soul food, made from scratch in a British kitchen
Real recipes, honest ingredient swaps, and everything I’ve learned cooking this food from 3,000 miles away.
“I’m not from the South. I became obsessed with this food and figured out how to make it work in a British kitchen — one recipe at a time.”
Start here — everything I wish I’d known
What the holy trinity is, why collard greens need low and slow heat, and where to track down the ingredients you can’t get at Tesco. Everything I figured out so you don’t have to start from scratch.
Read the beginner’s guide →Latest Posts
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Where to Buy Andouille Sausage in the UK (Not Andouillette)
If you have ever stood in a UK supermarket sausage aisle with a gumbo recipe in your hand, you already know the problem. Andouille is the smoky, spicy backbone of so many Cajun and Creole dishes, and it is almost never on the shelf. The good news is that you can buy it here, if…
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Cornbread Dressing Recipe: Southern-Style for UK Kitchens
If you have ever wondered what Americans mean when they say “dressing”, this is it. A proper cornbread dressing is a savoury, sage-scented bake with a moist middle and a crisp, golden top, and it is the dish most Southern families would fight over before they touched the turkey. This is a cornbread dressing recipe…
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Red Beans and Rice: Authentic New Orleans Recipe (UK)
A proper pot of red beans and rice is slow, smoky and creamy, with a gravy that clings to every grain of rice. It is the kind of dish that makes the whole house smell wonderful by mid-afternoon. This version is written for UK kitchens, so you will find dried kidney beans, a smoked ham…
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Sweet Potato Pie with Condensed Milk (Southern)
Sweet potato pie is one of those desserts that sounds like it needs a family recipe passed down for generations, but the version most people actually love uses a shortcut: a tin of sweetened condensed milk. It gives you a rich, silky filling that sets properly every time, without any guesswork over cream or evaporated…
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No Grits in the UK? Here’s the Substitute That Works
If you have ever tried to find grits in a UK supermarket, you already know the answer. They are not there. Grits just are not a British staple, and most shops have never stocked them. The good news is that a UK substitute gets you very close, once you know exactly which one to reach…
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Southern Black-Eyed Peas Recipe (Soul Food Style)
Ask anyone from the American South what they’re eating on the 1st of January and there’s a decent chance the answer involves a pot of black-eyed peas. It sounds humble on paper, a bowl of beans in savoury broth, but it carries a lot of tradition and family history in every spoonful. I’d never so…
