New Ways With Soul Food

(Julia Ewan - The Washington Post)

When soul food recipes are revised as "light" or "neo," flavor often takes a hit, even with the best intention of reducing all those wonderfully bad things that make soul food taste so good. We took on the challenge of finding revamped recipes that really satisfied. We tested 14 sides and desserts culled from seven recent soul-food cookbooks. We found three winners: a corn pudding that is far from watery, a mac and cheese that does not stiffen up, and banana pudding that delivers a smaller portion in an elegant way. And a chef from Georgia Brown's gave us a modern take on a soul-food standard.