Contains 300 recipes that trim the fat, sugar, and salt from classic soul food dishes, each including a nutritional analysis, with chapters on kitchen basics, and herbal concoctions for body care, and anecdotes about the author's family of cooks.

Kitchen basics -- Sunday breakfast -- Down-home vegetables -- Bread -- Hot pot: soups and stews -- Down-home grains -- Fish -- Chicken: the preacher's bird -- Dinner classics -- Nola: palatable New Orleans -- Gullah: Sea Island flavor -- Oyster house -- Extraordinary extras -- Beverages -- Just desserts -- Body and soul.