Neo Soul: Taking Soul Food to a Whole 'Nutha Level (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Sylvia Woods (Foreword) "My name is Lindsey Williams and I'm an addict..." (more)
Key Phrases: teaspoons fresh black pepper, teaspoon fresh black pepper, cup lowfat mayonnaise, Easy Vegetable Stock, Neo Soul, Structure House (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

More than one hundred taste-tempting soul-food recipes.

From the grandson of Harlem's queen of soul food, Sylvia Woods, comes a new take on soul food-down-home cooking that tastes as good as the food you grew up with. Lindsey Williams knows soul food. He was raised in the kitchen of his grandmother's restaurant, Sylvia's, where he mastered the art of soul-food cooking. But being around all of that good food took its toll. When he tipped the scales at four hundred pounds, he knew he had to make some serious changes.

That's when he lost more than half his body weight and began his own brand of healthy soul-food cooking that's loved by the clients of his catering business. Now, with Neo Soul, we can all enjoy some guilt-free soul food.

Neo Soul features more than one hundred of Williams's delectable recipes, including Grandma's Roasted Turkey, Lenzo's Trout Stuffed with Collard Greens, Okra Gumbo, Neo Sweet Potato Pie, and Blueberry Buckle. They're all so good, you'll never miss the fat

About the Author

Lindsey Williams is the owner of Lindsey's 125 Catering, a healthy soul-food personal chef and catering company. He has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, the Today show, and Live with Regis and Kelly, and his amazing story of weight loss has been featured in People magazine.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Avery (January 19, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1583331948
• ISBN-13: 978-1583331941
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #759,759 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #32 in

  Books > Cooking, Food & Wine > Regional & International > U.S. Regional > African American

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great start, but check the conversions, February 2, 2006

By	Mom of Steel (Pittsburgh, PA United States) - See all my reviews

I saw Lindsey Williams featured in Newsweek and I went immediately and bought this book for a friend of mine. She's been trying to find ways to lighten up her down-home cooking and I thought this was right up her alley.

We paged through the book together and checked out the recipes - which are fantastic. Mr. Williams' personal story was also a highlight, as were tidbits like celebrity favorites. My friend recognized familiar recipes immediately and was pleased her new cookbook.

Naturally, being health conscious, we looked at the nutritional information. That's when we started to get confused.

For one, the calorie and fat counts for some of the desserts were very high. I know - it's DESSERT! If the re-done version was still bad, I figured it must mean the "original" version must have been far worse. And I know you don't eat it all the time, anyway. But I've never seen a "light" cookbook feature a recipe with 4 sticks of butter in the ingredient list. As tempting as the pound cake sounds, I'm afraid it would be something I couldn't eat on my plan.

Secondly, I'm convinced that the nutritional counts are inaccurate. Some recipes had 40 or 50+ grams of fat in them - which is just astronomical for one serving. The calorie count would seem appropriate for a serving, but fat (and sometimes sodium) seemed like it might actually apply to the whole dish. There were so many great LIGHT recipes that we looked at, scanning the ingredient list only to find healthy ingredients but non-attractive nutritional counts. It didn't make sense.

It's such a good cookbook with really great re-mixes of traditional recipes. Even after the confusion, my friend still liked the book. I just wish I could pick Mr. Williams' brain over some of the recipes & techniques.........Why not reduce the amount of high-fat coconut in the coconut cake recipe? Why actually FRY the fried apples when there are other ways to cook them without 3 cups of oil? Do we really have to use 4 sticks of butter in the pound cake or is there a way we can sub out some calories? Why would chicken & peaches have 24g of fat?

Bottom line: the book has some fantastic recipes. I would just recommend for those who are nutritionally aware to do your own calculations (and maybe make a few more of your own substitutions) and I'm sure the numbers won't look so bad.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars He made tofu high fat/calorie , January 30, 2006

By	sh39918 "book adict" (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews

I had high hopes for this cookbook after hearing his
interview on NPR so I got one the next day. I was worried
when just glancing through I found a number of recipies
starting with two sticks of butter; even Paula Deen only
calls for one and she doesn't claim to be making healthy
food. I took it to work so that I could have a co-worker
who is a better cook than I am look at it and she pointed
out that most of the recipies are high in fat and that he
managed to make a Lemon and Garlic Tofu with 630 calories
and 48g of fat per serving with 1/2 a stick of butter and
1/4 a cup of olive oil. His Uptown Buscuits are 235 cal. &
14g of fat per bisquit. With breakdowns like that; I
think I'll have better luck just making it the old fashioned
way and cutting down on the serving sizes.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Adds a healthy twist to a cuisine often associated with unhealthy fats, May 25, 2006

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

Other books have been written on soul food but here's something with a difference: it comes from the godson of Harlem's soul food cook Sylvia Woods and adds a healthy twist to a cuisine often associated with unhealthy fats. Author Lindsay Williams struggled with weight all his life and had to make some drastic changes when at 400 pounds he found food affecting his health. NEO SOUL reflects these changes, which caused him to lose more than half his weight, and provides readers with a new brand of healthy soul cooking which retains the ethnicity without the dangers.

Diane C. Donovan, Editor
California Bookwatch