A Journey of Culinary Liberation!

It's all about the Red, Black, and Green! Choosing more red, black, and green foods leads to renewed health and vigor - making us stronger warriors, healers, and builders. Growing the foods we eat and supporting Black farmers are our choices for liberation. Preparing delicious meals that inspire, heal and bring families together comes out of our Afrikan ways.

Join the AYA-Ngolo family and create your own Ngolo liberation plates that inspire, nourish, and heal. Praise the Red, Black, and Green!

This book is a culmination of a #LiberationPlateChallenge called by the AYA-Ngolo Gardens Committee in February 2021. More than one hundred took up the challenge to create dishes and share photos, recipes, and family stories. This book is Ujamaa - collective work and responsibility - with flavor!

It will help you walk away from the malaise nurtured by imbalanced food choices and our consumption of too many processed foods. We hope it will also encourage you to incorporate more plant-based cooking and eating into your lifestyle. You will learn about allomelanin-rich and African cultural foods that feed our Blackness.

In our tradition, a feast without stories is not a feast at all. We hope the family stories included will trigger your olfactory memories and spark you to create new dishes and new stories that create authentic emotional and cultural connections and lead you back home.