Juneteenth is all about celebration, no matter how, where, or with whom the festivities take place. The holiday, observed on June 19, commemorates the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, learned of their freedom, which had been declared in the Emancipation Proclamation two years earlier. What better source than Food & Wine to get the best recipes to celebrate the holiday. Cookbook author Nicole A. Taylor wrote in Food & Wine about her own Juneteenth parties. “For a few hours, pure liberation meets a plate of food.”
Here are a few recipes that Food & Wine provided from Taylor and other cooks, full of flavor and joy to inspire your own Juneteenth menus.
Buttermilk Cornbread
Slightly sweet and buttery, this classic Southern cornbread is a must-order at Virtue, Erick Williams’ flagship restaurant in Chicago, Illinois, where he celebrates the food of the Great Migration.
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Grilled Prawns with Okra and Eggplant
Cookbook author Zoe Adjonyoh’s travels to Ghana inspired this vegetable-forward dish. Sautéed eggplant, okra, and spinach are tossed with coconut oil and spices and topped with grilled marinated prawns.
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Stone Fruit Salad with Collard-Peanut Pesto
In this savory fruit salad, roasted peanuts, collard greens, and Parmesan yield a hearty pesto that’s the perfect partner for honey-dressed wedges of plums and nectarines. Fonio, a West African grain similar in texture to couscous, soaks up the pesto to flavor each bite.
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Summer Fruit Cobbler with Vanilla-Mascarpone Biscuits
Do as F&W’s Cheryl Slocum does and stud your peach cobbler with fresh sweet cherries to get more red on the Juneteenth table — you’ll need 10 cups of fruit total. With their crunchy turbinado sugar topping, vanilla-mascarpone biscuits have a tender, shortcake-like texture that marries beautifully with the fruit.
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Rosy Hibiscus-Gin Lowball
Known as sorrel in parts of Africa, roselle — the type of hibiscus used in most hibiscus teas — complements the floral notes of gin here for a balanced beverage. Stir leftover hibiscus tea into lemonade for a refreshing nonalcoholic sipper.
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Tangy Black-Eyed Pea Salad
Simmering black-eyed peas with a purse of tomato, scallions, chiles, garlic, and cilantro stems flavors the beans as they cook; the vegetables later become the base for the salad’s silky dressing. For a bit less heat, feel free to seed the jalapeño.
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Crudités with Carrot Dip and Romesco
Food writer and recipe developer Yewande Komolafe says to think about this as a carrot dip crudités plate. Bring in cucumber, apple sticks, radishes, and any other favorite veggies. The recipe celebrates Detroit’s “farm–city connection, with benne seeds and peanuts bringing it back to Africa.”
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Hibiscus Snow Cones
“When hibiscus is steeped in water, it creates a red drink, an essential menu item of Juneteenth,” says Nicole A. Taylor, sharing the Juneteenth memories that inspired her to create this Hibiscus Snow Cone. In this playful icy dessert, Taylor riffs on tradition, using dried hibiscus blossoms to make a sweet, tangy syrup for a celebratory snow cone. Whipped cream and crushed pink peppercorns add a final flourish.
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Carla Hall’s Buttermilk Biscuits
Made with a combination of grated cold butter for flavor and vegetable shortening for tenderness, chef Carla Hall’s biscuits owe their towering, flaky layers to her classic laminating technique.
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Grilled Pork Chops with Burst Blueberry Sauce
Gorgeous summer fruit and grilling are at the heart of Nicole A. Taylor’s Juneteenth menu. Here, she takes blueberries for a savory spin, blending the berries with shallots, thyme, and chipotles in adobo to create a sticky sauce that showcases the floral notes of the fruit, while red wine and balsamic vinegar add a tart backbone that brings the flavors into focus.
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Island Jollof Rice
“When I think of Eric Adjepong’s food, I think of the West African dance called the highlife, full of Afro beats and guitars and brass instruments,” says Tamie Cook, who co-wrote the cookbook The Rise: Black Cooks and the Soul of American Food with Marcus Samuelsson, Osayi Endolyn, and Yewande Komolafe. “Jollof rice is such a beloved dish that every West African takes ownership of it.”
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Chile-Coconut Watermelon Crudo
This sweet, spicy, and punchy upgrade to classic slabs of salted watermelon is the palate-pleasing appetizer your cookout guests deserve. Fresh coconut water is much sweeter and has a greater depth of flavor than bottled versions, so crack open a coconut if you can.
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Smoked Brisket
This smoked brisket is self-taught barbecue expert Matt Horn’s signature recipe — the star of the menu at his restaurant, Horn Barbecue, in Oakland, California. The 2021 F&W Best New Chef spent weeks perfecting this recipe and says time is the most important ingredient in the dish. You need to be patient while the meat’s internal temperature rises to 203°F, but it’s worth it when your smoked masterpiece is ready.
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Red Velvet Cake Ice Cream Sandwiches
Chewy, chocolaty red velvet cookies are filled with a tangy no-churn cream cheese ice cream for an irresistible combination of flavors and textures. The ice cream-filled sandwiches soften as they freeze, making these a great make-ahead dessert.
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Oto (Mashed Yam Patties)
Puna yam (not to be confused with sweet potato) is the star of this Ghanaian dish often served on wedding days. Its unique texture and flavor makes puna yam worth seeking out for this recipe.
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Southern-Style Mac ‘n’ Cheese
Three different kinds of cheese — extra-sharp cheddar, Colby-Jack, and cream cheese — go into this rich, savory macaroni and cheese recipe, which also gets layers of flavor from fresh bay leaves and dry mustard.
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View all the delicious recipes on Food & Wine.
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