Soul food is an ethnic cuisine traditionally prepared and eaten by African Americans, originating in the Southern United States. It is commonly believed that the cuisine originated with the foods that were given to enslaved black people by their white owners on Southern plantations during the Antebellum period; however, it was strongly influenced by the traditional practices of West Africans and Southeastern Native Americans from its inception. Due to the historical presence of African Americans in the region, soul food is closely associated with the cuisine of the American South although today it has become an easily identifiable and celebrated aspect of mainstream American food culture.

The expression "soul food" originated in the mid-1960s, when "soul" was a common word used to describe African-American culture.