Banana Souffle -- Light as the Last Day, Sweet as What Comes Next

Last day of school. Twenty-one years. I cleaned my office — the ritual, the tissue boxes, the filing — and Aaliyah's drawing is still on the wall. Three years. The flower she drew when she was twelve is fading slightly at the edges, the purple dimming, the gold softening. But it stays. It stays because it was the first mark of a girl who learned to crack an egg and went to arts school and the flower on my wall is the proof that things change. Things change if someone sees you. Things change if someone says: the flowers are worth drawing. Things change if a church kitchen on a Saturday morning says: you are worth a real meal.

Jordan stopped by to say goodbye. He's going to 8th grade. His family has an apartment. His mother cooks. He looked at me with the particular awkwardness of a twelve-year-old boy who knows he's supposed to feel something but doesn't have the language yet. He said, "Thanks, Mrs. Washington." I said, "See you in September." He won't come to my office in September — he'll be in 8th grade, older, less needy, more independent. But he'll pass my door. And the door will be open. And the knowledge that the door is open is sometimes all a kid needs.

Summer stretches ahead: book tour (six more cities), cookbook sales (steady, growing through word of mouth), Set the Table (summer intensive again, twenty-eight girls this year), and the ongoing, relentless, beautiful project of feeding a family in a kitchen with a magnolia tree.

Made a big batch of Mama's banana pudding for the end-of-year church potluck. The traditional farewell. The vanilla wafers. The homemade custard. The meringue. Gone in fifteen minutes this time. Faster than last year. The book has made people curious about the recipes. The food is traveling. The food is doing what Mama always wanted it to do: feeding people she'd never meet.

Mama’s banana pudding will always be the farewell — the vanilla wafers, the custard, the meringue that disappears in fifteen minutes flat. But this summer, with the book out and the food already traveling farther than Mama ever got to see, I wanted to stretch the banana tradition somewhere a little lighter, a little more lifted. A soufflé felt right: it rises, it holds its breath, and if you’ve done the work, it doesn’t fall. That’s the summer I’m stepping into.

Banana Soufflé

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 30 min | Total Time: 50 min | Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 3 ripe bananas, mashed (about 1 cup)
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for greasing
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup whole milk, warmed
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar, divided
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 4 large eggs, separated, at room temperature
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• Pinch of salt
• Powdered sugar, for dusting (optional)

Instructions

1. Prepare the dish. Preheat oven to 375°F. Butter a 1.5-quart soufflé dish generously, then coat with a light dusting of granulated sugar, tapping out any excess. Set aside.
2. Make the banana base. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Whisk in flour and cook for 1–2 minutes until lightly golden and fragrant. Gradually whisk in warm milk, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens into a smooth béchamel, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat.
3. Add banana and flavor. Stir mashed banana, half the sugar (about 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon), vanilla extract, lemon juice, and a pinch of salt into the béchamel until fully combined and smooth. Let cool for 5 minutes, then whisk in egg yolks one at a time.
4. Whip the whites. In a clean, dry bowl, beat egg whites with cream of tartar on medium speed until foamy. Gradually add remaining sugar and beat on high until stiff, glossy peaks form — do not overbeat.
5. Fold together. Stir a large spoonful of whipped whites into the banana base to lighten it. Then gently fold in the remaining whites in two additions, using a wide spatula and a light hand to preserve as much volume as possible.
6. Bake. Pour batter into the prepared soufflé dish, smoothing the top. Run your thumb around the inner rim to create a shallow channel (this helps the soufflé rise evenly). Bake for 28–32 minutes, until puffed and golden on top with a slight wobble in the center.
7. Serve immediately. Dust with powdered sugar if desired and bring straight to the table — a soufflé waits for no one.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 210 | Protein: 6g | Fat: 9g | Carbs: 28g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 95mg