Cooking the Wild Southwest: Delicious Recipes for Desert Plants

by Carolyn Niethammer, Paul Mirocha (Illustrator)

Over the last few decades, interest in eating locally has grown quickly. From just-picked apples in Washington to fresh peaches in Georgia, local food movements and farmer’s markets have proliferated all over the country. Desert dwellers in the Southwest are taking a new look at prickly pear, mesquite, and other native plants.

Many people’s idea of cooking with southwestern plants begins and ends with prickly pear jelly. With this update to the classic Tumbleweed Gourmet, master cook Carolyn Niethammer opens a window on the incredible bounty of the southwestern deserts and offers recipes to help you bring these plants to your table. Included here are sections featuring each of twenty-three different desert plants. The chapters include basic information, harvesting techniques, and general characteristics. But the real treat comes in the form of some 150 recipes collected or developed by the author herself. Ranging from every-day to gourmet, from simple to complex, these recipes offer something for cooks of all skill levels. Some of the recipes also include stories about their origin and readers are encouraged to tinker with the ingredients and enjoy desert foods as part of their regular diet.

Featuring Paul Mirocha’s finely drawn illustrations of the various southwestern plants discussed, this volume will serve as an indispensible guide from harvest to table. Whether you’re looking for more ways to prepare local foods, ideas for sustainable harvesting, or just want to expand your palette to take in some out-of-the-ordinary flavors, Cooking the Wild Southwest is sure to delight.

Genres: Cookbooks, Nonfiction, Food

216 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2011

Reviews

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the way each food is divided into it's own chapter and there's ethnobotanical information on each plant and information about how and when to harvest it, that part gets 5 stars. I didn't care for the recipes, not that they were bad, I don't know because none of them looked interesting enough for me to want to try right away. Many of them seemed more like conventional recipes with wild harvested foods thrown in rather than unique recipes that showcased the ingredients, and I could do with less sugar and flour. So that part of the book gets 3 stars.

[Aja Marsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

wish this one had some photos! but i liked how this had a mix of more traditional and modernized ideas for recipes and included suggestions for foraging and handling. i think this would be something i'd read again as there are several of these wild foods in and near my backyard!

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interested concept but the recipes fell a little flat.