The Texas Mexican Plant-Based Cookbook - (Indigenous Foodways) by Adán Medrano (Hardcover)

About the Book

A cookbook celebrating the plant-based cuisine of
Indigenous Texas Mexican communities.

Book Synopsis

In 15,000-year-old archaeological
sites throughout Texas and Northeastern Mexico, records left by Coahuiltecan,
Karankawa, Apache, and other Indigenous communities tell stories about their
food practices, the roots of Texas Mexican cuisine. Author and chef Adán
Medrano, a Coahuiltecan descendant, has made it his life's work to document
these food practices and the stories they narrate. In The Texas Mexican
Plant-Based Cookbook, he honors the plant-based cooking history, traditions,
and knowledge that make up the comida casera (home cooking) of today's Texas
Mexican community.

Each of the 90 kitchen-tested
recipes includes detailed cooking instructions intended for contemporary home
cooks. Headnotes for each recipe describe how the dish entered the region's
culinary traditions and became integral to the culinary act of meaning-making
in the community. The book provides explanations of the origins of iconic
ingredients like squash, cactus, mesquite, and sunflowers, as well as more
recent, post-Conquest ingredients like watermelon, rice, and cauliflower. Texas
ancestors ate pecans and black walnuts, along with acorns, grapes, berries,
seeds, and tubers. Mesquite and cactus were central to celebrations.

Home cooks of all
levels can discover and reclaim ancient ingredients and simple techniques in
this volume and come away with a deeper knowledge of the agricultural systems
that belie our current foodways.

Review Quotes

"Cookbooks often serve as gateways
into culture, memory, and innovation. With The Texas Mexican Plant-Based
Cookbook, author and chef Adán Medrano introduces readers to a fresh
perspective on Mexican American food traditions by emphasizing plant-based,
healthy, and culturally rooted dishes.

In
today's culinary world where plant-based eating is booming, this cookbook is
not just a recipe collection--it's a cultural statement

The
cookbook immediately stands out with its vibrant photography and storytelling.
Instead of focusing only on recipes, Medrano weaves in cultural narratives,
history, and culinary heritage. Every dish feels like a connection to
indigenous Mexican traditions while still being relevant to modern kitchens.

It
doesn't try to mimic meat-heavy Mexican dishes; instead, it reminds us that the
heart of Mexican cuisine has always been deeply plant-centered, nourishing, and
connected to the land.

If
you're someone who values plant-based cooking with depth and authenticity, exploring
food as cultural storytelling, and recipes that celebrate heritage while
embracing health, then this cookbook is absolutely worth adding to your kitchen
shelf.

It's not just about what you eat--it's
about connecting with a legacy of flavors and traditions that span centuries.
In today's fast-paced world, that kind of authenticity feels like the ultimate
nourishment." --Your Wise Blogger, August 2025

"The foodways of Texas and Northeastern Mexico are connected by much
more than a shared love of carne asada and flour tortillas. In The Texas
Mexican Plant-Based Cookbook, Adán Medrano showcases culturally rich and
healthful recipes--such as Pecan and Mesquite Mole and Pipián Ranchero with
Jerusalem Artichokes--demonstrating that the home cooking of the Texas Mexican
region has, for centuries, been deliciously rooted in a shared landscape and
complex histories." --Maite Gomez-Rejón, Hungry for History (podcast)

"This book is a revelation.
Deceptively simple recipes showcase how Texas Mexican cuisine is rooted in the
vibrant flavors of the land and Indigenous cooking techniques, enhanced by
historical friendships with people from Oaxaca, Michoacán, Yucatán, the
Southwestern Pueblos, the Great Plains, and the Iberian Peninsula. A few more
involved recipes are included for special occasions (mesquitamal, herbed corn,
and Jerusalem artichoke tarts). Most ingredients will be familiar, but notes
above each recipe discuss some of the less common ones, often with stories of
the author's personal experience and advice on where to find them. The notes
also outline the nutritional advantages of important ingredients and the
histories of particular plants, especially domesticated plants like corn,
beans, and squashes that Indigenous people began cultivating millennia ago.

Ultimately,
this book is a revolution, a call to create healthy relationships to the land
and other people. Chef Medrano argues that such alliances are the surest way to
create food that enriches our bodies and our lives.

The recipes are local, but they are
universal in the way that good, healthy food always is. Chef Medrano has shared
Texas Mexican recipes with friends and colleagues from Michoacán to Moscow.
After making a few of these (maybe lentejas guisadas, avocado popsicle, toksel,
or watermelon and jicama salad?) you'll want to share them too." --Leslie L.
Bush, PhD, Archaeobotanist

"Stunned to find an exceptional book celebrating the history and culture
of this little-known area of Texas through food. These wonderful recipes
are sure to fill your home with aromas, conversation, and memories." --Chef
Bobby Gonzalez, El Capataz, Laredo, Texas

"This book is a powerful and
eye-opening tribute to the Indigenous plant-based traditions of Texas and
Northeastern Mexico, reminding us that our roots run deep in the land, long
before borders and colonization." --Chef Victoria Elizondo, Cochinita & Co.,
Houston, Texas