Recipe Box
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Food and the sharing of it is also a form of hospitality and a bonding together of people that goes back to all of our earliest ancestors. Some of the recipes included here are Native ones, others are not. The recipes here will focus on ingredients that were indigenous to the Americas - such as corn, beans, squash, tomatoes, chile peppers, and more. We hope you will try some of these recipes and share them with the people special in your life! |
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Foods of the New World
Beans
While it is hard to know from our modern grocery store shelves, there are thousands of varieties of beans in existence today and that is only a small fraction of the number of varieties that once existed! The common bean has been cultivated for 6,000 years in the Americas. Beans, as one of the Three Sisters, would be companion planted with corn and squash where these plants would be beneficial to each other's growing needs. Beans like many other ancient foods from the Americas are thought to have their origins in Mexico and Central America. For more on corn see the article, Knowing the Three Sisters. Bean Recipes: | ||||||||||||||||||||
Blueberries
The blueberry is indigenous to North America and was harvested from wild bushes by the Native peoples of Turtle Island for thousands of years. Early explorers like Lewis and Clark encountered a variety of uses for the blueberry by the indigenous peoples as an important part of their diet. The berries were used fresh, dried, and powdered. And while this wonderful berry was in long-term and widespread-use, it was not until the 20th century that any domestication was done with the blueberry - it is hard to improve such a wonderful food as this! Blueberry Recipes: | ||||||||||||||||||||
Cassava
How the roots of this plant, which are toxic in their raw state, werefirst used as food is a curious thing. But an important food for the world it is! It is a major source of low-cost carbohydrates through the humid tropical areas in the world - even though it is only commonly used for tapioca pudding in the US. Many names are applied to this family of plants including cassava, manioc, manihot, and yuca. The flour in the US is known as tapioca. The cassava is thought to have originated in Brazil or Paraguay and evidence of its use in other South American countries can be found dating from 2,800 - 3,000 years ago. Cassava Recipes: | ||||||||||||||||||||
Chocolate
While chocolate is often connected with great chocolate artists or chocolatiers of Europe, it too is a gift of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. As evidence, the word "chocolate" is derived from the Aztec word xocoltl, meaning "bitter water" as the Aztecs prized it for an unsweetened and bitter beverage. So valued were the cacao beans, which are fermented and ground to make chocolate, that the beans were used in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica as a form of currency and the Aztecs demanded cacao beans as tribute from the peoples they conquered. The oldest sites of cacao cultivation date from 1,100 - 1,400 BCE in Honduras. Chocolate became an important trade item for Europeans after the Spanish introduced it to Europe and they too loved this "food of the gods." Chocolate Recipes: | ||||||||||||||||||||
Corn
For more on corn see the article, Knowing the Three Sisters. Corn Recipes: | ||||||||||||||||||||
Cranberries
The cranberry along with the blueberry and concord grape are the most commercially important fruits that originated in North America. Native peoples valued the cranberry long before European contact. They often mixed the cranberry with other foods such as dried meat to make a fruit-dried meat mixture often referred to with the Cree word pemmican. Cranberries have a wide range of vitamins and minerals in them, most notably vitamin C. Cranberries originally grew in bogs throughout the north-eastern part of North America. Cranberry Recipes: | ||||||||||||||||||||
Jerusalem Artichokes
Few plants could be any more confusingly named. This plant has no connection to Jerusalem nor is it an artichoke. It is actually a member of the sunflower family as its flower may suggest. It is thought that the "Jerusalem" portion of the name is actually a corruption of the Italian word, girasole, which means "sunflower" and that the taste of the edible tuber was at some point compared to the artichoke. The tubers are today often marketed with the much simpler name of "sunchoke." These easy to grow, perennial plants were harvested for their tasty tubers long before the Europeans came to North America. Jerusalem Artichoke Recipes: | ||||||||||||||||||||
Maple Syrup
No one is quite sure exactly when maple syrup was first discovered and used by the Native peoples of the north-eastern part of North America but it was clearly long before European contact. This wonderful and delightful sweetener is made from the boiled sap of the maple tree, most notably but not exclusively the sugar maple. A simple yet cherished winter treat called by various regional names ("leather aprons," "leather britches," "sugar-on-snow," etc.) involves drizzling hot maple syrup on fresh clean snow to create a chewy, taffy-like confection. Maple Syrup Recipes: | ||||||||||||||||||||
Peanuts
The peanut or groundnut, as it is called by some, is a legume and not a nut at all. The peanut was first cultivated by the Andean peoples in Peru some 7600 years ago. It was there that Europeans encountered the peanut and took it back to Europe. The conditions for growing peanuts in Europe were not optimal but growing conditions were ideal in Africa and India where the peanut was introduced by the Portuguese. Spanish merchant ships also took peanuts from the New World to the Far East where it too became popular. West Africa's Groundnut Stew and America's PB&J sandwiches wouldn't be the same without this South American food! Peanut Recipes: | ||||||||||||||||||||
Peppers
The nightshade family has some great food plants in it - tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, and of course, chili peppers. Chili peppers are a very old food. People in Central and South America have been eating them since 7500 BCE and domesticated the pepper about 6000 years ago. The chili pepper was brought back to Europe on Columbus' second voyage from where it quickly spread throughout the world to be grown and used in nearly every country. The chili, along with allspice, are the only spices to originate in the New World. Pepper Recipes: | ||||||||||||||||||||
Potatoes
Potato Recipes: | ||||||||||||||||||||
Quinoa
Quinoa, pronounced "Keen-wah," has been cultivated for at least 6,000 years and it originated in the Andean region of South America. This "supergrain" of Andes was vital and sacred to the Inca who called it the "mother of all grains." Even though this grain is high-altitude, wind, and cold tolerant as well as being an ideal food for humans (high in protein as well as having a balanced set of amino acids), the Spanish conquistadors scorned this grain and even discouraged its cultivation in lieu of non-native foods. While quinoa doesn't amount to much of the western world's current diet, its value is being relearned - it is in consideration as a possible crop in NASA's Controlled Ecological Life Support System for long-duration manned spaceflights. Quinoa Recipes: | ||||||||||||||||||||
Squash
The word "squash" originally comes from the Narragansett word askutasquash, which means "a green thing eaten raw." The name "squash" is applied to the fruits and plants of 4 different species of plants that originated in Mexico and Central America and have been in cultivation for 8,000 to 10,000 years. Numerous varieties of winter squash, summer squash, gourds, and pumpkins make up the squash clan. They come in many shapes, colors, and sizes. The fruits can be eaten in a "green" state for many varieties and fully ripe for others. From hard-shelled varieties utilitarian items such as bowls and dippers were made. And even the blossoms and seeds were harvested for food and eaten. Squash, one of the Three Sisters, even gives us the iconic pumpkin or jack-o-lantern seen everywhere for autumn and Halloween celebrations. For more on squash see the article, Knowing the Three Sisters. Squash Recipes: | ||||||||||||||||||||
Strawberries
While there are strawberry varieties indigenous to other parts of the world, it was the crossing of a North American strawberry plant and South American strawberry plant that gave rise to the cultivated "garden strawberry" that we buy from the grocery store and grow in our gardens today. While the cultivated berry is indeed very tasty and a giant compared to its wild cousin, few things taste as sweet as those tiny little wild berries. And it was these tiny berries that the people indigenous to the Americas loved and featured in many stories and myths. It should also be noted that as with many other food plants the world over, the strawberry plant and its fruit has been used medicinally to treat various ailments. Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did. - William Butler Strawberry Recipes: | ||||||||||||||||||||
Tomatoes
Tomato Recipes: | ||||||||||||||||||||
Vanilla
Vanilla, essential to so many desserts and fragrances, comes from the seed pod of a Central-American orchid. Vanilla is produced through a labor-intensive process which even includes hand-pollination of the orchid flowers. But long before the Europeans arrived in the New World, the Totonac people in what is now Veracruz were the first to cultivate vanilla. The Totonacs believed that the orchid was born when Princess Xanat, forbidden by her father from marrying a mortal, fled to the forest with her lover. The lovers were caught and beheaded. From their spilled blood, the vine of the orchid grew. The Totonacs paid tribute to their Aztec conquerors by sending vanilla beans to Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital. And it was Hernán Cortés, conqueror of the Aztecs, who is credited for introducing both vanilla and chocolate to Europe. Vanilla Recipes: |
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Wild Rice
Wild rice is the seed collected from a grass that grows in shallow water along the edges of lakes and streams in North America. Wild rice is thought to have been harvested as early as 7,000 BCE. Native peoples would canoe up to a stand of wild rice and thresh the seeds into their canoe. The Ojibwa people call this plant manoomin meaning "good berry" and a good "berry" it is - wild rice is a good source of protein, lysine, potassium, phosphorus, thiamine, riboflavin and niacin. Wild Rice Recipes: |
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Additional Sources of Information
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Food is so much more than simple nutrients we need to keep our bodies strong. Like language and
religion, food is a rich source of learning about any group of people.
The traditions and culture can be exemplified in the types of food eaten, how it is prepared,
who eats it, and how it is eaten.
Corn or maize is one of the great crop plants of the world. Corn along with rice and wheat provide 60% of the human food supply in the world. The exact origins of corn are unknown but it is clear that corn is not a wild plant but a domesticated plant which is thought to have its origins in the wild annual grass, Teosinte. Corn has been cultivated in the Americas for at least 5,600 years although the process of domestication is thought to have started between 7,500 and 12,000 years ago. Corn most likely originated in Central American and Mexico region. 
The potato is a starchy tuber in the nightshade family that has become one of the great food crops of the world. Mistakenly many people connect the potato with Ireland because of the potato blight that precipitated the Great Famine (1845) in that country. The resulting famine killed approximately one million people and also resulted in the emigration of one million people from Ireland. The potato's origins, however, were across the Atlantic from Ireland in South America where it is thought that the potato was domesticated as much as 10,000 years ago. When the Spanish first encountered the potato, the indigenous Andean peoples were cultivating 3000 varieties of potatoes - unlike in contemporary North America where only 250 varieties are grown with less than 20 varieties comprising 3/4 of the total potato harvest.
Like the potato, the tomato is also a member of the nightshade family except it is the fruit that is prized with the tomato. When the term "Italian Food" is mentioned in America, the image that comes to mind is a plate of pasta covered in a tomato based red sauce. But neither the pasta which was Asian and introduced by Marco Polo nor the tomatoes which were first cultivated by the Aztecs are Italian. The Aztecs called the tomato xitomatl (pronounced zee-toe-ma-tel) which meant a "plump thing with a navel." Aztec writings mention tomatoes being prepared with peppers and salt - which sounds like the original salsa recipe.
All photos © copyright Friends of Ganondagan except the following:
Three Sisters, blueberries, tomato, beans, squash, jerusalem artichoke, strawberry, and chili pepper photos © copyright Kimberly Burkard.
Potato, corn, cranberry, and peanut pictures courtesy United States Department of Agriculture.
Wild Rice and Maple Syrup photos courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
Cassava (Manihot) photo courtesy of David Monniaux via Wikimedia Commons. Quinoa photo courtesy of net_efekt via Wikimedia Commons. Vanilla photo courtesy of H. Zell via Wikimedia Commons.
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