Native American recipes deserve more prominence in American’s culinary and cultural landscape, especially at Thanksgiving. This Native American recipe for wild rice sauté with sweet potato is a nourishing, delicious place to start.
Diverse, healthful, and deep with tradition, Native American cuisine is not a monolith, but a collection of regional foods that reflect the land, its native plants and game, and above all else, history. We see this history reflected in this Native American recipe for wild rice, from culinary historian Lois Ellen Frank, Ph.D.
When is the last time you enjoyed food from an Italian restaurant? Mexican? An Irish pub, maybe? My guess is way more than you’ve eaten Native American food or cooked a strictly Native American recipe. And yet, its influences reach far and wide.
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Native American cuisine dates back millennia, and reflects the local plants, game, and geography of individual tribes. For example, the native cuisines of the arid Southwest desert tribes would have been different from the tribes of what is now, say, New England. The climates, wildlife, and fauna are completely different. The common thread, though, would have been hyperlocal ingredients.
Ancient trade routes influenced cuisine as well. According to chef and Native American food historian Lois Ellen Frank, evidence of non-native foods like chocolate and quinoa have been found in various Native American archaeological sites as far away as North Dakota.
Later, Native American food took a sad turn when vast populations were either killed or forcibly removed from their land — the only land they knew — by white settlers and government programs. This forced Native Americans to rely on unfamiliar (and often unhealthy) commodity rations and other foods they did not know how to raise by themselves.
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Today, though myriad issues still remain, there has been a movement toward a “New Native” cuisine, going back to the original ingredients and foodways of indigenous people, adopting a sustainable, regional Native American diet focused on fruits, grains, beans, vegetables, and some wild game.
Did you make this Native American recipe for wild rice and sweet potato for Thanksgiving? How did it go? You’ll also like:Whether you are a member of one of the recognized tribes or come from a different background, these Native American recipes will give you a delicious taste of authentic, natural cooking enjoyed through the centuries.
If you did not grow up in a Native American family, you may associate ethnic foods with the types of stereotypical dishes served at Thanksgiving such as roast corn, sweet potatoes, turkey, and cranberry dishes. If you prefer spicier fare, a southwestern style of food may interest you more including tortillas, chili peppers, and fried beans. While some of these popular modern foods have their roots in history, most of them have been commercialized and change somewhat for a different type of palate.
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Before getting into the amazing recipes later on in this article, take a moment to understand what ingredients are commonly found in the diverse cultural dishes of the native peoples. Of course, Native American foods come from a wide variety of locations from the cold northern reaches of Alaska all the way down to modern New Mexico and Arizona. If you want to cook traditional meals, you need to pick a geographic location first so you can choose the types of ingredients that would have grown naturally there many years ago.
All across the continent, Native American food focused on these three staples. Corn was eaten as is, or ground up and used in a variety of recipes. Hard beans of various types were especially popular in the Southwest. Squash was just one of the families of vegetables commonly used in recipes both traditional and modern.
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Native Americans were skilled farmers by the time the European settlers showed up. Even when they gathered natural food during their nomadic migrations, they enjoyed a host of vegetables, wild grains, and herbs to flavor their recipes. Some of these included melons, nuts, mushrooms, cactus, cabbage, onions, sage, mint, and pumpkins.
While many people associate venison or deer meat with historical Native American recipes, people from all across the nation also ate rabbit, buffalo, mutton, pork, both saltwater and freshwater fish, and a variety of shellfish. Of course, northern Canadian and Alaskan natives also ate seal and whale meat.
Today, you are unlikely to feast on whale blubber or grind your own corn with a stone mortar and pestle. Instead, try out these traditional or culturally inspired Native American recipes in the comfort of your own home.
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When it comes to recipes that aim for authenticity in a historical context, many people believe that you should only use ingredients that were naturally found on the North American continent. This leaves out many tasty dishes that use wheat flour, mutton, or any other foods that were brought over from the old world of Europe.
This collection of Native American recipes uses both to give you more options to try. There's a lot more to Native American recipes than fry bread (not that there's anything wrong with fry bread), so let's dive into some of these stellar indigenous dishes!
Soups, Stews, and Casseroles Three Sisters Soup View this post on Instagram A post shared by Cher Thomas Designs (@cherthomasdesigns)
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This hearty soup or vegetable stew uses the three “sisters” or staples of many Native American food plans: corn, beans, and squash. Other than the squash, which is roasted for additional flavor, the hard corn and beans were exceptionally useful in the cold autumn and winter months because they stored well. Today, you can use canned food varieties to get the same basic flavor of the Three Sisters Soup with a much shorter cooking time.
Buffalo meat is protein-rich and has a much lower fat content than beef from modern cattle. It was used as a cooking staple primarily in the Midwest and western plains where the American bison roamed in the millions. Buffalo stew or tanka-me-a-lo in Cherokee would have been a staple of their cooking. The recipe would also include potatoes, carrots or other root vegetables, and herbs like sage for flavor.
For a bit of Southwestern flavor, try this chicken and corn soup with a bold taste of green or red chilies. Today, you can use a carton of chicken broth and canned food in the recipe to make it easier. The rich flavor of the chilies, onion, and cloves make this a very warm and hearty Native American soup to enjoy on a cold day. This might just make your list of go-to Native American foods.
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Called paganens in traditional language, this indigenous soup recipe forms a creamy concoction made with simple stock, parsley, salt, and black pepper, shallots, and hazelnuts. All you have to do is blend everything together and heat it up. Modern chefs may want to use a food processor for this recipe to break down the roasted nuts or strain the soup at the end to prevent lumps.
While this recipe for corn and bean succotash is relatively simple, it packs a lot of flavor and nutrition. All you have to do is mix the ingredients together and enjoy it as a side dish with some pork roast, fried catfish, or bison stew. There are many different variations of succotash that you can find recipes for online. Some of them include lima beans or other types of beans, too. This gives you a lot of flexibility when it comes time to make this scrumptious American Indian side dish.
Pumpkins were a popular food in the eastern part of North America for centuries. One would yield quite a lot of vegetables for a whole family or tribe to enjoy. Baked pumpkin is quite simple and can be added to many different dishes. Adding some roast meat, dried berries, or other vegetables to roast pumpkin itself makes for a very different flavor. All it takes to bring this indigenous recipe to life is pumpkin cut up and roasted in an oven for up to an hour.
Spirit Of The Harvest: North American Indian Cooking: Cox, Beverly, Jacobs, Martin: 9781635619140: Amazon.com: Books
Different varieties of squash were found naturally all over the continent, and the butternut squash is a good modern option to choose for this tasty indigenous recipe. Cut it up and mix it with cinnamon, allspice, butter, and syrup after boiling or roasting it until it is soft. It's a versatile Native American recipe so you can serve it in chunks or blended together into a smooth concoction.
While not directly associated with a traditional Native American recipe, this wild rice and cranberry salad is definitely something that could have made an appearance at the traditional meal. Cranberries grow quite readily in the eastern United States, and wild rice can be found in quite a few authentic Native American recipes. All it takes is the wild rice and cranberries, then add some broth, shallots, garlic, rosemary, maple syrup, and a few other herbs and spices to taste.
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