I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. I liked this cookbook, which is plant-based and uses Native American ingredients. I don't know that I could point out multiple Native American ingredients. I could use some of these recipes myself and find the ingredients at my local store too.

I like that we're seeing more and more cookbooks that are specifically addressing a POC audience and providing them with the tools to eat healthier. They're serving a purpose and it's just nice to see cookbooks from non-white people and the perspectives that come with that.

While incredibly informative, the writing is also dry and factual. If you're coming to learn, it's a perfect book. If, like me, you like an intimate feeling to your cookbooks, this will be a miss on that part.

This is a beautifully laid out cookbook and features a variety of recipes for each section. I really love that because sometimes it seems like I see the same recipes over and over again. Personally, the recipes are more involved than I prefer. This also leans a bit more on the textbook rather than the cookbook. It's definitely informative for the cook who wants to learn and immerse themselves in indigenous cooking, but may not be as approachable for the average home cook.

As I get older, I’m on the hunt for cookbooks that teach me and broaden my views of flavor and culture. This book fits that perfectly and I’m so grateful to have gotten a chance to read through it! The recipes are accessible and appropriate for any level of cooking. Well done!

Seed to Plate, Soil to Sky: Modern Plant-Based Recipes using Native American Ingredients is all about the magic eight - eight ingredients that native people shared with the world. The cookbook is separated into sections, each titled with one of the eight. There is also a chapter about pantry staples, items such as Blacked Corn, Basic Cooked Beans, Vegetable Broth, and No Fry Frybread. The beginning of the cookbook includes great storytelling, as well as background information regarding the history of native people and what they gave to the world. There are vibrant photographs of the plants and of some of the finished dishes. This plant based cookbook showcases the following fine ingredients and some of the standout dishes are listed below.

Corn: White Corn Tortillas; Gluten-Free Blue Corn Bread; Three Sisters Rolled Enchiladas; Grilled Sweet Corn

Beans: Black Bean & Corn Salsa; Navajo Minestrone Soup; Bean & Spinach Tacos

Squash: Spaghetti Squash Slaw; Grilled Squash & Mushroom Skewers; Pumpkin & Ginger Scones; Pumpkin Pie with Piñon Pecan Crust

Chiles: Red Chile Sauce; Green Chile Sauce; Chile Empanaditas; Red Chile Potato Casserole

Tomatoes: Tomato Quinoa Salad; Hearty Tomato Soup; Heirloom Tomato Sauce; Cherry Tomato Tarte

Potatoes: Sweet Potato Mash; Potato & Green Chile Stew; Sweet Potato Tamale Masa

Vanilla: Peach Bread Pudding; Baked Berry Vanilla Crisp; Vanilla Almond Milk

Cacao: Mole Sauce; Grilled Pineapple with Chocolate; Chocolate Bread Pudding

Overall, there is a lot to like about Seed to Plate, Soil to Sky: Modern Plant-Based Recipes using Native American Ingredients. Readers will like the modern recipes that are plant forward, especially as they are flavorful and well developed dishes.

Disclaimer: I was given an Advanced Reader's Copy by NetGalley and the publisher. The decision to read and review this cookbook was entirely my own.

An absolute breath of fresh air on the cookbook scene and a delightful deep dive into Native American food traditions, this book is a masterpiece of years of meticulous research, testing and care. Even though I was given a copy of this book to preview, I cannot wait to purchase it for my own cookbook collection because it is such a valuable and essential contribution to the American food conversation- one of the most timeless and thoughtful cookbooks to be published in decades.

The recipes are beautiful and delicious, with countless creative ways to utilize the abundance of beans, squash and other bounties from my garden in ways that connect me to the authentic flavors of the food and turn cooking into a meditation on the beauty of timehonored, heirloom ingredients. As someone who has recently pivoted to a mostly vegetarian eating style for health reasons, I am delighted by the book's deep dive into beans and masa- ingredients I am just learning how to fall in love with, and through this cookbook it is an easy romance. Indeed, my Rancho Gordo Bean Club social media group and gardening clubs have been singing the praises of this book for months and posting their delectable creations. With deep gratitude, thankyou for sharing your treasured food traditions with us to nourish our stomachs and souls with recipes designed with such abundant passion and love.

Seed to Plate, Soil to Sky is a well written and curated tutorial and recipe collection by Dr. Lois Ellen Frank. Released 29th Aug 2023 by Hachette on the Hachette Go imprint, it's 320 pages and is available in hardcover and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats; super useful for checking things easily in the text.

This is a worthwhile and appealing collection of plant based recipes showcasing the new world ingredients familiar to, and used by, the Native Peoples of North America. The author does a good job of treating the subject respectfully, historically, and accurately. It -is- a nice collection of recipes, but in addition, it has value for readers who enjoy cultural anthropology and history.

The chapters (after a nice introduction) are arranged thematically: eight plants Native Peoples shared with the world, corn, beans, squash, chiles, tomatoes, potatoes, vanilla, cacao, and pantry staples. The recipes are varied, all plant based, and authentic. Recipe ingredients are arranged in a bullet list sidebar, followed by cooking directions. Ingredient measures are given in imperial (American) units only.

About 30% of the recipes (by a rough count) are accompanied by photos. The photographs throughout are clear and in color. There are a number of background and market shots as well as landscape, showing the beauty of the southwest. Serving and recipe photos are professionally styled and attractive/appetizing. Recipe ingredients will -mostly- be easily obtainable at a moderately well stocked grocery store or health food store. (Some ingredients will require specialist/online retailers, farmers markets, or foraging).

Five stars. This would make a good choice for public or school library acquisition, home use, and gift giving. The content is -very- respectfully done and appropriate credit is given throughout with regard to the millennia of food sovereignty and cultural history of the Native Peoples of North America.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Naively, I went in thinking this would just be a cookbook. I was so wrong. This is the most fascinating, educational, love story with recipes included. I really enjoyed reading the way the authors told of the history and culture.

I do wish there were more pictures as some of the recipes are for dishes some may be unfamiliar with. That said the pictures included are beautiful.

A celebration of the 8 plants central to native American diets, this book presents innovative and exciting ways to use these plants in our own kitchens. Interesting and informative.

This is a nicely presented book of vegan/fairly healthy recipes based on 8 foods that originated in the Americas: corn, beans, squash, chiles, tomatoes, potatoes, vanilla, cacao. The recipes stay fairly close to Native American originals and there is an interesting historical introduction for each of those foods as well. The book features large full color photographs of most of the recipes.

The book breaks down as follows: Introduction, recipes (corn, beans, squash, chiles, tomatoes, potatoes, vanilla, cacao, staples), cultural conservancy info, and a nice source guide for native foods to help you find the authentic ingredients. Sample recipes include: grilled sweeet corn, black bean and garlic spread, calabacitas, spice-roasted butternut squash, red chile potato stew, poblano corn bread, Lois' pico de gallo, Potato and green chile stew, hominy corn and chokecherry sorbet, vanilla, lavender and lemon spritzer, mole sauce, grilled pineapple with chocolate, blackened garlic, mushroom stem bruschetta, blue corn no fry frybread, red chile agave, and many more. Each section contains 12-20 recipes.

Each recipe takes up a full page. There is a blue title, a short introductory sentence or two, and ingredients in red. Steps are unnumbered and in paragraph form. There is only serving size listed - no nutrition information breakdowns. Nor are there substitution suggestions or tips. Nearly every recipe has a large full page photograph.

The recipes are not too intricate but will require you to source specific types of tomatoes, chiles, potatoes, etc. There is a resource in the back for that purpose. But many items look to be hard to get outside of the Americas. There is a simplicity that is beautiful here for most of the recipes and a nice assortment of easy but also more interesting/intricate recipes.

In all, this is nicely presented and I like that the recipes are healthy based. Many contain oil and several have somewhat large amounts of sugars (e.g., a recipe for squash needed a 1/2 cup of maple syrup). So while these are healthy and with natural ingredients, those looking to lose weight might need to be a bit careful (though all the recipes contain whole foods, so there is a lot of fiber for diabetics to mitigate blood sugar spikes). Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

I did feel mislead by both the title and subtitle of this book. While I really like Ms. Frank's approach, I was expecting a survey of Native American cuisine based on the title. Ms. Frank's focus seems to be mostly Southwestern-- which is fine, but I was looking forward to looking at what Indigenous people across the Americas eat today.
I did think many parts of this book were interesting and engaging, and I did learn some things. I didn't know, for example, that squash blossoms don't become fruit and therefore you can responsibly harvest them. I had no idea about desert tamales. However, I do think this book is being done a great disservice by being translated into an eBook. I think a lot of the photography will be more striking when it's in print. It's not necessarily outdated, but it's not necessarily on the same page as the Instagram-inflected photography I see in other cookbooks-- which is made for screens.
As a last note, there is a point where Ms. Frank makes reference to the "color of people" in a corn recipe. While it is likely factual to something her mother said, I am not sure that all reactions will be as charitable as mine. I'm not particularly interested in nitpicking more experienced women then me, but I was taken off guard by the mention of that statement with no caveat.

I have mixed feelings about this book. I'll start with what I really appreciated about it, and follow with some things that give me hesitance to recommend it:

I loved the focus on traditional foods, the history of the ingredients, and the importance to indigenous peoples of the southwest U.S. I learned something new about all of them!

I was interested to see a vegan cookbook (as this is not my dietary choice, but I do like to eat a plant-focused diet). I was not convinced by the argument the author made about why this book takes a vegan approach to indigenous foods- this is counter to many indigenous ways of eating, and it also makes many of the recipes less accessible than if they were made with more easily accessible ingredients. Overall, I found a few recipes I would like to try, but I would prefer to locate more authentic recipes that incorporate all of the traditional ingredients that would be used rather than vegan substitutes. Many of the recipes included ingredients that would be difficult for me to source living in the midwest U.S. as well, so I would need to special order a lot of things to make these recipes (rather than being able to grow them myself or source from local farmers). So it's probably a better fit for those in the Southwest. In summary, I do see that value in the cookbook; it's just not the right book for me.

I like the idea this cookbook has but the design of it was a hard no for me. First the pictures were lackluster. It was either the lighting or just didn’t look appealing. I also flipped through some of the recipes according to number and it did not lead me to the correct recipe. So despite a good idea, it fell flat for me. I gave it three stars for the vegan aspect alone. No review will be posted anywhere since it’s at three stars for me.

A wonderful book full of delicious and healthy recipes. Especially like the basic tamale masa recipe. A fun read with beautiful images. Highly recommend this book for reading on the history as well as the recipes.

I received an advance copy of this book through netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely LOVE this book.

Seed to Plate, Soil to Sky is a cookbook based around eight foods indigenous to the Americas.

This is more than a cookbook though it's really an education. I would say this book is also a non-fiction title about indigenous food history and native people cooking with those foods through time.

So many people do not even know what American food really is. We point to fast food as American food and we don't even know what grows in our area.

If you are interested in learning about food that is native to the Americas and how to incorporate those foods into your diet, you will treasure this book.

I can't wait to buy my physical copy in August.

I am so happy to have discovered "Seed to Plate, Soil to Sky". I have read an advance copy thanks to Hachette Go and NetGalley (thank you!) and can barely wait for this book to be published so that I may purchase my forever copy. The book focuses on eight foods which originated in the Americas before emigrating to other continents and cuisines: corn, beans, squash, chiles, tomatoes, potatoes, vanilla, and cacao. After an extensive introduction on the history and cultivation of Native foods, each chapter has its own introduction to the specific food as well as commentary on each recipe. Most recipes includes photos. As I go through the book, recipes shift in the order in which I want to make them. They all seem approachable and we'll-written.

This is a plant-based cookbook, with recipes so hearty and sustaining that no animal protein is needed. The cookbook will appeal to food historians and chefs as well as home cooks. Again, my thanks to Hachette Go and NetGalley.

This is a lovely historically based cookbook that discusses eight Native American plants. The history of each plant is given and then traditional based recipes that have been altered slightly to be plant based are given. The recipes are quite interesting. Some though, are quite time consuming due to the fact that there may be multiple recipes as part of one recipe - such as a sauce.

A beautiful cookbook that blends recipes with anthropology accompanied by some beautiful photos. The book is divided and focused on spotlighting eight foods native to North America (corn, beans, squash, chile, tomato, potato, vanilla, and cacao). I was a little disappointed that this was more of her adaptation of recipes and ingredients rather than a true cultural cookbook I was expecting, but I am still excited to see a book focusing on local and native foods and the addition of the historical side was very welcome - I felt like I learned a lot.

I was a bit worried about a non-Native identifying woman writing and benefiting from a book on native food and I am still torn on this, but her research and involvement in the Native communities, not to mention her partnership with Whitewater (in writing and in her catering business) seems to me like she is truly investing in the uplifting and preservation of Native foods rather than just appropriation. But this is all my opinion, I am not a member of these communities so I defer to others, and wait for their thoughts and stance.

I love this style of cookbook part recipes part history. This was such an immersive readibg experience with lots of beautiful photos. I can't wait to make more of the recipes.

Amazing book! I would love recipes like this. A few of the ingredients are hard to find in my area but great for indigenous people and all alike! So many recipes ive never heard of. Even the few i have heard of are made a little differently in the books.

Part history, part cookbook, this book was fascinating and filled with delicious recipes. As I was reading this book I was both blown away by the historical context to some of my favorite ingredients, I also learned so much and found so many new recipes I can’t wait to incorporate into my daily diet. A fantastic book and a great read for anyone.