The holidays are approaching sooner than we think, so why not pick up some sensational Latinx-penned cookbooks that connect to our homeland(s) while also creating delicious meals? Your taste buds will thank you for it. And don’t worry, we’ve done the research for you – check out our list of 2024’s Latinx cookbooks below!
Pan y Dulce: The Latin American Baking Book by Bryan Ford
Sure, we’ve put away plenty of alfajores, pan dulces, empanadas, and the like, but imagine being able to make these treats at home for you and your loved ones! Honduran Bryan Ford’s Pan y Dulce teaches us how to make a whopping 150 recipes from all over Latin America in his new book, including the aforementioned Latinx classics, pastellitos, golfeados, fugazzeta, and pan Cubano.
Plantas: Modern Vegan Recipes for Traditional Mexican Cooking by Alexa Soto
While it may be hard to imagine Mexican food without meat or cheese, the cuisine’s Indigenous traditions are also full of healthy and delicious plants that can nourish you. Alexa Soto’s book, Plantas, shows us how to enjoy traditional Mexican food, the vegan way. You’ll find a blend of timeless classics, alongside modernized vegan versions of your meaty favorites. We’re talking about churros, tacos de “carnitas,” cauliflower al pastor, chipotle crema, chocoflan, coffee drinks, cocktails, and more.
Islas: A Celebration of Tropical Cooking – 125 Recipes from the Indian, Atlantic, and Pacific Ocean Islands by Von Diaz
Cookbooks are a great way to rediscover your culture or introduce yourself to others. Von Diaz’s Islas celebrates the cuisine of islands of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans. Through 125 recipes, various interviews, the sharing of ancestral antiques, and more, the Puerto Rican author tells us the stories behind creations including Jamaican and Trinidadian black cake, Puerto Rican cazuelas, Filipino lechon kawali, and banana ketchup from St. Lucia.
The SalviSoul Cookbook: Salvadoran Recipes & the Women Who Preserve Them by Karla Tatiana Vasquez
We need cookbooks published from every country. So we can both recreate their dishes and, more importantly, chronicle and preserve our time-honored traditions. When Salvadorian Karla Tatiana Vasquez couldn’t find recipes from her culture online, she realized no one was documenting the foodways from her motherland. Vasquez took the task upon herself, recording the narratives and recipes of the women in her family. The result is The SalviSoul Cookbook, “the first Salvadoran cookbook traditionally published in the U.S.” In it, you will read the stories of 25 women from El Salvador and learn how to make food from 80 recipes, including curtido, sopa de res, minuta de tamarindo, and torta Maria Luisa.
Latin-ish: More Than 100 Recipes Celebrating American Latino Cuisines by Marisel Salazar
When our Latinx and American cultures merge, we get something that is a mix of the two, something all its own, like Spanglish. Or, when it comes to food, Tex-Mex, Floribbean, and Alta California offerings. Writer, television host, and cook Marisel Salazar released her cookbook earlier this year, entitled Latin-ish, which highlights some of the food that has resulted from Latinos living in the U.S. Think Cuban pizza, mango Chamoy salad, yuca fries, plantain upside down cake, Arkansas tamales, and guava cream cheese cinnamon rolls. Sounds good right?
