A return to indigenous Mexican-American cooking: delicious recipes for physical and spiritual healing.

More than just a cookbook, Decolonize Your Diet redefines what is meant by "traditional" Mexican food by reaching back through centuries of history to reclaim heritage crops as a source of protection from modern diseases. Authors Luz Calvo and Catriona Rueda Esquibel are life partners; when Luz was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006, they both radically changed their diets and began seeking out recipes featuring healthy, vegetarian Mexican foods. They promote a diet rich in plants indigenous to the Americas (corn, beans, squash, greens, herbs, and seeds), and are passionate about the idea that Mexicans and Latinos/as living in the US and Canada need to ditch the fast food and return to their own culture's food roots for both physical health and spiritual connection.

This vegetarian cookbook features more than 100 colourful, delicious recipes inspired by indigenous ingredients and knowledge, such as Red Pozole with Medicinal Mushrooms, Healing Green Chileatole, Amaranth Corn Tortillas, and Prickly Pear Chia Fresca. Steeped in history, but very much rooted in the contemporary world, Decolonize Your Diet will introduce readers to the energizing, healing properties of a plant-based Mexican-American diet.

Full-colour throughout.

Luz Calvo and Catriona Rueda Esquibel are professors at Cal State East Bay and San Francisco State University respectively. Their popular website and Facebook page for "Decolonize Your Diet" promote the health benefits of indigenous Mexican-American cooking. They raise chickens and grow fruits, vegetables, and herbs on their small urban farm, as they study traditional Mesoamerican cuisine and work to create sustainable relationships in their community. This is their first book.

Luz Calvo's profile page

Luz Calvo and Catriona Rueda Esquibel are professors at Cal State East Bay and San Francisco State University respectively. Their popular website and Facebook page for "Decolonize Your Diet" promote the health benefits of indigenous Mexican-American cooking. They raise chickens and grow fruits, vegetables, and herbs on their small urban farm, as they study traditional Mesoamerican cuisine and work to create sustainable relationships in their community. This is their first book.

Catriona Rueda Esquibel's profile page

Part cookbook, part manifesto, Decolonize Your Diet is as much about recipes as it is about justice centered analysis of food and health ... Decolonize Your Diet honors and respects the humble pot of beans and homemade tortillas to the same degree they do more 'difficult' chef-like meals, like Huaraches de Nopal, or Mole. “Global Comment

Global Comment