In 15,000-year-old archaeological sites throughout Texas and Northeastern Mexico, records left by Coahuiltecan, Karankawa, Apache, and other Indigenous communities tell stories about their food practices, the roots of Texas Mexican cuisine. Author and chef Adán Medrano, a Coahuiltecan descendant, has made it his life’s work to document these food practices and the stories they narrate. In The Texas Mexican Plant-Based Cookbook , he honors the plant-based cooking history, traditions, and knowledge that make up the comida casera (home cooking) of today’s Texas Mexican community. Each of the 90 kitchen-tested recipes includes detailed cooking instructions intended for contemporary home cooks. Headnotes for each recipe describe how the dish entered the region’s culinary traditions and became integral to the culinary act of meaning-making in the community. The book provides explanations of the origins of iconic ingredients like squash, cactus, mesquite, and sunflowers, as well as more recent, post-Conquest ingredients like watermelon, rice, and cauliflower. Texas ancestors ate pecans and black walnuts, along with acorns, grapes, berries, seeds, and tubers. Mesquite and cactus were central to celebrations. Home cooks of all levels can discover and reclaim ancient ingredients and simple techniques in this volume and come away with a deeper knowledge of the agricultural systems that belie our current foodways. “This book is a powerful and eye-opening tribute to the Indigenous plant-based traditions of Texas and Northeastern Mexico, reminding us that our roots run deep in the land, long before borders and colonization.” —Chef Victoria Elizondo, Cochinita & Co., Houston, Texas “Stunned to find an exceptional book celebrating the history and culture of this little-known area of Texas through food. These wonderful recipes are sure to fill your home with aromas, conversation, and memories." —Chef Bobby Gonzalez, El Capataz, Laredo, Texas “The foodways of Texas and Northeastern Mexico are connected by much more than a shared love of carne asada and flour tortillas. In The Texas Mexican Plant-Based Cookbook , Adán Medrano showcases culturally rich and healthful recipes—such as Pecan and Mesquite Mole and Pipián Ranchero with Jerusalem Artichokes—demonstrating that the home cooking of the Texas Mexican region has, for centuries, been deliciously rooted in a shared landscape and complex histories.” —Maite Gomez-Rejón, Hungry for History (podcast) “This book is a revelation. Deceptively simple recipes showcase how Texas Mexican cuisine is rooted in the vibrant flavors of the land and Indigenous cooking techniques, enhanced by historical friendships with people from Oaxaca, Michoacán, Yucatán, the Southwestern Pueblos, the Great Plains, and the Iberian Peninsula. A few more involved recipes are included for special occasions (mesquitamal, herbed corn, and Jerusalem artichoke tarts). Most ingredients will be familiar, but notes above each recipe discuss some of the less common ones, often with stories of the author’s personal experience and advice on where to find them. The notes also outline the nutritional advantages of important ingredients and the histories of particular plants, especially domesticated plants like corn, beans, and squashes that Indigenous people began cultivating millennia ago.             Ultimately, this book is a revolution, a call to create healthy relationships to the land and other people. Chef Medrano argues that such alliances are the surest way to create food that enriches our bodies and our lives.             The recipes are local, but they are universal in the way that good, healthy food always is. Chef Medrano has shared Texas Mexican recipes with friends and colleagues from Michoacán to Moscow. After making a few of these (maybe lentejas guisadas, avocado popsicle, toksel, or watermelon and jicama salad?) you’ll want to share them too.” —Leslie L. Bush, PhD, Archaeobotanist “Cookbooks often serve as gateways into culture, memory, and innovation. With The Texas Mexican Plant-Based Cookbook , author and chef Adán Medrano introduces readers to a fresh perspective on Mexican American food traditions by emphasizing plant-based, healthy, and culturally rooted dishes.             In today’s culinary world where plant-based eating is booming, this cookbook is not just a recipe collection—it’s a cultural statement             The cookbook immediately stands out with its vibrant photography and storytelling. Instead of focusing only on recipes, Medrano weaves in cultural narratives, history, and culinary heritage. Every dish feels like a connection to indigenous Mexican traditions while still being relevant to modern kitchens.             It doesn’t try to mimic meat-heavy Mexican dishes; instead, it reminds us that the heart of Mexican cuisine has always been deeply plant-centered, nourishing, and connected to the land.             If you’re someone who values plant-based cooking with d