Native Foods

Native Foods

♦♦ Whether you call it Southwestern, Mexican or Native American it is a cuisine that is strongly based on Native American ingredients, traditions, history and taste.

Did you know that more than a half of the ingredients we use in the world are of Indigenous -American Indian Origin (Nican Tlaca?)

Modern-day native peoples retain a rich body of traditional foods, some of which have become iconic of present-day Native American social gatherings. Foods like cornbread, cranberry, blueberry, hominy and mush are known to have been adopted into the cuisine of the United States from Native American groups.

Here's a small list of some of the Ingredients OUR ancestors gave to the World.

Acorn - Used to make flour and fertilizers for the plants.
Achiote or annatto seed, seasoning
Acuyo, seasoning
Agarita - berries
Agave nectar
Allspice or pimento, seasoning
Amaranth
American chestnut
Amole - stalks
Aspen - inner bark and sap (both used as sweetener)
Avocado
Barbados cherry or acerola
Beans - Throughout the Americas
Bear grass - stalks
Birch bark
Birch syrup
Blackberries
Blueberries
Box elder - inner bark (used as sweetener)
Cacao
Cactus (various species) - fruits
Canella winterana, or white cinnamon (used as a seasoning before cinnamon)
Cashew
Cassava - Primarily South America
Cattails - rootstocks
Century plant (a.k.a. mescal or agave) - crowns (tuberous base portion) and shoots
Chicle, gum
Chile peppers (including bell peppers)
Cherimoya
Chokecherries
Cholla - fruits
Corn
Coca - South and Central America
Cranberries
Culantro, used as a seasoning before cilantro
Currants
Custard-apple
Datil - fruit and flowers
Devil's claw
Dropseed grasses (various varieties) - seeds
Elderberries
Emory oak - acorns
Epazote, seasoning
Goldenberry
Gooseberries
Guarana
Guava
Hackberries
Hawthorne - fruit
Herba luisa
Hueinacaztli or "ear-flower"
Hickory - nuts
Hops
Horsemint
Huazontle
Jicama
Juniper berries
Kaniwa
Kiwacha
Lamb's-quarters - leaves and seeds
Lepacho
Locust - blossoms and pods
Lúcuma
Maca
Maize - Throughout the Americas, probably domesticated in or near Mexico
Mamey
Maple syrup and sugar, used as the primary sweetener and seasoning in Northern America
Mesquite - bean pods, flour/meal
Mint
Mexican anise
Mexican oregano
Mulberries
Nopales
Onions
Palmetto
Papaya
Passionfruit
Paw paw
Peanuts
Pecan - nuts
Pennyroyal - American False variety
Pigweed - seeds
Pine (including western white pine and western yellow pine) - inner bark (used as sweetener) and nuts
Pineapples - South America
Pinyon - nuts
Popcorn flower, herb
Potatoes - North and South America
Prickly pears
Prairie turnips
Pumpkins
Purslane - leaves
Quinoa - South America, Central America, and Eastern North America
Ramps - Wild onion
Raspberries
Rice - imported by Spanish
Sage
Saguaro - fruits and seeds
Salt
Sangre de drago
Sapote
Sassafras
Screwbean - fruit
Sedge - tubers
Sea grape or uva de playa
Shepherd's purse - leaves
Sotol - crowns
Soursop or guanábana
Spanish bayonet - fruit
Spanish lime or mamoncillo
Squash - Throughout the Americas
Stevia
Strawberries
Sumac - berries
Sunflower seeds
Sweet potato - South America
Sweetsop or sugar-apple
Tamarillo
Teaberry or wintergreen
Tobacco
Tomatillo
Tomato
Texas persimmons
Tulip poplar - syrup made from bark
Tule - rootstocks
Tumbleweed[disambiguation needed] - seeds
Tumbo or taxo
Uña de gato
Vanilla
Vetch - pods
White evening primrose - fruit
White walnuts
Wild celery
Wild cherries
Wild grapes - fruit
Wild honey
Wild onion
Wild pea - pods
Wild roses
Wood sorrel leaves
Yacon nectar
Yaupon holly leaves
Yerba buena
Yerba mate
Yucca - blossoms, fruit, and more ......