RECONNECTING WITH TEXAS MEXICAN PLANT-BASED INGREDIENTS

Texas Mexican cuisine is a culinary tradition steeped in history. Its roots stretch back 15,000 years to the cooking practices of the Native Americans of central and south Texas and northeastern Mexico. These early societies had a deep connection to the land and knew how to use and prepare plants native to the landscape in tasty and nutritious ways.

Chef, writer and filmmaker Adrian Medrano — who is working on a book that explores the plant-based culinary traditions of Texas Mexicans — says archaeological evidence suggests that, aside from the meat of antelopes, turkeys, ducks, rabbits and quail, these Indigenous peoples ate plants such as pecans, black walnuts, acorns, grapes, berries, seeds and tubers.

By using ancient cooking technologies, such as earth ovens, they were able to transform indigestible roots and tubers, such as sotol, into edible, highly nutritious foods.

Today, much of what is cooked in Texas Mexican cuisine remains plant based. Staples such as chayote, calabacita, beans, nopales and chiles feature prominently in Mexican soups, salads, moles and enchiladas.

“The plant-based cooking traditions in Mexican gastronomy are very strong and they’re very ancient. These are recipes and dishes that have been part of our tradition for hundreds of years,” says Medrano.

Medrano has extensively documented the Indigenous roots of Texas Mexican cuisine in his books, Truly Texas Mexican: A Native Culinary Heritage in Recipes and Don’t Count the Tortillas: The Art of Texas Mexican Cooking. Not to be confused with Tex-Mex cuisine, comida casera, the homestyle cooking of Texas Mexican families, is the heart of Texas Mexican foodways.

In his forthcoming book, The Texas Mexican Plant-Based Cookbook, slated for publication by Texas Tech University Press in 2025, Medrano celebrates long-held plant-based traditions and hopes to inspire people to reconnect with Indigenous ingredients, some that remain in use today and others that have been lost or forgotten.

Nopalitos, for example, have been an enduring plant staple in Texas Mexican cooking. Rich in vitamins, calcium and fiber, the pads of the cactus plant are eaten in stews, salads and added to eggs. In Houston, they can be found on the menus of many Mexican restaurants such as Picos in Upper Kirby, Soto’s Cantina in Cypress and Cochinita & co. in the East End.

At Cochinita & co., chef Victoria Elizondo includes them on her menu for their nutritious value and Mexican roots, as well as to introduce diners to a different vegan and vegetarian option. Recognizing that nopales are not everyone’s favorite ingredient, she created a bright salad that combines them with many flavors and textures — crispy jicama, sweet corn, fresh oregano, generous amounts of lime juice and pico de gallo — to balance out the nopal’s texture.

In creating the menu for her restaurant, Elizondo wanted to include vegetable-forward dishes to meet customer demand and because she loves vegetables and wanted to offer diners, regardless of whether they’re vegetarian or not, different options. Aside from the nopales salad, she serves dishes like a vegan tinga, prepared with lion’s mane and oyster mushrooms, chipotle en adobo and caramelized onions.

“In the U.S., people have the idea that Mexican food should be heavy with lots of pork and beef, but there are a lot of dishes that are plant-based. What I wanted to showcase in my restaurant is that Mexican food doesn’t have to be heavy or meat-based,” Elizondo says.

The focus on meat can cause us to limit our vegetable-focused options to say, a spinach enchilada or a tostada with beans, losing sight of other delicious options.

Beans, for example, are versatile, rooted in Indigenous traditions and are an important part of Texas Mexican cuisine. With so many varieties that differ in flavor, color and texture, beans offer infinite possibilities and Medrano encourages people to try the various ways they can be eaten.

The creamy texture of navy beans, for example, can add smoothness to a dish like Medrano’s avocado and navy bean salad, and their pale color pairs nicely with the green avocado. Pinto beans can be used as a flavor base, much like a stock, to make dishes like enfrijoladas. “Enfrijoladas build on the flavor of pureed beans by adding herbs and spices to make a sauce. In this case, the beans are a matrix to build more complex flavors,” says Medrano. Left Page Elote Right Page: Chef Beatriz Martines

While nopales and beans have remained staples in Texas Mexican cooking, other Indigenous ingredients like mesquite have fallen into disuse despite their historical significance.

Today, we mostly think about mesquite being used to impart flavor in grilling and smoking, but the tree’s pods and the mucilage surrounding its seeds are sweet and rich in calcium, iron, protein and soluble fiber. Medrano remembers chewing on the pods growing up, but for most people, the culinary uses of the fruit are unexplored. He would like to see them reclaimed.

“All the way from Austin and San Antonio to Saltillo, Monterrey, and the states of Nuevo Le.n, Coahuila, all throughout that area — what I call the Texas Mexican region — mesquite was a primary source of nutrition,” says Medrano, citing archaeological evidence that points to people in the Texas Mexican region consuming mesquite some 9,000 years ago. “[It] was not just the food of choice, but it was a symbolic reality and identity of the people, much like corn is today for Mexicans.”

The tree’s dried seed pods can also be ground into a flour, known as mesquite meal, that lends itself to a variety of preparations like breads, cookies and beverages.

Growers such as McCartyLand Farms in Seguin sell the pods, but they can easily be picked off mesquite trees around Houston. “In the springtime, just go over and pick the pods when they’re dry. That’s it,” Medrano says. “You can use them to cook or put them in a blender to make flour.”

With the ground meal, he makes breads and cookies, and in his upcoming cookbook, he shares recipes for mesquite atole and mesquite agua fresca, illustrating the diverse uses of the ingredient.

Another ingredient that Medrano would like to see rediscovered is the sunflower, particularly sunchokes, also known as Jerusalem artichokes. These are the edible tubers of the native sunflower variety called Helianthus tuberosus.

Medrano pairs the sunchokes with corn in a sunchoke and corn tart or serves them cooked simply atop pipi.n ranchero and tortillas.

The tubers have a slightly sweet, earthy flavor and a texture that resembles water chestnuts or potatoes. Today most of what we consume of the sunflower are its seeds, but eating other parts of the plant was an ancient tradition in Texas that can be reclaimed.

Growing up as a migrant farmworker, Medrano feels deeply connected to the land. Beyond inspiring people in the kitchen, he hopes that people will develop an appreciation of how plants are an integral part of our earth and become more attuned to taking care of it. “This plant-based book is really about enjoying the beauty of the earth upon which we walk and from whom we get sustenance,” he says.

He also hopes to inspire younger generations to explore the ancient Texas Mexican plant-based recipes and traditions. “They’re fun to learn about,” Medrano says. “They’re very tasty, and … they have a story. I think food is always wonderful when it connects you to a story, whether that story is about the food itself, our ancestors or about you.”