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Ever heard of the "Lost Crops of the Incas"?

I found this nice cookbook online - it's free to download from the Food and Agriculture Organization (an agency of the United Nations). It features many of the "lost" crops. They really aren't lost in their native land, and these recipes show how they are currently used in South America.

It has beautiful color photos and easy to follow recipes. The ingredients are given in both imperial measurements and weight in metric. While some of the recipes have ingredients that are hard to source, many can be made with easier to find ingredients like amaranth, quinoa, kaniwa (quinoa's little cousin), fava beans, corn, potatoes and lupini beans. There are some really interesting tortilla recipes, including some that have shredded vegetables added to the dough before rolling out.  The "Amaranth coconut pudding" looks yummy!

I like growing unusual crops in my home garden: oca (New Zealand yam), yacon, mashua, ulluco,  etc. So many sources simply say "use oca like potato in recipes." and "Ulluco can be used in stews" Ok, but how about recipes that celebrate their unique flavor and maybe preserve some of the amazing natural colors? If you are like me and either grow, or have access to some of the more unusual crops originally from the Andes, this book will be a goldmine for you.

From the intro: "This collection of recipes is also designed to help gourmets and chefs discover the rich source of culinary inspiration of traditional High Andean cooking and ingredients, which appear here in ways that are both diverse and unique....These recipes are based on Andean produce including tubers and root vegetables such as potatoes, oca, olluco, melloco, mashua, arracacha or arracachas, and yacón or jícama, as it is also known in some parts of the region; grains and cereals such as maize, tarwi, quinoa, qañigua and kiwicha or amaranth; fruits such as aguaymanto, tumbo, ayrampu or mortiño; vegetables and aromatic herbs such as ñabos or field mustard, huacatay, muña and panisjara, among others." It also has some recipes for cuy (guinnea pig), but no, not for me - from what I hear I think chicken dark meat (or duck) could be a good swap for recipes calling for cuy.

http://www.eatyourbooks....onal-high-andean-cuisine

Cookbook can be accessed or download for free from the FAO http://www.fao.org/docrep/018/i1466e/i1466e.pdf

-- Elizabeth

looks really interesting! thanks for posting.

You're welcome! :)

They are really interesting food crops. I know oca at least is becoming more widespread. When I started growing it a few years ago there was almost no information out there, and the tuber starts were mostly shared from person to person. The first ones I received the giver said the cost was my promise to share some tubers I grew with someone else at no cost in the future - which I did the following year, with the same proviso. Now there are a handful of commercial sources in the states, making it easier for backyard gardeners to start growing it.

I have heard that some of these crops have started showing up in farmer's markets here and there, so even non-gardeners in some parts of the country have access. :)