The SalviSoul Cookbook

April 1, 2024
L.A.-based food writer and historian Vasquez honors her Salvadoran family and culinary heritage with this cookbook dedicated to El Salvador and the women who create its food culture. Years spent interviewing women and collecting their traditional home recipes have resulted in this treasure trove that acknowledges the importance of Salvadoran cooking. Recipes include staples of the Salvi kitchen, like cuajada (a fresh cheese), plump tortillas, and pl�tanos fritos con frijoles licuados, which honors the local produce. Those unfamiliar with Central American plants are also introduced to pacaya, a bitter flower that is eaten relleno, battered and stuffed with a tomato sauce, and chipil�n, a bitter herb used in pupusas, tamales, and Vasquez's rice porridge, arroz aguado con carne de tunco. SalviSoul documents more than food, taking the often heartbreaking stories of Salvadoran women and the traumas they've endured to immigrate to North America, escape abusive relationships with or without children, and build better lives, and turning them into powerful stories that inform and inspire. The bright photos sometimes seem at odds with the darker tales Vasquez's subjects share but serve as a reminder that in spite of hardship, food is always part of the journey. An essential for any cookbook collection.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

April 15, 2024
“Food is an anchor and safety net when documentation, distance, and language are challenges,” writes debut author Vasquez in this earnest cookbook and foodways study of El Salvador. Conversations with 33 Salvadoran women interspersed with recipes from them and others make this valuable as sociology. Interviewees include Maricela, who sells street food from a stall in Los Angeles, and the author’s late grandmother Mamá Lucy, who was known for her cow’s hoof soup. Nourishing and satisfying dishes include flatbread-like Salvadoran tortillas and flor de izote (yuca flowers) with eggs. Variations abound: El Salvador’s “national dish,” pupusas, can be stuffed with three different fillings, and the fruity beverage ensalada is endlessly adaptable. Per the book’s title, these are soulful dishes linked to home and family; for example, the recipe for fried cheese-stuffed chayote is from the author’s mother. Main courses include rooster simmered in chicha, a fermented drink made with pineapple peels, and crabs in a pumpkin seed sauce. Desserts run along the simple lines of charred whole plantains and eggless bread pudding. The project originated online, and occasionally the writing has the inelegant feel of a social media post, but the recipes are clear—impressively so, considering they hail from a variety of sources—and the context is heartfelt and fascinating. This is a valuable work of cultural preservation.