Chile, Clove, and Cardamom

“Culinary history, science, and ingredient notes enrich the reading, but the real joy of this book rests in the cooking. The recipes are friendly, concise, and doable.”

—Civil Eats

“Drought-tolerant? Try drought-embracing, drought-loving, drought-grateful. Thank you, sumac and chipotles, turmeric and cloves. Thank you, camels and caravans. And thank you, Beth Dooley and Gary Paul Nabhan, for this spicy, fragrant, mind-expanding book that reveals what we all owe to migrants from the hot and dry places of this world.”

—Lawrence Downes, writer; former member of the New York Times editorial board

“As a somewhat smell-blind person, holy mole, I’m grateful for this book! It’s widened my ability to enjoy the many wondrous aromas and tastes of desert cuisines. Looking beyond my own nose, I can see that, though disguised as a cookbook, this book really offers a broader recipe for eating and living well as our planet becomes hotter and drier. By sharing sensuous pleasures of food from across Earth’s more arid reaches, our inimitable guides ‘Brother Coyote’ Gary Paul Nabhan and Beth Dooley invite us to join in their delicious mission: Let’s savor the flavors and partners involved in the meaning-making meals that root us in our places and bridge us into global community.”

—Keefe Keeley, coeditor, The Driftless Reader; executive director, the Savanna Institute

“Celebrated ethnobotanist Gary Paul Nabhan makes a bold argument for why arid lands produce the world’s most aromatic foodstuffs we humans crave and trade. Cookbook author extraordinaire Beth Dooley’s irresistible recipes prove each of his succulent points. By showing how fragrant and delectable life on a warming world can be, this book fills your mind and belly and lifts your heart.”

—Alan Weisman, author of The World Without Us and Gaviotas

“Follow the new spice roads as climate change forces some of the world’s most pungent and floral spices and herbs into new latitudes. This sumptuous, optimistic journey reveals how to combine and cook with ancient flavors in both time-honored and entirely new, delicious recipes.”

—Janos Wilder, James Beard Award–winning chef

“If you’ve ever traveled in desert lands, you know that the foods take on an almost hypnotic intensity. Chile, Clove, and Cardamom explains why and shows you how to bring that intensity into your own kitchen. By celebrating the commonalities and innovations of the planet’s arid cuisines in these gorgeous recipes, Dooley and Nabhan have given us a manual for living well in a sun-kissed world.”

—Rowan Jacobsen, author of Wild Chocolate

“When two of my all-time favorite food writers find common ground, I know I am going to be both thrilled and surprised. Beth Dooley and Gary Paul Nabhan did more—they have created a whole new perspective on how we face the hotter, drier future we’re creating on this planet. This remarkable new book Chile, Clove, and Cardamom takes you inside the world of intense flavors and aromas you cannot imagine while bringing you foursquare into considering how our food sources must and will shift as we adapt and reinvent.”

—Mark Ritchie, chair, Minnesota USA Expo 2031 Steering Committee

“In Chile, Clove, and Cardamom, Beth Dooley and Gary Paul Nabhan offer an exploration of culinary traditions from some of the world’s most arid regions. As someone presently delving into the unique flavors and techniques of these diverse cuisines, I find this work to be an invaluable resource. It beautifully captures the essence of these regions, providing both valuable inspiration and deep appreciation for their culinary heritage—a cookbook I will cherish.”

—Barbara Massaad, chef and TV host; author of Soup for Syria

“This book is an important culmination of culinary and ethnographic research that tells a story of desert regions through the spices and plants that define regional cuisines. Chile, Clove, and Cardamom is a guidebook for the future as our climate gets hotter and drier.”

—Elizabeth Johnson, chef and owner, Pharm Table

“In this book, the authors are your personal sommeliers of fragrances, flavors, and terroirs of desert cuisines shaped by heat and aridity. Dooley and Nabhan, both recipients of James Beard Awards for their food writing, are also eloquent guides for a gastronomic tour of what they call Planet Desert. Along the way, they explain the science of why foods become more interesting and intense when they struggle in hot, dry climates. They also describe the shared patterns of desert food traditions and trace the routes of dishes that historically moved from their homelands to other desert regions. The thoughtfully selected recipes shared in the second half of the book will inspire home cooks to take their own culinary journeys with a new appreciation for cuisines already adapted to climate change. Use this book to taste the future!”

—Jonathan Mabry, director of community engagement, College of Social and Behavioral Studies, University of Arizona

Beth Dooley has written several award-winning cookbooks. Her book The Perennial Kitchen offered “simple recipes for a healthy future” in the face of climate change, and her book The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen, coauthored with Sean Sherman, was recognized as the Best American Cookbook in 2018 by the James Beard Foundation. She is regarded as a beloved weekly columnist of food and travel for the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune, and she regularly appears on Minnesota Public Radio.

Gary Paul Nabhan is an ethnobotanist, agrarian activist, desert ecologist, and first-generation Lebanese American. As a pioneer in the local food movement, seed conservation, and biocultural restoration, he has been called the “lyrical scholar of genetic diversity.” Nabhan was a founder-facilitator of the Renewing America’s Food Traditions initiative of Slow Food USA, Chefs Collaborative, and other nonprofits that initially fleshed out North America’s Ark of Taste. He has been honored by the MacArthur Foundation and Takreem Foundation for his innovations in food sustainability and community development.