Cooking With Greens for Indigenous Food Sovereignty

In this guest submission, Chef Holly shares three recipes using locally grown greens from Yellowhead Tribal Council.

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As an in-house chef, Holly cooks lunch everyday for the staff at Yellowhead Tribal Council as part of the healthy lunch program.

It is a cold, snowy and gloomy March day here in Treaty Six territory (Central Alberta, Canada). I pull into the parking lot of my workplace, The Yellowhead Tribal Council (YTC). It is a pretty average looking, three story building with a parking lot.

In the parking lot, there is a large trailer with the words “GROWCER modular food solutions” written on the side of it. Despite the gloominess outside, the trailer is full of life. It has rows of growing greens, stacked on top of each other. Rows of kale, lettuces, Bok choy, sage, parsley and spinach all being tended to by the grower, Glenn. This vertical garden is a pilot project to promote Indigenous food sovereignty and healthy eating in the nations that The Yellowhead Tribal Council works with.

I park my car and walk up three flights of stairs to the YTC office. Despite the plain looking exterior, the office space is quite inviting. The smell of smudged sage is in the air and indigenous art is showcased on the walls. I pass the front desk and walk down the hall into the kitchen.

This kitchen has more than what you might expect to see in an office kitchen. It has shelves of dishware and cooking equipment. There are bins of nuts, grains, legumes and seeds. A shiny, stainless-steel worktable sits in the middle. The fridge is massive and full of bins of freshly cut greens from the trailer. There is an oval dining table that will soon be full of smiling faces eating lunch, and I’ll be cooking for them.

As the in-house chef here at YTC, I offer a daily healthy lunch program for the staff, utilizing the greens we grow. I cook for gatherings, meeting and events. I create healthy recipes and offer cooking classes for our community members.

The meals at our oval dining table have created a community feel in our office. Staff members eat together and gain energy to work more efficiently. They feel healthier and have even lost a few belt loops. Everyday we eat something new and talk about what we are eating. We learn about nutrition and how it relates to our health. We discuss how diet can prevent disease in our community. We learn that food can be good for you and taste amazing. We have all come to agree that food is in fact, our medicine.

“We have all come to agree that food is in fact, our medicine.”

Fast forward a few hours and it is lunch time. I’ve cooked all morning and set up lunch. Today we have a few options to put on our plates. A gorgeously green Kale Caesar Salad, covered in nuts and seeds. A Three Sisters* & Lentil Soup, loaded with chopped spinach. And to top it off we have an insanely bright green smoothie that takes some convincing to get some skeptics to try. Everyone cleans their plates and goes back for seconds. It may be a gloomy day in the prairies, but our oval dining table is full of shining smiles and happy bellies.

*In several indigenous communities’ squash, corn and beans are referred to as the Three Sisters. These three plants were grown symbiotically in ancestral, indigenous crop systems.

Plant-based Kale “Caesar” Salad (4 servings)

Ingredients

Salad Mix

• 2 small heads chopped kale (any variation, stems removed)

• 2 small heads chopped romaine

• ½ cup pumpkin seeds (toasted, salted)

• ½ cup raw cashews (chopped super fine)

• 2 tbsp flax seeds

• 1 cup croutons

Dressing

• ½ cup raw cashews

• ½ cup nutritional yeast

• ¼ cup olive oil

• ¼ cup lemon juice

• 1 cup water

• 2 tbsp capers

• 2 tbsp pepper

• Salt to taste

Procedure

1. Mix all dressing ingredients until smooth, using a blender or food processor. Add additional water if your dressing is too thick. Leftover dressing will last up to 1 week in the fridge.

2. Mix your kale and desired amount of dressing and place in a bowl. Top with croutons, pumpkin seeds, flax seeds and chopped cashews.

3. Serve! Add a lemon wedge if you want to be fancy.

Three Sisters & Lentil Soup (8-10 Servings)

Ingredients

• 2 cups cubed squash (I like butternut squash)

• 2 cups white kidney beans (drained and rinsed)

• 2 cups corn kernels (canned or frozen is fine)

• 2 cups canned lentils (drained and rinsed)

• 5 cups chopped spinach

• 1 onion, chopped

• 8 cloves garlic, minced

• 5 sage leaves, chopped fine

• 1 head parsley, chopped fine

• 2 tbs ground sumac (or substitute lemon juice)

• 3L vegetable stock

• Salt & pepper to taste

• 2 tbsp olive oil

Procedure