If you’re hungry for hope,
cooking is a great place to start.
Beth Dooley is a James Beard Award-winning food writer who has authored and co-authored over a dozen books celebrating the bounty of America’s Northern Heartland. She writes for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, appears regularly on local TV and radio, and helps people connect more deeply with food through her Substack.
Read more about my story in MSP Magazine. Photo by Caitlin Abrams.
Beth writes for the Taste section of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune, and appears regularly on MPR Appetites. She co-authored The Sioux Chef's Indigenous Kitchen with Sean Sherman, winner of the James Beard Award for Best American Cookbook. Her most recent book is Chili, Clove, and Cardamom, co-authored with Paul Nabhan. Other titles include: Savory Sweet: Preserves from a Northern Kitchen, In Winter's Kitchen: Growing Roots and Breaking Bread in the Northern Heartland, Minnesota's Bounty: The Farmers Market Cookbook, The Northern Heartland Kitchen and coauthored Savoring the Seasons of the Northern Heartland with Lucia Watson, among other books.
Beth also guides food-focused trips through Ireland, most recently with a group of women exploring the goddess Brigid.
Beth currently serves as an endowed chair for the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture at the University of Minnesota. Her most recent book, The Perennial Kitchen Cookbook, A Field Guide to Creating a Sustainable Kitchen, was published by University of Minnesota Press in 2021.
Beth Dooley and Sean Sherman celebrated their James Beard Award for their book “The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen.” (University of Minnesota Press).
Now in stores:
CHILE, CLOVE, AND CARDAMOM
A gastronomic journey into the fragrances and flavors of desert cuisines
Chile, Clove, and Cardamom is a celebration of the fragrances and flavors of sun-drenched cuisines. Throughout this book, coauthors Beth Dooley and Gary Paul Nabhan reveal surprising patterns and principles among varied recipes of traditional desert cultures, bringing to life the places, dishes, and recipes that have been shaped by heat and drought and infused with bold flavors.
“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
Photo by Ashley Moyna Schwickert. Chelsea Green Publishing, 2024.
“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.
”
Shot and produced by Blue Earth Pictures
Some people follow the hottest chefs & restaurants.
Me? I love to cook.
As a kid, I’d trail my grandmother to the New Jersey farms stands gathering sun-split tomatoes and toothsome peaches whose juices dripped down my arm.
In high-school, I baked bread to sell at the gourmet shop in town and in grad school, I picked apples in a nearby orchard and baked pies for beer money. I'd devote Saturdays to whipping up Julia Child’s recipes making feasts for friends. When my husband and I moved to Minneapolis, the farmers market tomatoes took me right back to my grandmothers kitchen. And I began to understand how local organic food and best practices affect our health, our water, our land, the way animals are treated and the importance of acknowledging how tough farming is.
By getting to know the people who produce my food, and by sharing it with friends and family, I’ve come to know and love this place and call it home. And in raising three active sons, I quickly realized that the most delicious meals are crafted from the freshest, most seasonal ingredients, with very little effort from me. I invite you to take a look around my site or reach out personally!