Vegetables

Deviled Egg Potato Salad Recipe

Deviled Egg Potato Salad Recipe

Deviled egg potato salad is a flavor filled, Western Americana dish that merges potato salad with deviled eggs in spicy mustard, mayo and chipotle sauce.

Three Sisters Power Bowl

Three Sisters Power Bowl

Let the power of these three sisters fuel your day! Corn, zucchini and tepary bean breakfast bowl with quinoa, corn, avocado, spicy green salsa and eggs.

Cast Iron Roasted Mushrooms

Cast Iron Roasted Mushrooms

Recipe for oven roasted mushrooms cooked in a cast iron skillet from The Unofficial Yellowstone Cookbook by Jackie Alpers.

Super Lucky Texas Cowboy Caviar

Super Lucky Texas Cowboy Caviar

You may know that eating black-eyed peas on New Year’s day brings good luck in the new year, but did you know that Texas Cowboy caviar was invented in the 1940’s by Helen Corbitt, head chef at the Zodiac Room, at the flagship Neiman Marcus Department Store in Dallas, Texas?  Cowboy Caviar is the perfect mix of simple cowboy taste and upscale living which is why I had to include my version of the recipe in The Unofficial Yellowstone Cookbook. Everyone knows the Dutton family needs all the luck they can get. 

Homemade Chile Powder

Homemade Chile Powder

How to dehydrate and grind chile peppers, with recipes for chili powder and custom spice blends using fresh homegrown and/or exotic store bought chiles. Preserve expensive and/or hard to find chiles.

Chunky Gazpacho

Chunky Gazpacho

Cold gazpacho recipe with chunky fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, and onions and peppers. The colors in the photo are a bit of an homage to Pedro Almodovar’s wonderful film, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988), which was the inspiration for me making gazpacho for the very first time, years ago. (Minus the pills and drama.)

Chipotle Lime Grilled Corn

Chipotle Lime Grilled Corn

Recipe for a lighter version chipotle lime grilled corn on the cob from the Sonoran Arizona-Mexico borderlands cookbook author Jackie Alpers

Spicy Sonoran Coleslaw

Spicy Sonoran Coleslaw

This crunchy, salty, and spicy no-mayo Thai/Mexican coleslaw is an excellent companion to Sonoran style dishes. It’s inspired by Som Tum (green papaya salad).

Sonoran Shrimp Topopo Salad

Sonoran Shrimp Topopo Salad

The topopo, Tucson’s most iconic salad is visually stunning. It’s made to look like volcano in Sonora with lettuce piled on a bean tostada and surrounded with grilled shrimp, Tajin dipped vegetables and cheese. It’s crowned with a green olive and a slice of tomato.

Green Smoothie Recipe from Yellowstone

Green Smoothie Recipe from Yellowstone

This green smoothie recipe is a tribute to a scene in Yellowstone where the villain Roarke drinks a green smoothie after naked yoga. The recipe was developed from carefully analyzing all of the ingredients shown on Roarke’s kitchen counter and my conclusion is that he (or the Yellowstone prop person) can make a pretty decent green smoothie. I even used the same smoothie glass used in the show.  

Sheet Pan Garlic-Butter Green Beans

Sheet Pan Garlic-Butter Green Beans

After a hard day’s work at the 6666 Ranch in Texas, Jimmy devoured a plate of Country Fried Steak smothered with gravy and a side of green beans. I’m sharing my recipe for Sheet Pan Roasted Green Beans to whet your appetite… you’ll have to wait for The Unofficial Yellowstone Cookbook for the main course.

Dry-Fried Asparagus

Dry-Fried Asparagus

Dry-fried asparagus is charred and crispy on the outside, and tender on the inside. It has direct contact to the pan without oil or butter. Asparagus grows wild in Montana where the Yellowstone TV series is filmed.

Tri-Colored Smashed Potatoes

Tri-Colored Smashed Potatoes

These tri-colored smashed potatoes utilize heirloom varieties of produce, which help restore diversity to local agriculture. This recipe is an outtake, cut for space from The Unofficial Yellowstone Cookbook by Jackie Alpers

Campfire Corn on the Cob

Campfire Corn on the Cob

How to perfectly grill corn in the husk for campfires or cookouts using a grill or fire pit. The secret is soaking the ears first.

Spicy, Smoky, Southwestern Mashed Potatoes & Gravy

Spicy, Smoky, Southwestern Mashed Potatoes & Gravy

Because I’ve been known to eat a Thanksgiving meal that consists almost entirely of mashed potatoes and gravy, I replace the cream and some of the butter in the recipe with an aromatic garlic and chile infused broth that I cook the potatoes in, resulting in lighter mashed potatoes that are BIG on flavor.

Elote en Vaso: Sonoran-Mexican Street Corn Cups

Elote en Vaso: Sonoran-Mexican Street Corn Cups

Recipe for Elote en Vaso, Mexican street corn in cups. Pan fried corn kernels tossed  in a creamy sauce seasoned with chile and lime. From the Taste of Tucson Cookbook by Jackie Alpers.

Roasted Whole Baby Cauliflower with Herbs & Parmesan

Roasted Whole Baby Cauliflower with Herbs & Parmesan

I’m fascinated by the idea of roasting an entire head of cauliflower, so when I came across these adorable baby cauliflower at the market the wheels started turning. They make a visually stunning side dish, perfect on cold winter nights. You can substitute one large cauliflower if you can’t find the little ones.

Chiltepin Hot Salsa Recipe

Chiltepin Hot Salsa Recipe

Chiltepin salsa is an all-purpose salsa that can be used for dipping, for seasoning, and as a taco sauce. A little goes a long way, so if you prefer a milder salsa, cut the amount of chiles down by a half or a third. This recipe is from the Taste of Tucson cookbook by Jackie Alpers.

Spaghetti Squash Supreme Pizza Boats

Spaghetti Squash Supreme Pizza Boats

A healthy recipe for creamy, cheesy, supreme pizza flavored spaghetti squash, for the pizza flavors that you crave in cute single servings. They are fairly low in calories, very filling and taste like pizza. So it’s win-win-win.

Three Sisters Masa Pizza

Three Sisters Masa Pizza

Corn, beans and squash are three of the earliest domesticated crops grown by Native Americans in the Sonoran region. For this recipe, prepared corn masa, which is usually used to make tortillas or gorditas, is pressed into a cast iron skillet for the crust. If you’ve never tried tepary beans, this recipe is an excellent way to experiment with them, but you can substitute black beans instead if you want.

Sweet Pepper Poppers

Sweet Pepper Poppers

MIni Sweet Mini Pepper Poppers stuffed with jalapeno cream cheese and topped with panko bread crumbs. Recipe development and food photography for the Food Network.

Greek Country Salad

Greek Country Salad

A classic Greek Salad of chunky vegetables and feta tossed in a light vinaigrette will prove that you can indeed win friends with salad.

Iceberg Wedge Salad with Bleu Cheese Vinaigrette

Iceberg Wedge Salad with Bleu Cheese Vinaigrette

Iceberg wedge salad with bacon bits topped with a smashed bleu cheese vinaigrette. Recipe and food photography by cookbook author Jackie Alpers. The Wedge salad is one of these very classic, simple recipes that’s accessible to everyone. One that’s been loved for generations and modified along the way to accommodate changing tastes. This version is topped with a lighter vinaigrette.

Spicy Sonoran Potato Salad

Spicy Sonoran Potato Salad

Here in Southern Arizona, our famous Sonoran style Mexican food is often garnished with pickled red onions and Mexican limes. I’ve incorporated those flavors into this mayonnaise-free spicy potato salad tossed with a chile-lime vinaigrette.

Sonoran Style Chunky Guacamole

Sonoran Style Chunky Guacamole

This chunky guacamole recipe from the Taste of Tucson cookbook is spicy, salty and creamy – yet crisp and bright with lots of citrus and a tiny bit of crunch.

Thai Cabbage Salad

Thai Cabbage Salad

Here in Tucson it can be hard to get fresh green papaya, so I use packaged coleslaw mix instead in this spicy Thai cabbage salad inspired by Som Tum.

Classic Caesar Salad Recipe

Classic Caesar Salad Recipe

Recipe for both the Caesar salad from the 1967 Joy of Cooking and a modified version of the recipe by Jackie Alpers.

Order Jackie's Cookbooks

Screenshot
The Unofficial Yellowstone Cookbook Cover
cover of The Unofficial Elf Cookbook by Jackie Alpers. Treat every day like Christmas with recipes inspired by the classic film "Elf".
The Unofficial Elf Cookbook by Jackie Alpers
Food photography by Alpers of loaded hot dogs is an American Photography 41 winner.
Jackie Alpers 2025 World Food Photography Awards for Food Influencer and Food in the Field
Tucson City of Gastronomy designation for Taste of Tucson cookbook