This spicy deviled egg potato salad gets a Southwestern twist with chipotle peppers, capers, and a creamy mustard-mayo dressing. Ready in 35 minutes — perfect for BBQs and potlucks.
Vegetables
Vegetables take center stage in these plant based recipes from Jackie Alpers, author of Taste of Tucson and the Unofficial Yellowstone Cookbooks.
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.
SouthWestern-style Cast Iron Roasted Mushrooms
Recipe for oven roasted mushrooms cooked in a cast iron skillet from The Unofficial Yellowstone Cookbook by Jackie Alpers.
Sonoran Cowboy (Charro) Caviar
Super-lucky flavorful Sonoran Charro Caviar made with black-eyed peas, bell peppers, serrano chiles, and onions, served on tortilla chips.
Homemade Chile Powder from Fresh Chiles Recipe
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.
Jackie’s Famous Chunky Gazpacho Recipe
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 Recipe
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 Recipe
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).
Topopo Salad Recipe: Tucson’s Famous Volcano Salad
The Topopo salad is Tucson, Arizona’s most unique regional salad. It’s is a visually stunning volcano of chopped lettuce and mixed vegetables piled high on a bean tostada. This monumental salad was first inspired by a volcano in Sonora, Mexico.
Green Smoothie Recipe: Roarke’s Naked Yoga Drink 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
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 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 Ranch 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 Recipe
The secret to perfectly grilled corn in the husk for campfires or cookouts is soaking the ears first.
The photos are gold winners of the London Photography Award for Food Photography.
Spicy, Smoky Mashed Potatoes & Sausage Gravy
Spicy Sonoran mashed potatoes recipe made with a chile broth technique that flavors the potatoes and gravy. Butter-rich. Featured on Eat This Not That.
Mexican Street Corn Cups (Elote en Vaso)
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
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.
Stuffed Bell Peppers Recipe: Nachos Supreme Style
Roasted bell peppers stuffed with creamy nacho cheese, avocado, pickled jalapeños, black beans and crunchy tortilla chips.
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.
Masa Crust Pizza Recipe Featuring the Three Sisters
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
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.
Marinated Baby Artichokes: Italian Style with Lemon and Herbs
Recipe for boiled baby artichokes in an easy citrus marinade.
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.
No Mayo Potato Salad: Sonoran Style with Chile Lime Vinaigrette
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.
Chunky Guacamole Recipe: Sonoran Style with Cotija and Serrano
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.
Spicy Thai Coleslaw: A Green Papaya Salad Without the Papaya
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.
Chayote Recipe: Spicy Mexican Rice with Black Beans
Recipe for a hearty, spicy Sonoran style Mexican rice with chayote and black beans.
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.





































