łéh'shí'zhóózh Or laid Side By Side under ash

As I looked deeper into my culture I saw a beautiful connection between whole plant foods and traditional Navajo teachings.

Pre-colonization, Navajo people did not have oils, refined sugar,

white flours or basically any processed foods. We ate an abundance of plants and we thrived with the addition of beans, squash, and of course corn. Our diet was heavily focused on plants, a fact that is lost to many who see Native people as mainly meat eaters.

So many health problems arose as our diet shifted to the standard American diet. Diabetes, heart disease, obesity and more plague many in our communities.

This blog was created with the intention of fighting back against the foods killing native families and families across the world. I hope to inspire people through food, stories, and pictures to eat healthier and to choose whole foods... to eat plants... to connect themselves with the Earth through food.

This specific post is about łéh'shí'zhóózh or ''Laid side by side under ash or dirt'' . It began this spring when I planted some Navajo squash and beans in my garden. I am a big believer of growing indigenous plants and sharing & spreading their seeds. Above is my amazing squash plant that took over half my front yard !

The full grown squash stayed good until I was ready to cook it in the ground, stuffed with sage, then added to my łéh'shí'zhóózh. This means it has stayed good for over 5 months! I always make sure to scrape the seeds out of the squash so next spring I will have many more squash plants and seeds . I will be selling a limited amount of seeds in my store, so be on the look out in March if you are interested in these varieties.

I decided to fill my łéh'shí'zhóózh with the 3 sisters for maximum health benefits and flavor! The squash had a rectangle 'plug' cut out so I could clear out the seeds, I stuffed it with lots of fresh sage & herbs then replaced the 'plug'. I cooked it in a pit dug in the ground that is about 2ft x 2ft and 3ft deep. I used juniper wood to create a nice bed of hot coals then placed the whole squash right into the pit. I covered it with a metal covering and then topped it with dirt. It cooked for 4 hours and was perfectly cooked with no turning !

I used tepary beans instead of the regular varieties of beans we see in stores. I try to include foods grown by other Natives in my dishes as a way to support their cause and also for health reasons. Tepary beans are better adapted to an arid environment, they are a great source of calcium, they have higher amounts of protein, and they are rich in soluble fiber. They can be a great addition to anyone's diet who has high cholesterol and/or diabetes.

I blended roasted red New Mexican chiles, 5 cloves of garlic, and 1/2 an onion with 6 cups of water and added this mixture to the 4 cups dry beans . I made sure the liquid was 2 1/2 inches above the beans in my instant pot pan. I cooked the tepary beans for 60 min/ 10 min natural release. It takes a bit longer for tepary beans to cook than say pinto beans.

I added the drained beans, cut up cooked squash, and fresh corn kernels into a pan and cooked down and remaining liquid. I added a little bit of salt to taste at this point. I try to limit my salt intake and adding it at the end helps with this.

Of course you can make this any way you'd like, even with canned beans if you are short on time!

I then prepared the blue corn mixture. I used roasted Navajo grown blue corn and juniper ash. The juniper ash is an amazing source of calcium as well as a important staple to Navajo people. Adding the juniper ash to corn is a process called ''nixtamalization''. This process makes the nutrients in corn easily absorbed by our bodies. I believe Juniper ash adds a unique taste that you do not get from commercial maize flours that use lime instead.

Juniper has many uses in the Navajo way of life, spiritual, medicinal, and dietary. It truly is an important plant that I will be going into great detail about in future posts along with delicious recipes and stories.

Blue Corn & Juniper Ash Dough

• 4-4 1/2 cups Blue Corn

• 4 Tablespoons Sifted Juniper Ash

• Optional 2-3 tsp Of Salt

• 1/4 Cup fresh corn blended with 1/4 cup water

• 3 Cups of Boiling Hot Water

Mix the blue corn and sifted juniper ash together. Add salt if you'd like. Mix the fresh corn in a blender with 1/4 cup of water until well blended and set aside. Take the boiling water and add to the blue corn juniper ash mixture and stir well. Add blended fresh corn. The dough should not be too sticky, if it is, add 1/4 cup of blue corn and stir again. Add more blue corn flour if it is still too sticky.

This dough now can be used with water soaked corn husks. You put about 2 tablespoons of the dough into the corn husk and flatten it out. Add the 3 sister fillings then roll like a ''tamale'' . Fold the ends of the corn husk back towards the middle . Use strips of soaked corn husk to tie the ends of the corn husk like the picture above.

You can cook these bundles in an instant pot for 25 minutes/10 minutes natural release. Make sure to use a steam basket or the trivet to keep the bundles upright and out of the water. This recipe makes about 3 dozen bundles.

You can also fill a pot of water and boil these bundles for 1 hour instead.

Alternatively you can cook these in the ground, much like I suggested to with the squash. I will be going into great detail on how to cook in the ground in another blog post. There is a lot more to ground cooking and it deserves its own story with detailed pictures. It is well worth the effort and it will bring you more flavor and a more meaningful connection to Mother Earth.

Ahéhee' , thank you for visiting !