20 Native American Dishes You Need To Try Once In Your Life

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Across the United States, there are dozens of different Indigenous Native American tribes, each with their own unique cuisines — and of course, sometimes there's an overlap in traditional tribal foods. This is especially true when tribes were historically located in the same region, as traditional dishes make use of natural, fresh foods found locally. Interestingly, you may already eat some of these foods without even knowing their origins.

I'm lucky to have been trained to make many Indigenous dishes, both from my own cultures (Choctaw and Cherokee) and others. In fact, years ago, during my decade working in the food industry, I took it upon myself to learn as many traditional Native American dishes as I could so that I could preserve that heritage and pass it down to my children.

Now, I get the chance to share my insight and experience with you, and I'm so excited to do so! The following are 20 Native American dishes you need to try at least once — and I'm going to bet that once you do, at least some of them will make their way into your normal rotation. Without further ado, let's get into it.

In my own experience, Fry Bread is one of the most well-known Native American foods. It's a unique comfort food, and Navajo fry bread recipes were trending on Pinterest during the Coronavirus quarantine bread-making trend. The traditional Navajo recipe is made using flour, corn meal, salt, and warm milk — the result is a somewhat fluffy round bread with a crisp exterior. Although the shape is reminiscent of homemade pancakes, the texture and taste of Fry Bread is uniquely savory and salty rather than sweet.

I personally enjoy using Fry Bread as a base for tacos. I add shredded pork, cilantro, guacamole, lettuce, and tomatillo sauce with a bit of fresh lime juice for a delicious citrus and savory combination. Eating it as an accompaniment to black bean soup is also an excellent choice.

The "Three Sisters" represent the fruits of traditional agricultural practices and, in many cultures, are considered sacred — the foods themselves are corn, beans, and squash. You'll find these ingredients in many Indigenous dishes (especially among Eastern tribes) because they've always been so readily available and grow so well together when cultivated.

If you enjoy vegetable soup, there's a good chance you'll like this. In three sisters soup, a thin, full-flavored broth holds whole beans and corn kernels alongside squash that's been sliced and quartered. Many recipes now also call for a small amount of tomato, a bit of greens for garnish, and a bit of your chosen seasoning. However, these are optional and not necessarily traditional — although some tribes may have traditionally eaten it this way since there's a little variation in this recipe from one nation to another.

Yes, that's right — the cornbread you know and love is originally a Native American dish that was adopted by the Southern United States. Several tribes have long enjoyed this (or a close variation of it) traditionally, including the Choctaw and Cherokee. Variations of the recipe include boiled cornbread and cornbread with mix-ins like nuts or berries.

You can easily make homemade cornbread and pair it with three sisters soup for a traditional Native American meal — or at least as traditional as you can get in modern times. Note that this is the savory cornbread we're talking about here and not the sweet kind. It has a crumbly texture and should be the tiniest bit salty.

Sofkee is one of my top five personal favorites from this list, and it's a relatively simple, no-frills dish. This dish is popular among the Native American nations across the East Coast, and the name itself is derived from a Creek word. Depending on who you ask (and which tribe they're from) sofkee can be a porridge, drink, or soup. The recipe I personally grew up with is more of a cornmeal porridge, so this is the one I'll focus on here.

This unique dish is made from fermented cracked corn that's been alkalinized with clean wood ash. Although you can eat it cold, too, I've always eaten my sofkee hot. It has a sour taste that can be amplified or balanced with mix-ins, based on your preference. Personally, I recommend adding stewed wild berries to your sofkee to amplify that unique tang.

Succotash is another one of my top five personal favorite dishes. Originating with the Narragansett tribe, the dish was adopted by many other Eastern Nations and also found its way into modern North American cuisine. Succotash features a mixture of sweet corn, lima beans, and tomato — but, you can substitute other beans if that's all you have.

I love the earthy, mildly sweet smell of a big dish of Succotash, and this smell gives a great impression of the taste. Sometimes I add green beans or sweet snap peas for an extra flavor layer. You can feel free to try these variations on the traditional classic, if you'd like!

Chahta tamfula is a traditional Choctaw dish that loosely translates to mean "corn mush." While that might not sound appetizing, don't let it deter you from trying one of my own cultural dishes! Although similar to sofkee, tamfula is a unique dish that has a thicker texture and uses very finely ground corn. The taste is also unique and pairs exceptionally well with sweet or savory mix-ins.

For a sweet dish, add fresh berries to your bowl, stir, and allow it to sit for a short time. This will help warm the berries without making them overly soft — blueberries, blackberries, cranberries, strawberries, or buffalo berries are excellent native options. If you're looking for a savory dish, consider adding fresh, diced tomatoes and very thinly sliced jerky bits. Hickory nuts and beans are also excellent additions to a savory bowl of chahta tamfula.

Prickly Pear Cactus Pads were historically eaten mostly by Indigenous peoples living in the Western United States or in arid areas, because cacti only grow in dry, warm conditions. Besides being an Indigenous delicacy, these cactus pads also have health benefits, like having anti-inflammatory properties, helping with iron absorption, and aiding hydration, among other things.

To make them edible, the pads need to be de-spined — or, in other words, the prickly parts need to be removed. The pads are generally sautéed, but can also be boiled, and you can use the juice from the pot for other recipes. You can modernize basic recipes and add basically any seasoning you want. Excellent options include taco seasoning, adobo, or Greek seasoning.

Squash grows wild in most American states, which is why it's such a staple three sisters food. Butternut squash stew is traditionally eaten by Eastern Native American tribes and some Midwestern Nations. You may be familiar with butternut squash soup, which has become a fall favorite for many people, and this is similar. The main difference is that this uses small-to-medium chunks of squash amongst the smooth, medium-thickness base.

Even though it's not strictly traditional, I like to season my butternut squash stew with rich, warm spices that make me think of fall. For example, I'll add cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg, with the smallest amount of honey to elevate the squash's natural sweetness. You can also add cloves, cardamom, allspice, or similar options, if that's your preference.

Bvnaha is a Choctaw dish that's similar to the tamales many of us know and love. The main difference is that these are traditionally boiled rather than steamed, and they don't usually have meat — instead, the dish is mainly just cornmeal. It has a not-quite-spongy, soft texture like tamales, and a nearly identical taste to the dish's outside.

Traditionally, these would have taken quite some time to make, since the cornmeal would have been ground down by hand using a mortar and pestle. Today, most (albeit not all) bvnaha is made with commercially ground cornmeal. Each one is carefully hand-wrapped, meaning the preparation is still quite labor-intensive — but the final product is delicious and well worth the effort!

Pemmican is a unique dish that originates with the Cree, but was also traditionally common amongst the Ojibwe and Sioux Nations. Tallow, dried meat, and dried berries are combined to form little flat blocks to be easily eaten while traveling — and they should keep a while, making them something you could potentially make in bulk and "food prep" in the most traditional sense.

Sometimes, pemmican was added to other dishes to add flavor or thickness. Other times, it was eaten raw as a savory and sweet treat that was calorie-dense. This dish is still eaten today and made in many Native American households, although you may struggle to find it for sale anywhere. The good news is that it's relatively easy to make yourself, if you want to try it.

Chokecherry pudding, like many Indigenous dishes, is a very simple food made of chokecherries and water, with perhaps a little honey. Over the years, the recipe has changed slightly to include a small amount of flour for thickness — many recipes now also include a small amount of vanilla extract and may include some whole chokecherries.

Not in an area where chokecherries are readily available? The amazing thing about this Cheyenne recipe is you can substitute chokecherries for any other berry. As a matter of fact, many other tribes had similar dishes made with other berries, like the Lakota's wojapi. While the end result will be slightly different based on the natural flavor profile of the berry used, the general idea will be the same — a medium-thick, sweet and sour berry pudding with a strong tangy scent, that you can eat alone or as a topping for various breads.

If you grew up in the Southern United States, you've definitely had grits — and this incredibly popular food, that's become synonymous with Southerners, actually originated with Eastern Native American tribes. Made from ground corn, grits are served up nearly anywhere in the South and are an affordable, simple dish.

If you haven't had the privilege of growing up on grits like I did, it's basically a hot savory cereal. Finely ground corn is cooked in boiling water, after which butter, salt, and pepper are added. Traditionally, the additions to grits may have varied from one tribe to another, but this would have always been a good savory breakfast option.

Johnnycakes are also popular in the American South, as well as certain New England states. If you're starting to see a trend here, you're absolutely right in thinking many modern American dishes originated with Indigenous peoples.

These are basically cornmeal flatbreads shaped like pancakes, with their thickness varying from almost crepe-like to thick enough to resemble traditional bread slides. Although Johnnycakes originated with the Narragansett tribe of New England, they eventually came to be enjoyed by many Eastern Nations. You'll find both sweet and savory variations of these cornmeal pancakes, catering to a range of taste preferences.

Kanuchi is a Cherokee soup made from hickory nuts, although you can substitute other nuts if needed. After all, these dishes were historically created using whatever ingredients were locally (and seasonally) available — this means the soup was likely made, or perhaps supplemented, with various nuts throughout the year. To keep it as similar as possible, consider pecans, which have a similar taste to hickory nuts.

Besides nuts, a little honey or maple syrup is added for sweetness, while hominy is included to increase the thickness. As you can imagine, the end result is a sweet, nutty soup with a creamy consistency and a mouth-watering scent.

Jerky is something you're likely familiar with, and this dried meat can be from nearly any animal — making it one of the easiest Native American dishes to try. It has a leathery texture and a salty, umami flavor profile. Many Native American tribes traditionally ate jerky because it lasted longer than fresh meat and could be eaten while traveling, or during the winter when food was scarcer.

Although any jerky works, the most traditional options would be buffalo, venison, and rabbit. However, you can find commercially prepared beef, pork, and turkey jerky in stores. While these may not have been common historically, Indigenous Nations would have made use of whatever meat was available to them at that time.

Hopi Tea actually goes by several names, including Navajo Tea and Indian Tea, and is created with the dried stems and flowers of a plant called greenthread. You can find tea bags, often labeled as "Native Herbal Tea," crafted with this special plant. Aficionados can even purchase bulk bags of pre-cut Greenthread, like this HealinGifts Cota Indian Tea. For this, it's best to use a cheesecloth or special metal tea infuser, like a Stainless Steel Mesh Tea Ball, to make Hopi Tea at home.

Hopi Tea tastes similar to the standard green tea you would find in stores, with a slight difference that's hard to explain — it's a little earthier and more bitter, but barely enough to notice. You can add honey or maple syrup to the tea to sweeten it, the same way you would with other teas.

Smoked salmon is a delicious food that should be relatively easy to find in restaurants. It would have been historically eaten by any tribes living by or traveling near freshwater bodies across the Americas. After being heavily salted, salmon is smoked slowly over a fire until cooked through. Traditionally, other ingredients may have also been used to add flavor, depending on the tribe and regionally available foods.

In modern times, you'll find smoked salmon seasoned in various ways. For example, some people enjoy a sweet and salty flavor, mainly from salt and brown sugar, while others prefer a sharp citrusy profile from ingredients like lemon pepper, lime zest, salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic. Regardless of the flavor profile, salt always remains a crucial component.

Tanka-me-a-lo is Cherokee buffalo stew and the name is a Tsalagi phrase with a translation that quite literally describes the dish — Tsalagi is the proper name of the Iroquoian language spoken by the Cherokee. 

If you've ever had a beef stew, this is similar in taste, although it's distinct in texture. Buffalo, potato chunks, and any available vegetables would traditionally have been thrown into a large pot with water and slowly cooked to develop a nice earthy, umami broth. Where the texture varies from beef stew is that the broth is thinner than modern stews, but a little thicker than your standard soup, thanks to the starches released from the potatoes.

You may be able to find a version of buffalo stew at some eateries, but it's not as readily available as alternatives. Thankfully, it's easy to recreate a modern version of this at home by substituting beef or, if you prefer, venison.

Maple and butternut squash would have historically been eaten by various tribes (especially across the American East) and works as a delicious dessert or sweet treat. Although it's possible to try this Native American dish at select eateries, it may be challenging to find — thankfully, it's incredibly easy to make at home. If you don't have butternut squash available, you can easily substitute acorn squash instead.

To make it at home, just cut open the squash and remove all the seeds and strings with a spoon. Drizzle maple syrup over the top and bake. You'll be rewarded with an almost creamy, sweet dish that's also 100% natural and good for you. This is one of my personal favorite Native American dishes, and I can't recommend it enough.

This is an easy, earthy Native American dish to try because it can literally be any wild greens you have in your area. Basically all Indigenous Nations ate (and still eat) wild green salads — they include things like dandelion greens, watercress, chickweed, and stinging nettles.

Don't live in an area where it's safe to forage wild greens? That's okay. You can recreate this using some select greens you can find in the stores. For example, you can purchase dandelion greens in some health or specialty stores. Swiss chard, spinach, and watercress are also native to the Americas and can usually be found at most grocery stores.

Of course, if you prefer, you can recreate this salad with a modern twist by using a combination of your favorite wild greens — native to the Americas or not. For example, you could try using kale, microgreens, arugula, collard greens, or bok choy.