The SalviSoul Cookbook is a beautifully illustrated and well written collection of recipes and ode to the culture and culinary legacy of El Salvador by Karla Tatiana Vasquez. Released 30th April 2024 by Penguin Random House on their Ten Speed Press imprint, it's 288 pages and is available in hardcover and ebook formats.

This is not just a satisfyingly diverse collection of delicious recipes and cookbook of El Salvadoran foods, but also a collection of memories and stories of the diaspora which the author collected (along with the recipes) from her relatives and acquaintances. Although outstanding as a cookbook, it's also full of personal family photos and stories.

The recipes are arranged thematically: introduction (with a tutorial guide to ingredients, oils, ), accompaniments, essentials, soups, main dishes, drinks, and sweet snacks. The recipes (and text) are written in English, but all the chapters and recipe names are provided in Spanish.

Each recipe has an introduction and background info, ingredients in a bullet list, and step by step prep and cooking directions. Ingredient measures are given in imperial (American) units. Some items will be generally available at any well stocked grocery store in North America, but many ingredients have few or no substitutes and will require access to an international foods store or specialty stockist. Where substitutions are available, the author is very good about providing the info. Most recipes are accompanied by photos.

Five stars. This would be an excellent choice for public library acquisition, home use, or for gift giving purposes.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Thank you to Karla Tatiana Vasquez for making a piece of the culture easier to find for any of us who have attempted to seek it out only to discover that it's near impossible to get it all in one place. If at all.
So many of the recipes had this kitchen novice excited and ready to jump up and try them out. They're all well-arranged and perfectly written out, that there is no hesitation for us first timers.
The stories of all the women included added so much more, making it not just a simple cookbook but a biography for the unsung women who might very well be a strange at the market, a neighbor or even our grandmothers or aunts.

Salvadoran food isn’t all that well-known, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t delicious. In fact, Karla Tatiana Vasquez has release an excellent cookbook, The SalviSoul Cookbook: Salvadoran Recipes and the Women Who Preserve Them, which presents the mouthwatering food that is celebrated in San Salvador. Not only does this cookbook contain great recipes, but it includes stories and vignettes of the author’s family, which makes it easy to relate to them and want to try their recipes.

The recipes are written in the traditional manner with the ingredients first, followed by step-by-step instructions. This makes it easy for all of us – beginning to advanced cooks – to follow them and turn out delicious, unique dishes.

The cookbook also includes beautiful photographs of both the mouthwatering dishes and scenery and landscapes from the author’s country, and they are so appealing, it will make reader want to visit soon.

The Salvadorans are famous for their papusas, and there are several recipes for different varieties of them. I have had them in the states at a few restaurants, and assumed that they were the only thing Salvadorans actually ate, but had no idea that there were other amazing dishes that I want to make from the country. Most of the recipes use ingredients that are readily available in the states, and, although many of the recipes require a bit of time to make, they are set out simply and most aren’t difficult.
All told, this is an excellent cookbook. It is a change from the same old, same old Latin cookbooks that are everywhere. This one is beautiful and I love having it on my bookshelf

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.

For me there is no better learning moment than when I have had the privilege of experiencing a community different from mine expressing themselves through their culture purely for themselves. This is where I have learned the most about the stuff of life. Karla Tatiana Vasquez has somehow packed moments like this in her cookbook. Vasquez wrote this book for Salvadorans first, and though many people like myself may not be from this particular culture, it is in our stepping into an unfamiliar place in a child-like manner that I have learned the best from others. I may not know all of the names and ingredients, but Vasquez has offered us a chance to experience her cultural competency process a bit like she did as a child. It's ok if I don't recognize or understand ingredients right away. There was a time when I didn't know how to pronounce "baklava" nor did I necessarily know what it was, but I learned by interacting with the people and the dish. What a privilege to figure out a small slice of another's traditions. What a beautiful thing it is to honestly exchange who we are without performing for anyone else. A few previous reviewers seemed to be upset that Vasquez didn't white-wash her culture for them. In my opinion, we're all better-off for her bravery. Here's to celebrating Salvadoran culture.

Now on to the review I previously posted on GoodReads.com...

I really recommend that you read this book cover to cover first. SalviSoul is a remarkable cookbook, so I was tempted to skip to the recipes that excited me the most, but I'm so glad that I read the introduction first let me tell you why...

I've never had a cookbook give me this kind of experience before. In the introduction author Karla Tatiana Vasquez truly transports readers to her point of view when she was a child and what her relationship to food and the women in her life was like. Once you've read through that you realize that the rest of the book is structured in such a way to simulate the way Salvadoran food was introduced to her through her life. I must warn you that I cried a few times in the introduction alone. It really is a transformative experience the level of which I've never had with another cookbook. Maybe it's because I'm not Salvadoran myself.

All of the recipes that I have cooked have been very tasty, but more importantly produced results that either strongly remind me of food that I've had in Salvadoran restaurants, or my Salvadoran friends have vouched for their authenticity. So far I have had this experience with the: tortillas Salvadoreñas, pastelitos, curtido, pupusas de frijol con queso, and sopa de Frijoles con masitas. Eventually I will work up enough courage to make the tamales de pollo and many other recipes in this book.

All of the directions have been straightforward enough and descriptive enough for me to work through dishes that I didn't grow up with so I can't wait to work my way through the rest of the recipes.

Truly I can't imagine that this book won't become anything short of a hit once it's released. I sincerely hope that we will see more cookbooks with Central American food from Karla Tatiana Vasquez.

This book is a beautiful tribute to Salvi food. I've never seen a cookbook specific for El Salvador, and my best friend is Salvi! I was really interested in learning more about the basics, how to stock a pantry, and what typical meals look like. Also growing up, my bff;s mom didn't have so defined recipes - so this helped! My friend and I bonded over the recipes in the book and did them together. This cook book is beautiful - both in pictures and stories.

My only complaint regarding this book is that there is a bigger focus in the recipes on stories first vs descriptions. The stories stand out more than the recipe and sometimes the formatting of that throws me off. Example - sandwiches de pollo has the recipe and the ingredients on separate pages.

Favorite recipes from this book:
- Pupusas de queso con loroco <3
- tamales de puerco y tamales de pollo
- pastelitos de hongos
- pescado seco envuelto

I highly recommend this book if you're looking to explore food from El Salvador, and learn more about the stories and culture behind the food as well.

The SalviSoul Cookbook is the first traditionally published Salvadoran cookbook to be published in the U.S!! The SalviSoul is a stunning, accessible love letter to El Salvador that was created to help the nearly 2.5 million Salvadorans living, and U.S not to forget their roots. The stories shared by strong matriarchs in this book were so moving, the beautifully photographed food, and the dedication all made me so emotional. I am so happy this special cookbook it exists. My husband got to go back to El Salvador for the first time in 22 years last year, and we shared so many amazing memories flipping through the pages remembering the Plátons fritos con frijoles licuados we ate in Santa Tecla , Sándwhiches de pollo in Soyapango, Quesadillas in Sensuntepeque and many more delicious memories. The primos are all getting a copy of The SalviSoul Cookbook for Christmas haha. Muchas felicidades a Karla Tatiana Vasquez este libro es muy especial y gracias por crearlo!!
Many thanks to NetGalley & Ten Speed Press for providing me a digital copy

I loved the stories and all the pictures of everyday life and culture this book had. You can tell the writer really put a lot of herself into this book. But this cookbook was not for me. It is a great cookbook if you want a collection of Salvadoran recipes that remind you of home and you are familiar with. But if this is an intro into Salvadoran or Hispanic food in general then this is not the book for you. There was not a picture for every recipe which I found disappointing. And since I am not supper familiar with this type of cuisine the names of the items did not give a a lot of clues to what the recipient was. Even in the description under the title was not always supper helpful, as at times there was more fun antidote than description. I found myself googling some of the recipes to figure out what they were. If you are familiar with the food and culture I think you would find this a great book; if not maybe pass on this one.

This was a really enjoyable book, with lots of stories and recipes from the author's family and national roots. It's wonderful to read about where the dishes belong in the family history, with accompanying photos of the dishes, people, and locations that are important.

I'm a novice, but I definitely enjoy pupusas, so I'm excited to give this recipe and so many others a try.

I received a free ebook copy from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I never thought a cookbook would make me cry, but THE SALVISOUL COOKBOOK did just that. Not once, not twice, but thrice. I only requested this cookbook because I have an extensive collection of cookbooks from many countries and regions, but this was the first one I'd seen for El Salvador and so of course, I was very interested. In that regard, this book is magnificent - it has lots of mouthwatering recipes and vibrant photos of Salvadoran landscapes and foodways and it's worth getting just for that. But what takes this book to another level is its glorious storytelling of individual Salvadoran women's life journeys. In vignette after vignette, portrait after portrait, you will come across incredibly brave, resilient, creative, and dynamic women. Though their stories vary, the women have a shared experience of what it was like in El Salvador before the war, and what life was like as Salvadoran women surviving in their new home in the United States. Their stories make this an immersive cookbook that can be read page to page.

A quick note on the recipes: I have a hard time following instructions when 2-3 of them are bunched together in paragraphs. But that could just be me. I followed a couple of recipes faithfully for rellenos de papa and pupusas de frijol con queso that turned out amazing, so just something to keep in mind. This one is a gem and I'm definitely getting a hardcover to add to my collection.

I received an ARC of this cookbook from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a great cookbook. But it's more than just a cookbook. I also learned a lot about El Salvador from this book!

I love that the author made it her mission to never forget her roots. The stories about El Salvador, and the backstories about the recipes are absolutely amazing. I also love how she wore her mom down to get the teachings of some of her recipes. I can't wait to use the many pupusa(El Salvador's national dish) recipes. As well as the Tamale recipes.

I love how this is more thank a cookbook, this is an educational celebration on El Salvador. The stories that are shared throughout the book add so much sentiment to the recipes.