Where Southern Food Meets Mexican Food
Turnip Greens & Tortillas by Eddie Hernandez and Susan Puckett
Where is the time going?
If you are anything like me, you’ve asked yourself that question a lot this month. October has flown by, and I took on one-too-many projects this month, which is why I skipped my planned post on the 16th. For those of you who noticed, thanks for being patient with me. And for those who didn’t notice because your time is also disappearing, I am glad to be in your company.
Today in this space, I bring with me a beloved cookbook that fuses Southern and Mexican cuisines, Turnip Greens & Tortillas by Eddie Hernandez, with Susan Puckett. You may know of Eddie Hernandez as the
xecutive Chef of Taqueria del Sol, which has a special place in my heart. Whether or not you’ve had the pleasure of eating there, this is a delightful book that I’d recommend to anyone. Let’s dig in!
Cheap Eats & My Early 20s
When I first moved to Nashville at age 23, I lived in a house with five roommates. It meant rent was cheap and personal space was limited. The kitchen was an ever-rotating space, with added friends and boyfriends often hanging around, and the combo of cheap rent + shared kitchen meant I was just as likely to order takeout as I was to cook. I was five minutes from 12 South, so more often than not, that takeout came from Taqueria del Sol. Their food was delicious, filling, and inexpensive. They also made a great margarita and perfect queso, so I was just as likely to go there on a night out, and would return for years after I’d left that little house on Caldwell.
Taqueria del Sol left the neighborhood mid-2023, but Nashville folks can still get their Taqueria del Sol fix at their outpost on Charlotte Ave, and there’s a handful of locations around the Atlanta area. The great thing about having a cookbook, on the other hand, is that you can make Chef Eddie’s recipes wherever you are.
Who is Eddie Hernandez?
Chef and restaurateur Eddie Hernandez has worn many hats in his life. If you pick up a copy of his book, it’s full of his stories, so I didn’t want to spoil them here, and was having a hard time summing him up. In 2023, he won the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Southern Foodways Alliance. Here’s what they had to say about him:
“As the founding chef of the Atlanta-based chain Taqueria del Sol, Hernandez juxtaposes the food traditions of his native Monterey, Mexico, alongside the culinary traditions of the American South, laying the groundwork for Sur-Mex cuisine. Eddie learned to cook from his grandmother in her restaurant kitchens in Mexico. He moved to America to pursue a music career and found himself in Atlanta, Georgia, where he found work at El Azteca, a Mexican restaurant south of the city, and connected with owner Mike Klank. The two partnered on numerous ventures over the years before opening the first Taqueria del Sol on Atlanta’s Westside in 2000, creating a menu inspired by Hernandez’s native Mexico and Klank’s experiences in the American Southwest. Today, Eddie’s spicy turnip greens, Memphis pork barbecue tacos, and blue plate special of the day draw crowds stretching to the sidewalks at five locations in Georgia and one in Nashville, Tennessee. In 2018, he released the cookbook Turnip Greens & Tortillas, highlighting the synergy between Southern and Mexican food.”
The Book
Turnip Greens & Tortillas is the kind of cookbook you could cook from any time, any day. Dinner, of course, but also breakfast, snacks, drinks, desserts, condiments - it’s all here. Co-writer Susan Puckett spent seven years (!!!) working alongside Eddie Hernandez and documenting his recipes. Interspersed throughout are Eddie’s stories and photos that will make your mouth water. The design of the book is colorful, upbeat - it matches the tone of the book perfectly, and I always smile when I’m looking through it.
There’s a lot to love in this book. It is very approachable for the home cook, no matter your comfort level in the kitchen, which is a rarity in restaurant cookbooks. Part of the introduction, “My Mex-American Kitchen,” gives a breakdown on pantry stocking and equipment, but I’d say a lot of the recipes don’t require new equipment or a trip to a specialty store. Lots of the recipes include variations as well as suggestions on how to serve something “Eddie’s Way,” which function almost like small menus throughout the book, with suggestions on what to pair with a given dish.
The Recipes
Everything I have made from this book has been delicious, but I do have a few favorites thus far. I also have zero pictures - sorry! - so use your imagination. 🙂
Chicken Enchilada Casserole with Lemon Cream Sauce - This is one of my favorite things to order at Taqueria del Sol, and I am pleased to say that it is easy to replicate at home and taste spot-on. I made this recently when my sister was home, and tweaked the roux-based sauce so it was gluten-free (by using a trick I picked up from Anne Byrn’s Skillet Love and using rice flour in the roux), and it worked beautifully - 10/10 would recommend.
Sloppy José Tacos - If you put fritos on your chili, this recipe is for you. The ground beef is cooked with tomato paste, onion, and spices, then fills a taco-sized tortilla and is meant to be garnished with corn chips and grated cheddar. It’s a delicious taco, and the filling would be equally at home as part of a burrito bowl situation or nachos. The sky is the limit!
Taqueria del Sol Jalapeno-Cheese Dip - So good and so easy. Edwin and I used to host game nights pretty regularly when we were in Nashville, and I always loved to make a hot dip for those evenings. This one was always sure to impress!
Sauteed Snapper with Cilantro-Roasted Pecan Pesto - I LOVE THIS PESTO! A tilapia variation of this recipe makes an appearance sometimes as a weekly special at Taqueria del Sol, and when I realized I could make it at home, I was a very happy girl. If you’re not a fish person, the pesto is also good on chicken or tossed with rice or pasta. The pesto itself is dairy-free, and I’ve served it with rice and roasted veggies for vegan friends to much acclaim.
Westside Rita - This is a perfect margarita, and easy to multiply for a big batch. Part of the recipe is for fresh sweet-and-sour mix, which makes all the difference.
Pairings
Eddie Hernandez moved to the USA with dreams of being a rockstar, so I thought it fitting to pair it with a new indie rock album I’ve really been enjoying - Pom Pom Squad’s newest, Mirror Starts Moving Without Me. Downhill is the album opener, so I thought it was a good one to include here, but it only narrowly beat out “Spinning” and “Street Fighter.”
Extra Extras
Turnip Greens & Tortillas is available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Bookshop.org. If you’re in the Nashville or Atlanta areas, you can visit a Taqueria del Sol in either of those cities, and I highly recommend you do. And if you’d like to learn more about Chef Eddie, I’d point you towards this interview he did with the Southern Foodways Alliance.
If you’re not familiar with the Southern Foodways Alliance, their mission is to document, study, and explore the diverse food cultures of the changing American South. They put out a great podcast called Gravy, which is also the name of their quarterly food journal for members. They also produce short films (like this one on Chef Eddie) and have an ongoing oral history program. If food history and Southern culture are of interest to you, I can’t recommend them enough.
That’s all for now, folks. In light of the continuing busy-ness of the season, I’m going down to just one newsletter a month for November (20th) and December (11th), with the intention of picking back up with every-other-week in January.
Thank you for reading. I hope you cook something good this week, and I hope it makes you feel like you’re 23 again.