Flavours of Lethbridge: A New Downloadable Recipe Book
If you've just picked a bucket of Saskatoon berries and are wondering what to do with them, or if you’d love to recreate the amazing olive oil cake that the Italian Table serves, then we have some excellent news.
Following up on our original recipe book - Lethbridge Farm-to-Table: Flavours from Southern Alberta - we are releasing Flavours of Lethbridge: Recipes from the Local Food Community. It’s a brand-new cookbook that brings together some of the restaurants, bakeries, and producers who make this city's food scene so distinctive, and puts their recipes right in your kitchen.
Together, the two books tell a complete story: from field to farmhouse to restaurant plate. And that story is exactly what's driving Lethbridge's growing reputation as a food destination.
Connection via Food
Sitting at the heart of Canada's Premier Food Corridor, we are fortunate to live in the kind of place where a chef can build a menu around beef finished a few kilometres away, vegetables picked that morning, and haskap berries grown by a neighbour down the highway.
That local-to-table ethos is the engine behind Savour Alberta's South, a multi-community campaign that runs in partnership with Medicine Hat, Taber, Fort Macleod, Crowsnest Pass, and Waterton. The campaign's flagship event, the Farm to Fork three-week culinary trail running through most of November, features dozens of restaurants, breweries, bakeries, cafés, and distilleries across the region serving dishes and drinks built around southern Alberta-sourced ingredients.
Food tourism isn't just about eating well; it's about connecting with a place. A good culinary experience also offers eaters a chance to learn something about the culture, the people, and the land behind it. The new cookbook extends that experience beyond a single trip: even after you've gone home, you can still make the dish that stuck with you.
What's Inside Flavours of Lethbridge
The new book profiles eleven local businesses, each paired with one or two signature recipes straight from their own kitchens. It's proof of just how many culinary traditions call Lethbridge home! A few highlights to whet your appetite:
- Antojitos Latin Market & Café shares its Traditional Birria Tacos, a labour-of-love recipe built on a rich, chile-based broth simmered with beef chuck for hours, then crisped up on the griddle and dipped in warm consommé.
- Bootsma Bakery, run by a fourth-generation baker, offers up Saskatoon Berry Lentil Muffins. This clever, wholesome twist folds pureed lentils into the batter alongside the region's beloved wild berry.
- Cattlemen's Chophouse brings its Jägerschnitzel with Mushroom Cream Sauce, a hearty steakhouse classic featuring a panko-crusted pork schnitzel with a generous mushroom sauce.
- Kuya Will's & Tobits Cuisina contributes two Filipino comfort-food staples: Batangas Beef Bulalo, a marrow-rich bone broth soup, and Sizzling Pork Sisig, served straight off a hot plate with a cracked egg on top.
- Telegraph Taphouse, operating out of a beautifully preserved historic telegraph building downtown, shares its Bison Burger that’s built on lean, locally sourced bison, garlic aioli, and a pepper relish that ties it all together.
- And up on the historic Water Tower Grill, 102 feet above the city, you'll find the recipe for their Pork Tomahawk with Roasted Vegetables, marinated in pineapple juice, ginger, and soy before a hot sear and a finish in the oven.
- Naapi's Garden and Katoyiss Seed Bank, based in Standoff, also contribute something a little different: a Wild Vegetable Soup made with yampa, Indian breadroot, and nodding onion, alongside Corn "Hard Tack" Crackers; recipes rooted in Blackfoot ecological knowledge and a reminder that this region's food story goes back long before any restaurant opened its doors.
A Quick Taste from the Original Book
If you haven't picked up Lethbridge Farm-to-Table yet, it's still very much worth your time, and it pairs beautifully with the new release. That book focuses on the growers and makers themselves, and it's packed with recipes that celebrate the region's raw ingredients. A couple of favourites:
- Little Gem Winery's Haskap Dessert Wine Pork Chops. These are pan-seared chops finished in a sauce built from the winery's own haskap dessert wine, Dijon mustard, and cream.
- Prairie Hill Farms' Baked Brie with Bacon Balsamic Haskap Berries. Yes, it’s as good as it sounds! It is a simple, crowd-pleasing appetizer that pairs melted brie with a haskap-bacon-balsamic topping that balances sweet, smoky, and tart in every bite.
- Luco Farm's Mustard Dip. Using their own fresh, artisan mustard products, this savoury dip goes with veggies, pretzels, or even your favourite crackers. For a twist, you can also add chopped dill to use it as a fish sauce.
Read side by side, the two books make the case that Lethbridge's food culture isn't just about a handful of standout restaurants. It's an entire ecosystem, from soil to skillet.
Bring a Taste of Lethbridge Home
Whether you're planning your next trip through southern Alberta or simply craving a taste of what makes this region's food scene tick, both Flavours of Lethbridge and Lethbridge Farm-to-Table: Flavours from Southern Alberta are available to download for free. And if you want to plan your visit around the local food scene, the Explore Lethbridge app maps out every restaurant and producer featured in both books, plus plenty more local flavours to discover along the way.
Hungry yet? So are we!