Tuesday, July 15, 2008

ENSALADA DE NOPALES (Cactus Salad)

IT"S MY FAVORITE SALAD I think Cactus Pads are my FAVORITE VEGETABLE no kidding. We devour this at home when in our reach. Everyone has to be all conscience not to finish it all and leave others with nothing. Some people buy it cleaned and presliced I DO NOT I think it taste better if one cleans and prepares it from scratch. Also the pre-sliced ones are to thick to me.

It is refreshing, citrusy in an acidic way and kinda slippery and wet in a good way. (Yeah yeah sounds odd…)

The cactus raw will look like to much but it shrinks.

PLEASE NOTE: Some people like adding diced avocado and salty hard cheeses crumbed like "Cotija" or "Feta" also another cheese that works well is "fresh Mexican cheese" All these are optional and one can use one or the other or both it's really personal preferance.

Ingredients to prepare the cactus:
-Water (to boil)
-½ cup or more cilantro
-palm full of salt (for salting water)
onion
-6-7 cloves garlic peeled and whole.
-About 1 ½ lbs. to 2 lbs,Cactus Pads, cleaned, spines removed, edges trimmed, sliced REALLY THINLY as thin as humanly possible.

Ingredients to dress the cactus up :)
-Juice of 3 limes or about 1/3 to ½ cup fresh lime juice,
-3 tomatoes diced into small cubes
onion minced into teeny cubes
-1 cup or ½ cup minced cilantro
-2 Avocadoes diced (optional
-1/3 cup Crumbled salty or fresh cheese (optional)
-1 tablespoon of salt or to taste
-2 tsp. garlic powder (optional)
-1 tsp. ground black pepper or to taste.
-salt to taste

Directions
-In a large pot put ½ cup whole cilantro, palm full or more salt, and ½ whole onion, and garlic cloves with plenty water to bring to a boil.

-Meanwhile prepare the cactus (cleaning it, etc.) then add it to boiling water UNCOVERED if you cover it will overflow and turn to a GOOEY mess. The cactus well release pectins and all that shit if you do that. YOU'LL RUIN IT.




-Boil for 20 minutes.

-Drain the liquid, discard cilantro, onion, and garlic (the garlic discarding is optional I like it many don't)
-Let it cool to room temperature.

-Now combine with rest of ingredients. And it's ready you can leave it in the fridge to chill. Eat at room temperature or cold. Your choice.

1 comment:

Adriana said...

Me encanta esta ensalada de nopales. Es muy rica especialmente en verano. A mi esposo tambien le encanta y quiere que siempre se la haga. Muchas gracias por compartir tus recetas. Y por hacer los pasos fáciles de seguir. Muchos besos!