I love nopales. They're so simple to prepare and super healthy.
I've eaten a ton of 'em since I began chemo. Their flavor is very subtle, there's no smell that upsets my stomach and nopales are very easy to digest. my mom figures we've bought and consumed at least ten one-pound bags of nopales since beginning chemo about five weeks ago. that's a very conservative estimate.
I realize there may be some of you that don't know what are nopales. They are young pads from the nopal cactus (pictured above on a loteria card). You can cut them off the cactus, though they snap off pretty easily. If you are preparing them fresh off the cactus, you have to wash 'em in cold water and carefully remove the thorns by gently scraping the cactus flesh. After preparing them, you can either leave them whole or slice them into strips.
My friend and maestro Francisco usually pulls a few nopales from his cactus in his backyard, cleans 'em and places the slices on his BBQ. we eat them with tortillas -- tacos de nopalitos.
Around Tucson, you can buy them sliced and diced in small, one-pound bags courtesy of Oro Verde Products (9151 W. Monroe St., Tolleson, Arizona, 85353/(623) 478-5300)) at Food City and even the Safeway at Campbell and Broadway. At home
I cook 'em up with eggs and beans and lately have been rolling it all up into a burrito.
7 comments:
i say this with all the love i can vato...If you have a hard time with food...Pot.
You are the Julia Child of chemo. In a manly way. And, Sal: I seem to recall GBS talking about some delicious *brownies* not so very long ago.
Here here. If you ever need any *brownies* or green oil just give me a shout. I can send out some Cali love your way. You're a trooper, mi tio, keep doing what you're doing.
Nopales bring back quite a few memories because my grandparents used to eat them all the time. My grandpa would cut them out of his yard, remove the splinters and clean them so my grandma could prepare them in a salad. I guess if you're only able to stomach certain foods...healthy ones like nopales aren't a bad thing at all.
A close family friend going through chemo now can't seem to stomach a lot of foods either and her meds and condition prohibit her from eating any foods with vitamin K, so she doesn't really have a lot of options. Now that I think about it..wonder if she'd be up for a green butter brownie if its for medicinal purposes...
Has your mom been making you any platanos?
With just a drizzle of honey it can be really light snack.
But the "brownies" sound pretty good too.
Hey! Wonderful posting, I'm going to link to it from my blog:
www.thespicedoc.com
Be well!
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