"Great Fresh Yummie Texas Customer on May 16, 2016 Really high quality, delivered as promised, Almost a citrus like flavor."
This customer has been sent the secret code to get a five dollar discount on her next box of edible cactus.
And to tell the truth... I get all happy and prideful when someone from Texas compliments us on our cactus. We enjoy showing people how they can eat cactus, and how many great cactus recipes there are, and how healthy cactus is.
We got our first Customer Review on the website since we rebuilt it in January. We've decided we'll give everyone who writes a review a coupon code for a $5 discount on a box of cactus.
Awesome nopales May 09, 2016 These are the highest quality. Delicious.
If you'd like to take advantage of this opportunity go ahead and post a review from the link above, and we'll send you a discount code to use when you order your next box of cactus. The code should be sent within a few days of notification.
Here's a Spanish-language video showing the making of Nopales Rellanos. Since cooking is international, any cook in the world should be able to follow-along, and listen to the beauty of the Spanish language.
Get your pen and paper to write down the ingredients which are shown at the beginning. This is an extremely tasty way to eat cactus.
"Nopales are the edible, fleshy pads of the prickly pear cactus. They're harvested shortly after rains when they're plump, juicy and full of nutrients..... Follow this recipe and you'll be enjoying crispy, tempura-style nopales tacos in no time."
Here's a nice cactus recipe that uses grilled cactus to add to the salad.
In this recipe one cooks the olive-oiled and salted cactus over a grill until the color changes to a deeper green and some evidence of charring happens. The cactus is removed from the grill and cooled overnight, then it is chopped the next day and added in a bowl with tomatoes, onions, chilies, cilantro and cheese. Drench with more olive oil and some vinegar, some more salt and some black pepper. Toss well. Serve on plates lined with lettuce leaves, and garnish with avocado slices sprinkled with cracked pepper garnish.
Oh, let me tell ya, this is one fine salad!
On an accompanying note... I recommend adding sweet corn sliced off the cob and some canned black beans.
This is why we call these 'Artisan-Grown' edible nopal cactus pads. Just before we start the larger commercial harvests we cut the grasses growing around the plants over the winter. The grasses from the rows are cut and laid in among the cactus plants in order to shade the soil. The grasses from the pathways are also cut and placed gently around the cactus. This has several benefits" 1. Removal of the grasses will open the plants to the warming affects of the sun. This will stimulate the summer growth and formation of new cladodes (cactus pads, edible cactus leaves, nopales). 2. The cut grasses will help shade the soil, reducing temperature spikes and helping keep the cactus roots cool and conserving moisture. If the roots don't cook, the plant can take more sunshine and heat and grow faster. 3. As the year goes on the leaves and the straw from the grass stems will slowly decompose into the soil, adding to the biosphere of the soil zone.
Cutting by hand is more challenging. A mechanical string trimmer is faster, but the grasses are chopped up and fly everywhere, including damaging the growing cactus.
If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right. And this cactus is worth growing for our customers. And I will grow it right, and leave this soil richer and deeper than when I got here.
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Esta es la razón por la que los llamamos "Artisan-Grown'. Justo antes de empezar las grandes cosechas comerciales cortamos las hierbas que crecen alrededor de las plantas durante el invierno. Los pastos de las filas se cortan y se sentó entre los cactos en orden a la sombra de la tierra. Las hierbas de los caminos se cortan y coloca suavemente alrededor de los cactus. Esto tiene varias ventajas" 1. Extracción de las gramíneas se abrirá las plantas afecta al calentamiento del sol. Esto estimulará el crecimiento de verano y formación de nuevos cladodios (pastillas de cactus comestibles, hojas de cactus, nopales). 2. Cortar la hierba ayudará a la sombra del suelo, reduciendo los picos de temperatura y ayudando a mantener las raíces de cactus fresco. Si las raíces no cocine, la planta puede tomar más sol y calor y crecer más rápido. 3. Como el año pasa sobre las hojas y la paja de los tallos de pasto se descomponen lentamente en el suelo, agregando a la biosfera, de la zona de la tierra. Cortar a mano es más desafiante. Un recortador de cadena mecánico es más rápido, pero las gramíneas están picados y volar por doquier, incluso dañar el cultivo de nopal Si vale la pena hacer, vale la pena hacer lo correcto. Y esto vale de nopal creciente para nuestros clientes. Y voy a crecer bien, y dejar esta tierra más rico y más profundo que cuando llegué aquí.
I was picking and packing nopal cactus today and had the urge to take pictures of the nopales pads. We have here Grade-D (juicing Grade) cactus and Grade -C Gourmet grade nopal cactus pads in these pics. This is the quality we've got being harvested right now.
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Yo estaba recogiendo y embalaje nopal cactus hoy y tenía ganas de tomar fotos de los nopales pastillas. Aquí tenemos la categoría D (zumo de grado) y cactus -C GRADO grado Gourmet nopal cactus pads en estas fotos. Esta es la calidad que tenemos está cosechando ahora.
Above we have Grade-C nopales cactus. This is the grade we recommend for most culinary uses. This is an easy-to prepare nopal cactus that needs just a wiping under running water to clean off. They are excellent raw in salsa or a cool refreshing cactus salad. They can also be mixed with other foods as another ingredient in a healthy diet. Add some nopalitos diced-fine to your meatloaf and see how much moister the loaf is. Fry nopales in with other vegetables in a stir fry. Fry some potatoes and scramble eggs in, as the eggs are almost done toss your chopped cactus in, stir and spoon them into tortillas to make breakfast burritos.
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Arriba tenemos la categoría C cactus nopales. Este es el grado que recomendamos para la mayoría de los usos culinarios. Esta es una forma fácil de preparar nopal cactus que sólo necesita un barrido bajo un chorro de agua para limpiar. Son excelentes materias en salsa o un cactus refrescantes ensaladas. También pueden ser mezcladas con otros alimentos como otro ingrediente en una dieta saludable. Agregar unos trocitos finos de nopalitos a su pastel de carne y ver cuánto más mojado el pan. Freir nopales con otras verduras en un salteado. Freír las patatas y los huevos revueltos, como los huevos son casi hecho balancearse en sus cactus en picado, agitar y cuchara de ellos en las tortillas, burritos de desayuno.
This photo shows the Grade D 'Juicing Grade' nopalea cactus we're harvesting right now. The quality and looks changes through the year, it is a plant that grows outdoors after all. These Grade-D Juicing-grade cactus are thicker skinned with more weight per nopal pad. These are the leaves that grew over the winter. They've seen a few storms, but they are full of life. This is the grade people who are going to juice them might want to use. They have a lot more fiber than the younger leaves.
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Esta foto muestra el grado D 'exprimir' cactus nopalea grado estamos cosechando ahora. La calidad y analiza los cambios a través del año, es una planta que crece en el exterior después de todo. Estos Grado D exprimir cactus grado son más gruesas de piel con más peso por nopal pad. Estas son las hojas que crecieron durante el invierno. Ellos han visto pocas tormentas, pero están llenos de vida. Esta es la clase de personas que van a ellos el jugo que desee utilizar. Tienen mucha más fibra que las hojas más jóvenes.
While not strictly vegetarians (not even loosely vegetarians, in fact), we’re always looking for ways to extend Meatless Mondays well into the week. Vegetarian tacos are usually a pretty easy way to do that, though for us, that generally means tofu or fish. In fact, cactus might not have occurred to if not for Jason Wyrick‘s entirely enticing dish in Vegan Tacos. We’re always looking for a reason to go to our favorite Mexican market, and the hunt for nopales is just the one we’ve been waiting for.
“Nopales are prickly pear cactus pads,” says Wyrick, a chef who used a vegan lifestyle to reverse his diabetes and change the way he ate and lived. “They take some care to work with properly, but when you do, they are amazing. They have just a little tang and a nice bright flavor. I usually find the fresh ones at a Mexican market. You can make these either in a pan or on the grill.”
Between this dish and the Wyrick’s many other variations on the vegan-taco theme, our Meatless Mondays (and Tuesdays, and Wednesdays…) are looking a lot more interesting.
Vegan Tacos Authentic and Inspired Recipes for Mexico’s Favorite Street Food by Jason Wyrick