We enjoy nopal salad four to five times a week. It goes with everything. Our preference by far is the raw nopal version. It does tend to produce a slime factor much like okra, but we work our way around it. More on that later. The ingredients are generally available at a good Mexican grocery market. Some folks like to cook the nopal to get rid of the juices. Those recipes are available online.
The recipe is simple:
Two fresh nopal leaves – cleaned and spines removed.
One or two Roma tomato
½ white onion
½ bunch cilantro
One or two (two is better!) Jalapeno, deveined and seeded
One or two lime, juiced
2 tbs spoons salt
Slice the nopal leaves lengthwise in ¼” strips, then crosswise in 2” lengths
Place nopal cuttings in a bowl. Add 2 tbs salt. Hand massage the nopalitos in the salt for 5 minutes. This will get the juices flowing from the nopalitos. Set the bowl aside for 20 minutes or more as the juices flow. After 20 or more minutes rinse the nopalitos in a colander under cool tap water and allow to drain. Rinse out the mixing bowl.
Chop the tomato, onion, jalapeno, cilantro. Juice the lime.
Mix everything together in a bowl. Let it sit in the refrigerator for at least 4-5 hours, preferably overnight. Stir and turn it over in the bowl once or twice. It gets better with age. Keep covered and refrigerated. Will last for three or four days easily (if it hasn’t been eaten before then!). Note: drain the juices before eating. There is no flavor or other issue with the juices other than preference.
Enjoy!
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