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Ensalada de Nopales Asados - Latino USA Episode 429
Nopal verde con placa como tallos de hojas. Credit: Public Domain Pictures
Ensalada de Nopales Asados
This segment is Susanna Trilling’s recipe for Ensalada de Nopales Asados, or grilled cactus salad. It aired on June 29, 2001.
Susanna Trilling is a chef, teacher, author, and director of the Seasons of My Heart cooking school. In the 1970s, she worked as a sous chef at Sweetish Hill and Fonda San Miguel in Austin, Texas. Then in the 1980s, Trilling was the chef-owner of two restaurants in New York City: Rick’s Lounge and Bon Temps Roller. According to her website, she also opened her catering business, Seasons of my Heart. She moved to Oaxaca, Mexico, in 1988 with her family, where she opened a bed and breakfast in 1994. From her ranch just outside the city, she began growing her own produce.
Cooking with Nopales
Nopal is the Spanish name for cacti and comes from the Nahuatl word nohpalli, meaning the “fruit of the earth.” Folks typically remove the spines and edges before cutting them into small bite-sized pieces and boiling them to get rid of the slime. People have been eating nopal for thousands of years, and it is known for being a healthy addition to any plate, as Trilling notes in the segment.
Annotations
00:00 - 00:09
Lots of desert animals would raid it if they could. They can't because cacti, like desert succulents everywhere, defend themselves with spines.
Maria Hinojosa
Excerpt
Nopal
00:09 - 00:25
Nopal cactus, also known as devil's tongue, may not immediately come to mind when you're looking for something new for lunch. But in Mexico and the southwestern United States, the prickly pear cactus has been cooked and enjoyed for generations.
Maria Hinojosa
Mexico
US Southwest
Nopal
00:26 - 00:32
Susana Trilling is a chef and former restaurateur from the U.S. now living in Oaxaca, Mexico.
Maria Hinojosa
Susana Trilling
Oaxaca
Chef
00:32 - 00:38
She offers cooking classes at her school, Seasons of the Heart, and also teaches across the United States.
Maria Hinojosa
Chef
Education
Seasons of the Heart
00:38 - 00:50
Latino USA caught up with Susana Trilling in Austin, Texas at Manuel's Restaurant, where she shared with us her recipe for ensalada de nopales asados, grilled nopales salad.
Maria Hinojosa
Austin
Recipe
Manuels Restaurant
00:50 - 00:53
Let's just do the ensalada nopal.
Susana Trilling
Nopal
Recipe
00:53 - 00:56
Okay so you take a cactus and you clean the spines off.
Susana Trilling
Nopal
Recipe
00:56 - 00:58
And when you have the whole petals, you wash them well.
Susana Trilling
Nopal
Recipe
00:58 - 01:03
And then you grill them in a cast iron frying pan or on a griddle or a comal.
Susana Trilling
Nopal
Recipe
01:03 - 01:10
And then you cut them up in little pieces, cut up some tomato, some green onions, some cilantro.
Susana Trilling
Nopal
Recipe
01:10 - 01:13
And then you roast some garlic and chop that up fine.
Susana Trilling
Nopal
Recipe
01:13 - 01:15
You mix that all together.
Susana Trilling
Nopal
Recipe
01:15 - 01:24
And then in a molcajete, you grind up some star anise, maybe one star, and then about half a cup of vinegar, half a cup of olive oil, and the juice of two limes.
Susana Trilling
Nopal
Recipe
01:24 - 01:28
And you mix that in and then you cut up some avocado and you fold that in.
Susana Trilling
Nopal
Recipe
01:28 - 01:32
And that's called ensalada de nopal asado. It's really good for you.
Susana Trilling
Nopal
Recipe
01:32 - 01:37
And in case you didn't catch all of that the first time, here's the recipe.
Maria Hinojosa
Recipe
01:37 - 02:01
One pound of fresh nopales, nine garlic cloves, a quarter pound of tomatoes, three cebollitas, or green onions, two avocados, half a cup of chopped cilantro, or coriander, one star of anise, ground, a third of a cup of red wine vinegar, two tablespoons of lime juice, salt and pepper to taste.
Maria Hinojosa
Recipe
Nopal
02:01 - 02:07
I serve them on totopos or like tortillas that are baked in the oven with a little bit of queso fresco on top.
Susana Trilling
Recipe
02:07 - 02:10
So it's kind of like crunchy, slimy and salty. [Laughter]
Susana Trilling
Nopal
02:10 - 02:13
But it's a wonderful botana and it's really, really good for you.
Susana Trilling
Nopal
02:13 - 02:16
The nopal is excellent for the salud.
Susana Trilling
Nopal
02:16 - 02:22
Susana Trilling is author of the book Seasons of My Heart, A Culinary Journey Through Oaxaca, Mexico.
Maria Hinojosa
Seasons of My Heart
Chef
Oaxaca
02:22 - 02:24
It's published by Ballantine Books.
Maria Hinojosa
Seasons of My Heart
02:24 - 02:31
The recipe for Ensalada de Nopales Asados can also be found on our website at latinousa.org.
Maria Hinojosa
Nopal
Recipe
Additional Resources
Books
Baer, Roberta Dale. Cooking - and Coping - among the Cacti : Diet, Nutrition, and Available Income in Northwestern Mexico / Roberta D. Baer. Gordon and Breach, 1998, https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315078403 .
Trilling, Susana. My Search for the Seventh Mole : A Story with Recipes from Oaxaca, Mexico / Susana Trilling. The Author], 1997.
Trilling, Susana. Seasons of My Heart : A Culinary Journey through Oaxaca, Mexico / Susana Trilling. 1st ed., Ballantine Books, 1999.
Velázquez, Ernesto. El nopal y su historia / Ernesto Velázquez. 1. ed., Clío, 1998.
Magazine Articles
Trilling, Susana. “Pescado Empapelado al Diablo.” Texas Monthly (Austin), vol. 30, no. 4, 2002, p. 133.
Ensalada de Nopales. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.
Works Cited:
Ruvalcaba, Jessica. “Nopales, The OG Ancestral Food We’ve Been Eating Since Waaaay Before Plant Based Foods Became Trendy.” We Are Mitú. 100% American & Latino, 21 May 2021, https://wearemitu.com/wearemitu/culture/nopales-the-og-ancestral-food-weve-been-eating-since-before-plant-based-foods-became-trendy/.
“The Legacy of Susana Trilling.” Seasons of My Heart, https://www.seasonsofmyheart.com/susana-trilling.