Category: Vegetables + Salads

I was walking in the Washington Heights area one Saturday afternoon when I saw cactus pads, or nopales in Spanish, on display in one of the grocery stores. I immediately remembered our trip to Mexico where we had numerous unforgettable meals. In the town of Pochutla in Oaxaca, we ate several times at Lichita Restaurant and I remember how I eagerly ordered cactus soup because the idea of eating the cactus pads excited me. I was just so curious as to how it would taste. It has the texture of broccoli stalks, tender but succulent inside. I gather that the softness is because of how the plant itself collects so much water in order to survive in the dessert. Don’t fear the thorns. They’re usually dry enough to pare off using a small knife. You can make your usual tomato soup but it would be less boring to have cactus chunks in it.

Ingredients:
4 cactus pads
2 medium-sized tomatoes, chopped
1 small can of tomato sauce
3 cups of chicken stock
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 medium red onion
lime juice
a handful of cilantro, finely chopped
salt, pepper, oil

1. Slice off thorns from cactus pads. Cut in small chunks.
2. Heat a little oil in a hot sauce pan. Sauté garlic until light brown, onions until transparent and tomatoes until mushy. Add tomato sauce and bring to a boil over medium heat. Then add chicken stock and bring to a second boil.
3. Add cactus and let simmer for about 15 minutes until tender. Add lime and cilantro and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Related post/s:
Good ol’ chicken stock
Where to buy nopales, or cactus pads

Sicilian granita is a semi-frozen dessert of sugar and water. You can substitute the celery from this recipe with almost anything that’s in season. I first tasted a homemade version of granita in Vermont when one of the boy’s professor served us a small snack flavored with raspberries he grew in his yard. He mentioned that a vegetable as flavoring will even work, so when I returned to New York City, I made it with celery. If you have access to Chinese celery–they are thinner and softer than the American kind–use it because it has a spicier taste to it. This recipe makes a generous bowl of granita.

Ingredients:
1 bunch of celery, rinsed and patted dry
1/2 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of water
1 tray of ice cubes
lemon juice
mint leaves, finely chopped

1. Make the simple syrup. In a sauce pan, bring water with sugar to a boil. Simmer until clear, about 3 minutes. Pour into a bowl and set aside to cool.
2. Using a food processor, purée celery stalks. With a cheese cloth, strain the celery juice to another bowl to make sure you don’t have any of the pulp. In a blender, chop ice cubes until crushed.
3. To serve, pour over some celery juice and simple syrup in a bowl of crushed ice. Sprinkle some lemon juice to balance out the sweet and sour tastes. You can serve this immediately with mint leaves on top.

In the summer, the farmers’ market sells a lot of beets. It takes a while for them to get soft but this summer soup is worth all the time. Your beet will be smoother if you use a more powerful blender. I have to get married first in order to get one of those, so for now, mine will have the consistency of a chunkier version.

Ingredients:
1 bunch of red beets, rinsed well
1 yellow onion, chopped coarsely
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 cups of chicken stock
lemon juice
salt, pepper, olive oil

1. Cook the beets in a big pot of boiling water, uncovered, until tender, about 45 minutes to an hour. When done, run them under cold water to cool. Dry with paper towel and peel and then cut into large chunks. Set aside.
2. In a large skillet, sauté garlic and onions with a little salt. Set aside.
3. Using a blender, purée beets, onions and garlic until smooth. Add stock slowly until you reach the desired consistency. Season to taste with salt, pepper and some lemon juice.
4. Chill the soup before serving, then ladle into bowls and garnish with mint leaves.

Related post/s:
Good ol’ chicken stock

I picked up Modern Greek: 170 Contemporary Recipes from the Mediterranean and read about skordalia, or garlic sauce. The recipe suggested fried vegetables, like eggplant and zucchini, to serve and dip in it. I used bread as a thickener for the sauce but you can always use potatoes or even walnuts for a nuttier taste. If you have access to panko, or Japanese breadcrumbs, use it because it’s much lighter than flour.

Ingredients for the vegetables:
1 eggplant, sliced in thin rounds
1 zucchini, sliced in thin rounds
1 cup of flour
3/4 cup warm water
1 egg, lightly beaten
salt, pepper, olive oil

1. In a large bowl, mix flour with water until smooth. Beat in the egg and combine with olive oil, salt and pepper. Set aside.
2. Heat some olive oil in a large skillet. Dip the vegetables in the batter and cook in the hot oil until golden brown, about 3 minutes per side.
3. Drain on paper towels and serve with skordalia as dipping sauce.

Ingredients for the skordalia:
3 slices of wheat bread, without crust
6 garlic cloves, peeled
2 tbsps of red wine vinegar
salt, pepper, olive oil

1. Soak the bread in water for about 15 minutes. Squeeze out the excess moisture.
2. Crush garlic and salt using a mortar and pestle until garlic is puréed. Combine with the bread, vinegar and pepper in a food processor. Blend until smooth, slowly adding olive oil in the process.

Related post/s:
Modern Greek: 170 Contemporary Recipes from the Mediterranean at Amazon.com