Nopales with Chorizo Recipe
Not long ago I was reading a post from my fellow blogger Chez What? From his comments about eating taste, I started to think about something that many food bloggers face when writing a recipe: its accuracy. How can you give an accurate recipe if everyone’s taste is different? Of course, it is important to have the precision of weights and amounts on baking bread and pastries, but a regular everyday dish with onions, garlic, tomatoes, and spices is a different story.
What if you do not like onions or garlic? Some people do not like onions at all! Many of the recipes that I prepare are done adding a dash of this, a hint of that, a handful of something else and more than once adding something extra until I get it to my own liking.
This simple recipe is one of my favorite ways to eat nopales. Making it often without thinking in amounts or weights and for the first time, I am writing down the recipe for my own future reference. Enjoy it and make it any way you want, after all, you are tasting it.
Nopales with Chorizo Recipe
Directions:
- Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion, and cook, stirring, until soft, about 3 minutes. (Please check the ingredients list below)
- Add the chorizo (casings removed) and keep cooking about 8-9 minutes. Stirring from time to time.
- While the chorizo is cooking place the tomato, serrano pepper and 1 cup of water in a saucepan and cook in medium heat until tomatoes and pepper are tender. After cooking, place the tomato and pepper with a 1/4 cup of the water in your blender and process until you have a smooth sauce. Set aside.
- Once the chorizo has cooked add the nopales and stir.
- Add the sauce and let it simmer for a few minutes just to let the flavors to blend. Adding more water if skillet becomes too dry. Season with salt and pepper.
Serve immediately with corn tortillas.
- 2 cups of cooked nopales prickly pear cactus paddles
- 3 chorizos about 2 oz each
- 1 ½ tablespoon of vegetable oil
- ½ cup of finely diced onion
- 2 medium tomatoes about 1 ½ cup diced
- 1 serrano pepper
- 1/8 teaspoon of freshly ground cumin optional
- Salt and ground pepper to taste
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Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion, and cook, stirring, until soft, about 3 minutes.
-
Add the chorizo (casings removed) and keep cooking about 8-9 minutes. Stirring from time to time.
-
While the chorizo is cooking place the tomato, serrano pepper and 1 cup of water in a saucepan and cook in medium heat until tomatoes and pepper are tender. After cooking, place the tomato and pepper with a 1/4 cup of the water in your blender and process until you have a smooth sauce. Set aside.
-
Once the chorizo has cooked add the nopales and stir.
-
Add the sauce and let it simmer for a few minutes just to let the flavors to blend. Adding more water if skillet becomes too dry. Season with salt and pepper.
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Serve immediately with corn tortillas.
Now tell me, do you cook by taste or by the book?
¡Buen provecho!
Mely,
More recipes:
Nopales a la Mexicana
Nopal Cactus Juice
Ay, qué buenos los nopalitos. Me encanta su sabor y su textura. Pero siempre los había comido en ensalada. Tienen que estar deliciosos en caliente. Me anoto esta gran idea. ¡Gracias!
Besos,
Nikk
mmm chorizo, que rico.
I cook by taste. Recipes are just ideas for me and venture off from there. I find it difficult sometimes to share my recipes because I throw in this and that until I get it "right". This looks delicious. My dad grew up in Texas and told me alot about eating Nopales. I have never had them before. I should change that, huh? Thanks for sharing your recipe, Mely. I hope you are enjoying a wonderful weekend.
Mely: primero: cambiaste tu bloggg !!!!! wow !!! te quedó lindo !!! me gustaaaaa !!! Luego me enseñas a poner esos botoncitos? los he visto en muchos blogs y se me ha pasado preguntar cómo ponerlos !!
Nunca he probado nopales con chorizo !! deben ser muy ricos , chorizo me encanta con todo!!
Buena receta, gracias.
Un beso
Hola Nikk,
Espero los prepares son deliciosos!
Mely
Hola Mi Dama,
Saludos hasta Inglaterra guapa!
Hola Pily, Lo del cambio fue un accidente que espero pronto arreglar. 🙂
Saludos,
Mely
Hello sweet Candace,
You too enjoy the weekend. Thanks for the comment. I guess everyone cook like that. 🙂
Mely
Ay, Que cosa mas rica se ve este plato. Sabes, nunca he probado los napoles, pero con el solo hecho que lleva chorizo–ya se me hace agua la boca!
Hace poco descubri una tienda que vende algunos productos de Mexico, y en este lado del mundo es medio sorprendente 🙂 Asi que voy a ver si tienen los napoles para hacer esta receta tuya tan rica!
Besotes,
Aldy.
Except for baking, or if I'm trying an unusual dish for the very first time, I definitely cook by taste and feel. It seems to me that out of my group of friends, those that really don't like cooking tend to follow recipes with painful precision.
Mely,
así es, si sabes cocinar la experiencia te dice cuanto poner de esto o de aquello, ya sabes mas o menos las proporciones entre los ingredientes.
Los viejos libros de cocina o por lo menos los que vi yo, no te dan siempre cantidades exactas, muchas veces dicen "al gusto" o "cuanto basta" y luego eres tu el o la que debe fijarse en poner la justa cantidad de sal o de agua o de lo que sea.
A veces uno se equivoca, claro, pero eso sirve para formar la experiencia: "experience is the name everyone gives to their own mistakes" (O. Wilde)
😀
A pesar que en el sur de Italia hay muchos nopales, aqui no acostumbra comerlos y por tanto no se encuentran las hojas, lamentablemente.
Ciao!
Mmmm, this looks delicious Mely. We could totally eat this for breakfast today =). I do cook by taste for everyday meals and when throwing something together, but I try to measure things out if I want to post something on my blog…just to give people a "guideline" as to what I tasted and loved (or didn't) so much. Of course, I always expect people will change it up to suit their own tastes. Heck, I change it up from time to time. I do like to think of recipes as guidelines…unless of course it's baking and then I follow the instructions, at least the first time! =)
wow this looks tasty and never cooked with those before keep learning from you couldn't live without onions and garlic 🙂
rebecca
oh this looks wonderful, and really easy to make too, yum!!
Hola Aldi,
I hope you could try the Nopales, maybe they sell them in cans since fresh will will to hard to find.
Hi, Kirbi
I see recipes as a guidelines as dear girlichef mentions in her comments. I always do my own thing in the kitchen.
Hola Querido Falvio,
Pues deberias de pedirles algunos para tu propio consumo. Quizas les llame la a tencion y los coman. Puees empezar una revolucion nopalera en Italia. :).
Mely
Mely, I love nopalitos cooked anyway or even raw. This recipe looks delicious! I know what you mean when you mention about the challenge of being accurate when writing recipes. My mom never used recipes when cooking so I didn't learn to use them neither. Cooking by taste is most of the time a good thing but sometimes it is hard to duplicate an exact flavor in a particular dish – this is when following a recipe comes handy. Most of the time I cook by taste though…
Saludos!
Chorizo y nopalitos que rica combinación me encantan sobre todo los nopales, que buena receta Mely, linda semana un abrazo con mucho mucho cariño.
Hi, looks delicious, wondering how that tastes :), I cook usually by taste when it comes to savory things, for baking and deserts i always follow the book
I am on the same page as you! I have been cooking for so long that I don't even measure when I bake ! and I am making a conscious effort to quantify my recipes so that they are easier to follow, yet I feel like a recipe is just a starting point and people should rely on their taste and instinct; love this recipe as I was watching people peel the nopales at the market the other day, I wanted to get some and cook it and play with it. Thanks!
I love nopalitos! I usually cook by taste and bake by recipe.
Que rico Mely! que antojo! Los nopales son de mis platos favoritos y nunca faltan en mi menú
Un abrazo
I cook by taste, of course!
Cambien el chorizo por camarones, ideal para estos días de cuaresma!
En eso estaba pensando hoy Nora. En tortillas de camaron con nopales. Rico!
Mely
Thanks for dropping by space and leading me here..you have a beautiful collection here..I can now know where to come when I want to make mexican..:)
I cook by taste! It's tricky cos sometimes I forget the exact amts I add when I cook sth so I have to guesstimate my recipes when I blog about them!
Oh man… that looks delicious Mely!! I cook the same way… a bit of this a bit of that, lol! I'll have to make this soon!
Hola!
@Byte64, a Torino (tlaloc.it) hay un negocio que vende nopales y otros productos mexicanos y envian por correo.
Yo los compre por nostalgia, aunque no me gustan, esperaba lograr que los comiera mi marido, pero no he tenido exito 🙁
No me digas Adriana, hay que cambiar marido, no queda de otra! 😀
Gracias Mely, un abrazo!
I have never eaten nopales before. This dish looks so interesting and yummy! I love "tunas" but had no idea you could make so many things out of them and of the full plant! Fantastic post Mely!!!
You just brought me back to a memory of me and my Mexican boyfriend, hiking in the hills in Arizona. He picked some cactus paddles and brought them back home. He cleaned them off and then he mixed them with scrambled eggs and garlic and a little salsa. We ate it with tortillas. The whole experience was mind blowing. It made me love him 100 percent more. Thank you for that fond memory.
Food is definitely very subjective…I just LOVE nopales!! I'm definitely going to try this one soon 🙂
oh this sounds like a DELICIOUS recipe, I will definitely makes these soon. I love chorizo but I normally just make it with beans or eggs. I love nopales too.
When I'm cooking, I do a lot of "a dash of this, a dash of that" too. I think that you get to a point where you know how much you like of what in your dishes, and they cook to your perfection.
I have never tried nopales with chorizo, but I will. Nopales is also one of my favorites, besides all kinds of chili.
Mely,
Do you think i can use fresh Nopales to make some spicy with them. How it taste. This one is tempting. I will try without chorizo. Love the new look of your blog.
Ayy Mely, como siempre me deleito en tu blog con esas recetas tan deliciosas!
La vez pasada me preparé unos tacos de este guiso, leí que según era platillo de Guadalajara… qué tan cierto es esto?
Hola Ziho,
Esta receta la aprendi de una tia que le encantaba comer muy picante. De hecho ella la hacia con mucho chile. La he visto en la Huasteca de Veracrus y San Luis tambien.
Saludos!
Mely
Jack
Hola Jack,
Puedes usar cualquier tipo de chile picante que tengas disponible en tu localidad.
Si no hay frescos, enlatados son un buen substituto.
Mely
Hey:
I go by recipe the first time…just so I basiclly know what I'm "supposed to be doing.."
Then each time, based on family feedback, the recipe gets tweaked till its a favorite, and becomes mine..
BTW your site is awesome! !
Hi, I would like to know what to serve this with, traditionally is it served with rice, beans? I have an Hispanic husband, we have been together 20 years.I'm constantly looking for new authentic recipes to add to my collection. I have quite a repertoire already. But, often mistake what to pair with the dishes. Any suggestions on what to serve with this one?I want to make it soon.
Thank you for your wonderful blog!
Shelley
Highonfaith@aol.com
Hi,
Your blog is great! I don't know if my first post went through as I was not signed in. I was wondering if you could suggest what to serve with this, rice, beans? I have been married to a Hispanic man for 20 years and have amassed quite a collection of authentic Mexican recipes. However I often don't know what to pair with them. For example I made homemade enchilada sauce and beef enchiladas and served them with beans. My husband loves the recipe but, said enchiladas are not traditionally served with beans. So, while my recipes are often a success, my 'pairing' is not. Any suggestions?
Thank You for a wonderful blog.
Shelley
Hello Shell,
Yes, I got your first post. Thank you.
Traditionally, Mexican meals are served with rice and beans, either one or both is fine. But for a balanced meal, I prefer to serve the meals with steamed zucchini or chayotes, topped with some crumbled Mexican fresh cheese and sometimes even a little bit of Mexican cream. For example, the enchiladas that you mention will go well with a Nopales Salad as a first course or a Chicken Vegetable Soup. Still, enchiladas are usually served by themselves in most regions.
If you are serving a dish of meat or Chicken, then rice and some lettuce/tomato salad is fine. Adding beans will be too much protein in one meal. Rice goes well with a lot of the "guisados", but when making meals using tortillas then omit the rice.
If you still have questions, please feel free to send me an email.
Mely
Hi Mely,
Thank you so much for your reply. So do you think this meal would be best served with rice and beans? I know rice and beans are traditionally served with most Mexican meals ( I've learned 'something' after 20 years, LOL), so when my DH said no beans with the enchiladas I was surprised. I'm making this today. I'm planning on serving it today with rice and a bit of avocado, perhaps a bit of crumbled queso fresco. Thanks for the recipe.I'll let you know how it comes out!! I love your blog! 🙂
I guess, I am late to reply to this entry. That is the way I will serve this dish with the avocado.
Happy cooking and come back soon.
Mely
BEAUTIFUL BLOG DI CUCINA , SALUTI DA MILANO-ITALIA ,
We are trying this recipe right now! Thanks Mely.
Hello Luisana,
Do come back to tell me the results.
Can i use a jar of nopalitos i have for this?
Hello Tiffany,
yes, you can. I know, not everyone can find fresh Nopales and the ones from the jar are good. Happy Cooking!