Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Around the World: The Southwest

This lunch showcases some of the traditional foods of the southwestern region of the United States, which includes Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado: Corncob Cornbread, Anasazi Beans with roasted chiles, Prickly Pear Pudding, Fried Nopales, and a Baby Squash Medley topped with sunflower and pumpkin seeds.

Just for fun I used scissors to cut corn tortillas into "cornhusk" shapes and wrapped them around the cornbread to resemble fresh ears of corn. The tortilla strips are used for scooping up bites of beans and nopales at lunch time.

One cactus is in this lunch, served two ways: First, nopales are the flat, green pads of the prickly pear cactus. When cooked they taste something like lemony green beans, with a slippery quality like okra. They're very popular at the Hispanic grocery store in my town, where I usually have to stand in line to get to them, in bags already deprickled and diced. (I cut a whole pad into a little garnish, too.) Next, the red fruit of the prickly pear cactus is made into a sweet syrup that flavors the nondairy pudding for dessert.

Link: Vegan Lunch Box Around the World.

8 comments:

Katie said...

Hello, I just found your blog and it looks really cool. I am not a vegan, but a vegetarian for 9 years now. I am not sure where else to ask this question, so I guess here is as good a place as any. What happened to your patterns? None of the links work and I would really like to make an apple cozy. Thanks.

SallyT said...

I've always been wary of nopales. We can get them here in Texas w/o much trouble so I really should give them a go. I just googled nopales season and it appears it's a Spring vegetable--like asparagus.

crunchy toasts said...

Hello there! You've got another new follower! I'm a 15 year old transitioning vegan in an omnivore house. I just bought your first book after a long check out of the library editon. I know this sounds crazy, but i could've sworn I saw you at my local Trader Joes in Oregon. Send me an email if you have time! Sorry if this was the wrong place to leave this comment.

A said...

beautiful!!
-A

Anonymous said...

Hi Jennifer (same name, snap!), is there any way that I can contact you by email? I really like your site, and it was you who inspired me to buy a laptop lunchbox. I would like to email you something that you may be interested in.

Jennifershmoo said...

Thanks for the reminder Katie -- I just moved my website to a new hosting service and had forgotten that the cozy patterns were on there. They should all be there now!

CV Fab Mama /Curly Girlie said...

Love your lunch box ideas and photos I am always searching for lunch box inspiration.

Humble Vegan said...

Hi there!! Been following your blog for a while now. Love your SW lunch box. I am a native northern New Mexican and LUV the taste of cactus.

Would like to invite you to check out my 2 blogs. I am the HumbleVegan and I am founder of a Vegan/Vegetarian meetup group.

this one is mine
http://www.humblevegan.blogspot.com

this one is my groups
http://visionvoicevegnsforthebrazosvalley.blogspot.com/

thanks for your great ideas!!

HumbleVegan :-)