Suggestions for taking Powder  Banana Smoothie  (Uses Nopal Flour/powder) Nopal Bread   (Uses Nopal Flour/powder) Banana Bread  (Uses Nopal Flour/powder) Date Nut bread  (Uses Nopal Flour/powder) Healthy Banana Cookies  (Uses Nopal Flour/powder) Hearty Oak and Nut bread (uses Nopal Flour/powder) Nopal Salad  (uses Fresh Nopal ) Quick Warm Nopal  (uses Fresh Nopal ) Cactus Salad Dressing  (for Fresh Nopal ) Bread Recipes for your   Bread Machine Photo at the right is one of our Nopal Plants growing some prickly pears.  Photo taken in mid July 2003 By GonzoWhite

 Powder Recipes... Two quick methods for taking Nopal powder are to

(1) Put a tablespoon in any fruit juice, stir and drink. 

(2) Or put a tablespoon in some yogurt, mix and drink. 

(3) If you want to get a bit fancier here is a recipe for a fantastic smoothie. 

1 banana
1 tablespoon Nopal Powder
1/4 cup yogurt
1/2 cup milk

Blend and drink

BREAD & ROLLS

I have a bread machine and love to make bread.  I have been experimenting with Nopal powder and have found that I can substitute about 1/2 cup of Nopal for 1/2 cup flour in almost any bread recipe and it comes out great!  It tastes great and you get all the benefits of eating Nopal.  I am going to be experimenting for the next few weeks and will add some more bread recipes as they develop.  You do need to add some Wheat Gluten to give it some texture. (note:  All recipes were tested using "I can't believe its not butter" Salted Stick Margarine) Do not use margarine in tubs.

  NOPAL BREAD
 Or cactus bread   is made by adding nopales to bread recipes. A favorite is a multigrain bread mix. Using a bread maker makes it easy, but baking bread the old-fashioned way is great.
   Regardless of what bread recipe is used, reduce the amount of water required by ½ cup for a 1 1/2-pound loaf, and add 1 cup of pureed fresh nopal.
   With some bread types and loaf sizes, you may have to experiment with moisture requirements. Some recipes will let you add 1 cup pureed nopal without reducing water.
   The texture of the resulting bread is not unlike an English muffin. The Ramirezes like to toast it on a "comal" or tortilla griddle, then top it with cream or Neufchatel cheese, jam or jelly.
   - Recipes' source: Tony and Renee Ramirez.

 
For some Bread Machine Recipes click here.  Bread Machine recipes
Note.. These recipes can be made by hand or in a heavy duty mixer.  They are just sized for a bread machine.   My own personal taste seems to much prefer using real milk (low fat) rather then powdered milk with the nopal flour.

Banana Bread
This came out really good.  The addition of the Nopal Powder really improved the recipe.  It gave it a finer crump and really good flavor.  Bananas and Nopal seem to compliment each other.

  3/4 cup Sugar
  1/2 cup of softened butter or Margarine
  2 eggs
  1 cup (2 medium) bananas Mashed
  1/3 cup of milk
  1 teaspoon vanilla
  1 1/2 cups of flour ( I use bread flour but AP is ok)
  1/2 cup Nopal Powder
  2 tablespoons Flax seed (optional) *
  1/2 cup of chopped nuts if desired
  1 teaspoon baking soda
  1/2 teaspoon salt

Heat oven to 325.  Grease bottom only of loaf pan.  In large bowl cream sugar and margarine until light and fluffy.  Beat in eggs, bananas, milk and vanilla.  Add the remaining ingredients and mix until just blended. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 1 hour 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Let cool completly before removing from pan.

*flax seed is good for you and I had some I was trying to figure out what to do with it so I added it to this recipe.  If you have some throw it in if you don't, don't worry about it.  Its not essential. 

Date-Nut Bread
This came out really well.  Its very dark and gooey with a strong date flavor.

• Combine:
• 1 cup boiling coffee  (I don't like coffee so I just used boiling water)
• 1 cup chopped dates
• 1 teaspoon soda
•  
• Let coffee, soda, and dates soak while mixing:
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 egg
• 1  cup of flour
• 1/2 cup of Nopal
•  pinch of salt
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Add date mixture to batter and mix well. Turn into a greased 4-1/2x8-inch loaf pan or 3 mini-loaves and bake at 300 degrees F until a toothpick comes out clean, about 1-1/2 hours (45 minutes for mini-loaves).
 

Healthy Banana - Nopal Cookies
These are a soft chewy Cookie loaded with flavor.  At first taste you think they are not sweet enough (there is no sugar added) but then you want another. 
You really can't eat just one.

Ingredients
	3 ripe large bananas or 4 small ones 2 cups rolled oats (quaker oats in the round container ) 1 cup dates, pitted and chopped 1/3 cup vegetable oil (Canola is best) 1/3 cup of Nopal Powder 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Fresh Recipes
While Nopals have a mild flavor all their own, you can normally substitute them for Grean beans in any recipe.  They also have the advantage of being one of the few veggies that tastes great raw.

Nopal Salad
An very easy and very tasty recipe is to just dice some fresh nopal, add some Italian salad dressing, sprinkle some bits of Feta Cheese over it and serve.

Quick and Hot
A variation of the above, is to cut the nopals in strips, put the plate in the microwave for a short time (depends on how large a plate you have).  put a little bit of oil and wine vinegar on and serve.
 

 Cactus Salad Dressing
 This is a nice dressing to put on Diced Fresh Nopal

1 cup plain nonfat yogurt
4 Tbsp coarse Dijon-style mustard
 5 tsp vinegar
 1 tsp onion powder
 4 dashes hot pepper sauce
 3 drops green food coloring

Combine all ingredients in a small glass container and mix well.  Refrigerate 

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