3 Southwestern Inspired Food Products That You Need To Try

 Check out these delicious products that are Southwestern-inspired. These products are perfect for summer meals.

 When you look up what foods are regional for the Southwest, the most common answer is the three sisters' foods ~ corn, beans, and squash. While these are common staples in the Southwest, many more delicious foods can be found in the Southwestern region of the United States. 

 From delicious tortillas to spicy green chile, the Southwest states have unique food items that you need to know about. Today I am going to introduce you to some Southwestern-inspired items that I am enjoying this month. 

1. Hatch Chile Sauces

 One food that is from the Southwest is green chile. This spicy pepper is a New Mexico staple and is mostly grown in Hatch, New Mexico. This small town in New Mexico is the Chile Capital of the World. This is where the best green chile is grown and it is where many brands like Santa Fe Ole and Los Roast get their chile to make their delicious sauces. 

 We New Mexicans love our green chile and eat lots of it. Green chile and red chile are staples in our cooking for delicious meals. Fresh Green chile is only available for one month and this is a time when most people buy big bags of green chile at the markets. The markets even roast the green chile in the parking lot. Read more about green chile roasting here.

 People from New Mexico stock their freezers with fresh green chile, in hopes that they will have enough to last all year. For most people, their green chile stash is gone quickly, and they turn to their favorite New Mexico brands to buy more green chile products. 

A couple of brands that have been supplying green chile and red chile to folks living in New Mexico and other parts of the United States are Santa Fe Ole and Los Roast. These local brands have been making chile sauces for many years.

 Each brand sent me a jar of their chile sauces and I am excited to use them in my New Mexican recipes. Santa Fe Ole sent me a jar of medium-roasted green chile sauce and Los Roast sent me a jar of red chile sauce. For those not familiar with green chile, red chile is from the same chile pepper, it is just left on the vine longer.

The green chile sauce will be awesome in my slow cooker tamale recipe. This medium-roasted green chile will also be enjoyed over my vegan scrambled eggs and in a homemade bean burrito. The red chile sauce will be awesome in my Slow Cooker Vegetarian Posole, a holiday favorite that my family enjoys even in July. 

2. Cactus Crunch Chips

 Here in the Southwest, we love tortilla chips. Tortilla chips and salsa are a favorite snack and appetizer. Visit any New Mexican restaurant and they will give you a basket of tortilla chips along with salsa before your meal. A tortilla chip that I have been enjoying with my salsa is Cactus Crunch Chips.

 These delicious chips are made with nopal flour. Nopal flour comes from the paddles of the prickly pear cactus. The prickly pear cactus grows in the Southwest and here in New Mexico, they are everywhere. I love harvesting the fruit from the prickly pear cactus. 

The Catcus Crunch Chips are so delicious and they are loaded with nutrition. They are a healthier option for tortilla chips. Cactus is abundant in antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals that boost immunity. These crunchy chips have less carbs, sugar, and calories when compared to traditional tortilla chips. They are a perfect pair for salsa.

3. Keith Cacao

This 100% Pure Ceremonial Grade Cacao Drink may not be grown in the Southwest but it is a wonderful product to make Mexican Hot chocolate. It may be summer and hot chocolate may not be on your mind but this Ceremonial Cacao can be enjoyed warm or over ice. 

Keith's Ceremonial Cacao is the healthiest chocolate drink in the world that you can drink every day! This superfood offers a boost of energy and enhances your focus. Many people like to enjoy it in the morning as a healthy alternative to coffee. Unlike coffee, you won't get the caffeine jitters from this drink. Keiths Cacao has theobromine which stimulates our peripheral system, boosting blood flow throughout our body and providing a genuine lift without the rollercoaster crash.

 Keith's Ceremonial Cacao is offered in beans, paste, and mini-brick pastes and you can serve it up hot or cold or even incorporate it into your baking - check out some recipes here.

Southwestern-Inspired Products that you need to try

These are products that you need to try. My teen son loved the Cactus Crunch chips and ate a whole bag of the chips. I did get a few chips but I did not mind one bit as he ate plenty of salsa with the chips. Salsa is made with veggies so that counts as a vegetable serving.

 I enjoyed a warm mug of the Ceremonial Cacao with some cinnamon and it had a delicious chocolate taste. It reminded me of Mexican hot chocolate.

The chile sauces are in my pantry and I will be making some posole in the slow cooker this weekend with the red chile sauce. My son wants to use some of the red chile sauce for his enchiladas. The green chile sauce will be used on a daily basis over eggs and in burritos. 

Which product are you excited to try?

It Is Green Chile Time In New Mexico!

Green chile is a favorite New Mexican food that is used in many delicious meals. From breakfast to dinner, this spicy green pepper is enjoyed in so many ways. Keep reading to learn more about green chile. 

   Here in New Mexico, it is green chile time! Starting in August our favorite vegetable is ready to be harvested. This wonderful vegetable, green chile, comes from Hatch, New Mexico. The green chile from Hatch tastes so much better than the stuff grown in Mexico or California. Those chiles are from the Anaheim pepper and not like the green chile that is grown here. 

 The Hatch green chile is so much better tasting. If you have never been to New Mexico, you probably never experienced the wonderful taste of green chile or how they are roasted. Green chile is a pepper that is used in many New Mexican dishes. The heat can be mild to very hot depending on your taste. I like mine to be medium, which gives my food a slight kick.  Green chile season is very short, so when they hit the stores people go crazy and buy plenty to freeze for year-round. I am going to tell you about my experience buying green chile.

   Two weeks ago, when they first arrived at the store, the green chile was sold out in 2 hours. I waited another week to try again to buy some. I arrived at the store and was pleased to see they had the wonderful green chile. So I grabbed a case and put it on my cart. The below picture is what fresh green chile looks like.

  Once you pay for your case of green chile, you go outside to get it roasted. Many stores will do that for free. The line is always long for the roasting, but people wait as the stores have special roasters. Some people do choose to roast it on their grill but it takes a long time. 

The green chile goes in the cage and then flames roasted it so the peel comes off. This process takes about 15 minutes so be prepared to wait. I was in line for 1 1/2 hours but I made use of my time. I called my mom and then I talked with people in line. The store even handed out cold water while people waited.

Once my chile was roasted, they put it into a clean plastic garbage to finish the process of helping the skin fall off. I then took my chile home.

 I then started the process of bagging my chile for the freezer so I would be able to use it year round. Some people peel the skin off the chile before freezing but I freeze them with the peel on and it falls off when thawing. The skin is the black part on the chile pictured below. Most of the skin has already fallen off during the roasting.  Here is what the green chile looks like after roasting.

I then placed about 2 green chiles per baggie and then put the baggies in a bigger freezer bag. When I was done I had about 60 servings of green chile to go into my deep freezer.

  I am all set for the year to make wonderful dishes like breakfast burritos, enchiladas, tacos, pizza, and many other dishes. Here in New Mexico, we put green chile on everything like burgers and pizza, it's that good! When you live in New Mexico for a while you crave green chile. My older son who is overseas is craving green chile bad. When he comes home in January, I will have some in my freezer to give to him.

 So now you know about green chile, if you visit us make sure to order it on your food. You will be happy you did. I will share with you some dishes I love to make with green chile in another post.