Alberjones con Nopales [Mexican Yellow Pea Soup]

Most shelled beans on earth have their origins in Mexico. Here, there’s over 50 distinct varieties of edible legumes! You know about pinto and black beans, but how about alberjones?

Our host mom always says it’s food “de antes,” as if knowing that this dish has been grown and eaten here for thousands of years wouldn’t make us love it more!

Alberjones, or whole yellow peas, and nopales, the paddle-like cacti that grow from southern Canada all the way into the Peruvian Andes, are boiled until soft, then cooked with lard (oil if you’re veg/vegan), onions, and cilantro. The result is a creamy, filling, healthy, and absolutely delicious soup. Even better: it gets thicker and even tastier the more it sits, so make a giant batch and eat it all week.

Serves 8-10

Start to finish: 4.5 hours (without a pressure cooker)

Ingredients:

-1/2 kilo whole dried yellow peas

-3/4 kg nopales, diced

-1/2 tsp of baking soda

-1 onion, diced

-2 tablespoons of lard (or butter/oil if you’re vegetarian or vegan)

-1 handful of cilantro, chopped

-salt

Optional spicy topping:

-8 small jalapeños, seeded and thinly sliced

-2 small onions, sliced

-oil

Directions:

1. Carefully pick through the peas and remove any rocks or disformed peas. Rinse.

2. In a large pot, cover the peas with a few inches of water, cover, and boil for 3-4 hours, or until soft. If you have a pressure cooker, it will only take 1-2 hours.

3. In a separate pot, add the diced nopales and ½ tsp of baking soda. Cover with water, bring to a boil, and boil for 20-30 minutes, until you can easily pierce with a toothpick.

4. When finished cooking, drain the peas and drain and rinse the nopales.

5. In a large pot over medium heat, add the lard (or butter or oil). When it’s hot, add the diced onions and cook until they’re slightly browned.

6. Add the drained peas, drained and rinsed nopales, 1 tablespoon of salt, and enough water to cover everything, creating a soup. Simmer for another 30 minutes.

7. For the optional topping: In a frying pan over low-medium heat, add oil and fry up the jalapeños and sliced onion for about 10 minutes, until nice and soft. Taste for salt.

8. After 30 minutes of cooking, the peas should have disintegrated, and the soup should have yellowish color. Add the cilantro, and taste for salt.

Serve and enjoy with warm tortillas :)

*After a few days, the soup will be thicker, and an amazing snack is to take a tortilla, warm it on the comal on one side, flip it when it’s warm, and add a thin layer of lard on the top until it’s crispy. Spread a bit of the thickened soup on top, and enjoy! We promise it’s delicious! If you don’t have or don’t like lard, you can just toast the tortilla on the comal, flipping it from side to side until it’s brown and toasty, about 5 minutes.