Un Verano Con Familia: Grilled Nopales & Quesadillas Made With Sargento® 100% Real, Natural Cheese

Sponsored by Sargento® Foods

Summertime is the best. The warm breeze, long days, and family gatherings make for endless fun and relaxation. For Jose, a home chef and Mexican food connoisseur, summer means finding any reason to get together with friends and family to enjoy a delicious home-cooked meal. There’s nothing more important than spending quality time with loved ones and no one gets it more than Sargento, a third-generation family-owned company. Like Jose, Sargento believes in the importance of family and quality food!

And when it comes to food, no summer is complete without a backyard carne asada. Authentic flavors are a priority for Jose, that’s why he chooses Sargento® as his go-to cheese for his recetas. With its distinctive red-orange rind and savory, mild flavor, this soft Sargento® Muenster Natural Cheese will satisfy all your melty, cheesy needs! 

Check out the recipe below for Grilled Nopales and Quesadillas, the perfect appetizer to hold over your familia as they eagerly await the main dish!

Ingredients:

• 6 small nopales, clean with no prickles (or carne asada)
• 12 street-size corn tortillas
• 2 limes
• ¼ cup of olive oil
• Salt and black pepper, to taste
• Sargento® Sliced Muenster Natural Cheese 

Instructions:

1. Add the nopales (or carne asada) in a bowl, and squeeze the juice from two limes directly on top. Add the olive oil and season with salt and pepper to taste. Mix together thoroughly so all the nopales are evenly coated.
2. Place them on the grill over medium heat and cook on both sides. At this point, they will wrinkle and sometimes inflate. Don’t like the slimy texture of nopales? The more time you leave them on the grill, the less slime you’ll have!
3. Now, add the cheese and wait until it melts. Once it’s done cooking, you can fold them like a quesadilla or slice them to put inside a tortilla.
4. Finally, prepare the quesadillas in a similar style by putting the tortilla on the grill, flip it, add cheese, fold them and wait for the cheese to melt!

*Note: Nopales can be hard to find if you don’t have a Mexican market nearby, and even then, they run out quickly! A great substitute is zucchini squash, sliced longwise.

There’s nothing like gathering with family and friends during the Summer, so try out these tasty grilled nopales and quesadillas for your next cookout! Check out the Sargento® Cheese website for more authentic Mexican-inspired recipes.