I went on a quest today to make my own Latin food, specifically Salvadoran, healthier. We all know that fried food taste better, but shouldn’t there be more than one way to do things?
A few weeks ago I went into San Francisco and surprised MigL on a Chilean empanada quest. I directed him to the most awesome little empanada place called Chile Lindo (beautiful Chile). 
These delicious Empanadas de Pino are filled with ground beef, black olives, raisins, onions, cumin and hard boiled eggs. Glazed with egg wash, they’re baked (and can be fried) in an oven until they’re golden brown.
I’m determined to recreate these in a couple of weeks and hopefully the turn out as well as I remember.
But I digress. I know most of my culture’s food is fried. However today I decided to try the unfried side of things. There is a flower (which also happens to be a vegetable) in El Salvador called Flor de Izote that happens to be the national flower. Yes, we eat it – all of it including both the flower and bulb. This vegetable is delicious.
The flavor is like nothing you’ve ever tasted. It’s a tad bitter. You eat both the flower and the But pop some egg whites in there and voila, you’ve got an incredibly low cal meal. It’s only 10 calories for 1/4 cup!
Here’s the egg white wash beaten into submission until stiff peaks form and then the Izote mixture is added into the egg white and placed into the pan.
I did substitute the oil for some Pam and it still tasted equally delicious. I still got that golden brown crust. Yeah!
I paired the Flor de Izote with tomato sauce alongside some rice and steamed veggies. Delish!
2 comments:
That looks good, I am going to have to try this.
It's like nothing you've ever tasted. It's quite different, but once you get used to the flavors, it's delicious!
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