FOOD IDEAS | Bison Tacos + Hanam Tepary Bean Salad

Hanam is the O’Odham word for the cactus bud that grows on the buckthorn cactus in the Sonoran Desert in the springtime. Indigenous people there have been harvesting them for centuries. Traditionally they were used in soups or ground up and cooked into a pudding. Today there are so many ways to Indigenize a salad with these. If hanam are in your region and you come from people who had a relationship with them, you might considering using this in a variety of salads. Think variations rather than recipes. Get creative, be experimental. The salad included hanam (buckthorn cactus buds), s-woam bav (brown tepary beans) jicima, Orange bell peppers and micro red amaranth. The dressing is our go-tol mix of olive oil, apple cider vinegar, squeezed lemon and lime juice and a lil sea salt.
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The masa harina flour is store bought and the tortillas were hand pressed by us. The bison skirt stake was cooked in olive oil, mesquite smoke sea salt, garlic and some jam for a tad of sweetness. We also included some i’itoi sivol (onions) from the family garden.