Healthy Mexican specialties draw a crowd

Special to the Green Valley News

Esperanza Arevalo brings her freshly made food to the Green Valley Farmer’s Market each Wednesday morning. She’s a delightful, openly friendly person. When she says, “Thank you,” or “May I help you,” it’s genuine.

She puts that kind of energy into her cooking as well. “I love what I do,” she says.

Esperanza, her sister-in-law and her mother are committed to making everything fresh and from scratch at the family business, Tortileria Arevalo. A friend provides their organic white corn year round with the help of greenhouses so it’s always fresh. Esperanza’s week begins Sunday afternoons as she cuts kernels off the cobs in readiness for the week’s supply of white corn tortillas.

Fresh offerings include four types of tamales still hot from the morning’s steaming. One shopper declared, I came over (to the market) just for the tamales!” Esperanza’s customers return week after week.

Her flour tortillas caused another spirited customer to say, “I know I’ll enjoy these — beats the grocery store all to heck!” Esperanza is grateful, but not surprised. Each tortilla is hand made and she wouldn’t consider doing it any other way.

Another health conscious decision was to cook her tortilla chips in olive oil. Last week, yet another customer said, “These taste great. I buy them because of the olive oil. I have a health condition that restricts regular fat intake, but olive oil is fine.”

A former computer engineer, Esperanza was downsized following Sept. 11. That’s when she joined her father in his tortilla business.

Esperanza’s favorite and perhaps most important products are all made from mesquite. Not the local pods though, sweeter, higher quality mesquite flour comes to her from Peru and has enormous health benefits.

For centuries, Peruvian people have chewed the pods when hungry or thirsty knowing this would help until they were able to drink or eat again. Even today, dieters use the meal to help stave off hunger. Esperanza sells the mesquite meal to be used as a cooking ingredient or even as a spice. It has a subtle, sweet flavor. She suggests baking with it or adding it to a smoothie or protein drink for it’s high fiber, lysine and protein content. Lysine is an essential amino acid often lacking in vegetarian diets. Customers sprinkle it on ice cream and popcorn, too.

Rounding out the mesquite line is a moist apple, mesquite and pecan bread, mesquite almond cookies (no sugar needed) and the incredible mesquite and amaranth tortillas. These are significantly higher in cost than her other tortillas due to the use of protein and amino acid packed ingredients. They carry a whopping 64 percent Peruvian mesquite meal, 10 percent amaranth and 26 percent whole wheat flour.

Farmer’s Market

If you go

Green Valley Farmer’s Market runs from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. every Wednesday at the Green Valley Village, Esperanza Boulevard and La Canada Drive.