Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon water
• 6 yucca flower petals, stems and stamens removed
• 1 teaspoon butter
• 1 tablespoon minced chives
• 1 teaspoon minced cilantro leaves
• 2 tablespoons shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

1. First, rinse the yucca petals under cool running water. Remove the center of each flower, which is bitter.
   
2. First, whisk 2 eggs with 1 tablespoon water.
3. Next, we're going to heat our omelet pan with about 1 teaspoon of butter.
4. Wash 4-6 yucca flowers and remove the petals. Add to the skillet and sautee, along with 1 tablespoon minced chives and 1 teaspoon minced cilantro leaves.
5. Once omelet is cooked through, flip and add 2 tablespoons shredded cheese. Fold over and serve, with additional flowers as a garnish.

Chef Jason's Notes: I first learned about these from my father-in-law, who got them from a Mexican friend. He used them in a wonderful quiche, but today we're going to make a quick Flor d'itabo omelet.

The yucca plant is very common throughout the Southwest. It has sharp spiny leaves and beautiful white flowers, which bloom between April and May of each year. The edible petals are wonderful boiled in salted water, or you can add them into an omelet. Yucca flowers are rich in potassium and calcium. The top stalk of the yucca is also edible. I've never tried it myself, but they say it tastes a lot like asparagus.

The yucca flowers are available in the wild, or in Hispanic markets. When picking htem wild, just pick the flowers and put them in a bag, making sure there's no bees in there.

The flowers and the fruit of the yucca were important wild foods for the Shoshone Indians.