Caching external text files

I'm building a system where I use external text files to retrieve variables info for components by using Application.dataPath. So when the game is compiled I just add the extra folder with the text files to read, and all is good and works.

But I would like to speed up this process by caching on a list of TextAsset all the text files at runtime, so that will be faster to read them.

It is possible to to add external files to a List without includng them into the build?

NOTE: If you are asking why I'm doing this pointless work, is because I want to let people some degree of freedom on modding the game.