Content

• Ingredients
• To step
• Method 1 of 2: Eating the cactus leaves (nopales)
• Method 2 of 2: Eat the prickly pears
• Tips
• Warnings

The prickly pear cactus has been one of the staple foods in Mexico and Central America for thousands of years. In parts of the United States, the cactus is gaining popularity as an exotic delicacy and a healthy dietary supplement. The prickly pear cactus has three different edible parts: the disc-shaped leaves (nopales), which can be considered a vegetable, the flower buds, which can be added to salads, and the prickly pears (tuna), which can be considered fruit. The cactus is found in the wild in the southwestern part of the United States, and from Canada in the north to South America in the south. In the Netherlands and Belgium you can buy these cacti all year round in toko's and markets. These specimens are commercially grown and come from a cactus farm.

Ingredients

• Nopales (leaves of the prickly pear cactus)
• Prickly pears (the fruits of the cactus)
• Pepper, salt and other spices

To step

Method 1 of 2: Eating the cactus leaves (nopales)

1. Buy or pick some leaves from the prickly pear cactus. Read the warnings at the bottom of the article. This cactus not only has large thorns, but also many small needles (glochids) that can get stuck in your skin.
   • Look for sturdy leaves with a bright green color.
   • Small, young leaves picked in early spring are usually the juiciest, have a delicate flavor and have the fewest spines. The thicker a leaf is, the older it is. Older leaves are often fibrous and contain thicker sap, which some people don't like.Leave those leaves hanging for other animals who use them to survive during times when other food is scarce. The soft leaves are sometimes also sold under the name "babynopales".
   • Wear very thick gloves or use tongs to pick the leaves yourself. Pull the leaves off the plant or cut them off at the stem. By cutting them off at the stem, the leaves are less stressed and the cactus can recover more quickly than if you rip or tear the leaves. This will help keep your cactus plant healthy so that you can remove leaves later.
2. Remove the spines from the leaves with a vegetable peeler or paring knife. Keep your gloves on until the leaves are completely rinsed and the parts you peeled off have been discarded. The leaves not only have large thorns or spines, but also tiny, invisible needles glochids that irritate your skin a lot more and are very difficult to get out of the skin. You can also remove the spines and glochids from the leaves by burning them away with a small burner or holding them over a stove with tongs. See also the warnings at the bottom of the article.
3. Hold the leaves under the cold tap. Shield or trim away any discolored and dark spots.
4. Slice or chop the leaves, or leave them whole, depending on what you're using the leaves for. Don't forget to wipe the blade after each slice as it may have small needles stuck to it.
5. Boil the leaves. You can cook, grill or mix them with other ingredients to make a unique, tasty and healthy dish.
   • When you boil the leaves, you will sometimes have to drain them and cook them again once or twice, depending on how thick the juice is. The thicker the leaves, the thicker the juice.
   • Boiling the leaves together with a copper mint (an old Mexican "veinte") is a common method of diluting the juice and making it taste better for people who have never eaten a cactus.
   • The cooked leaves are then drained, rinsed with cold water and served as a salad along with diced tomatoes, onions and jalapeño peppers. The salad is seasoned with finely chopped cilantro, vinegar, salt and lime juice.
   • When grilling the leaves, it is best to cover them generously with pepper, salt and other spices. The leaves are ready when they are soft and slightly brown.
   • Grilled strips of cactus leaves can be flavored with fresh lime juice and a little olive oil. You can also add grilled mushrooms.
   • Try stirring the cooked leaves into soup, adding them to a salad or omelette, canning them, or eating them separately.
   • "Nopalitos en salsa verde" is a popular traditional Mexican dish where the leaves are cut into strips and boiled in water (see above). They are then re-cooked in a traditional sauce made from tomatillos (which are sometimes mistaken for green tomatoes, but are in fact completely different fruits that grow in a papery shell), onions, garlic, cilantro and jalapeño peppers (mash the ingredients for the sauce in a blender, bring to the boil and then let the sauce simmer). This is usually eaten in a soft tortilla, as a taco, or with chips.

Method 2 of 2: Eat the prickly pears

1. Buy or pick some prickly pears.
   • The fruits with a red-orange and purple skin and deep purple interior are considered the sweetest, but in Mexico the white fruits are the most popular.
   • Prickly pears that you buy in the store usually no longer have spines and can sometimes be grasped with bare hands. Untreated fruits still contain glochids that will drive you crazy if they get into your skin. To be on the safe side, always use pliers or wrap a plastic bag around your hand to act as a glove.
   • If you look for fig cacti in the wild, remember that only some of the fruits will be ripe and taste good, even though they are all edible. Pick them when they are bright purple, just before they start to pucker.
2. Remove all spines.
   • Place five or six fruits in a plastic colander and run the colander under a cold tap. Stir the prickly pears into the water for three or four minutes without damaging them. Doing this will wash away any fine light-colored needles, so you can grasp the fruits without being pricked.
3. Peel the prickly pears.
   • When all the needles are off, cut the thicker skin from both ends of the fruit (the bottom and top). It takes some practice to figure out how much to cut. Generally, cut the skin away without getting to the seed-filled center.
   • Cut lengthwise through the center of the fruit through the skin. Use that notch to push the skin up with your knife and remove it from the rest of the fruit.
4. Slice or prick the fruits on forks or skewers and serve.
   • The pulp of the prickly pears can be used to make jam, jelly, sorbets, wine and "cactus candy".
   • The seeds can be eaten or spit out together with the prickly pears. Just be careful not to bite the seeds, as they are quite hard.
   • Some people eat the seeds in soup or dry them and then grind them into flour.
5. Ready.

Tips

• You can burn the spines of the leaves by grilling them over a campfire. You can also feed the leaves to livestock for a short time.
• Fig cacti are eaten not only in the United States and Mexico, but also in the Mediterranean and in Europe. In Italy the fruits are often served in a bowl of cold water and in Malta it is customary to chill the fruits in the refrigerator for several hours before serving.
• For more nutritional information and to find out what nutrients the prickly pear cactus contains, see the external links at the bottom of the article.
• Only keep fresh, wrinkled leaves in the refrigerator. Wrap them tightly in cling film. You can keep the leaves in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.
• If you regularly work with cacti, you may notice that the glochids are not that bad and that the itching only lasts for a short time. The glochids of some cacti belonging to the genus Opuntia are larger than the spines of some other species. The glochids and spines of the Opuntia Engelmanii v. Texensis can be especially painful. It is recommended to wear gloves when working with the leaves.
• Buy leaves first and don't pick them yourself. You then know what to look for.
• The taste of the prickly pear cactus has been compared to that of kiwis, but it is less acidic.
• Do not try to pull the glochids out of your skin with tweezers. Instead, spread a thin layer of hobby glue over the needles. Let the glue dry until it hardens and then peel the glue off your skin. The needles will be removed together with the glue. The glochids feature tiny barbs that stick into your skin if you're not careful. If you don't have craft glue, you can also use duct tape or other stronger tape to get the glochids out of your skin.
• The cooked leaves taste about the same as green beans. Its texture is similar to okra.
• In many cases, you can easily remove the glochids by running your skin along a thick cloth (like an old one serape) that is not used for anything else. According to this article, the Indians rubbed the sand with large cactus leaves to remove the glochids. Rather than sand, it was probably the hard sandy soils of the Southwestern United States.

Warnings

• Protect always your hands when you pick leaves and prickly pears yourself.
• Some types of fig cacti don't have spines, but they do all of them glochids.
• Be very careful when removing the spines from the leaves. You can also buy leaves and fruits from which the spines have already been removed.
• Unless you are wearing very thick gloves, do not grab the leaves yourself and use pliers or other similar tool.
• Watch out, because you can prick yourself on the thorns and needles of the cactus. This can be very painful.