Good Cactus 🌵 Recipe

I'm looking for a good recipe that includes cactus🌵. Any foodies out there who would like to share one?

If it included Jalapeños or Serrano peppers🌶 that would be a bonus.

Thanks in advance.

PS. nopales is what I'm interested in using.

[Kaliber]

I’m no expert but prickly pear comes in a bunch of verities and it takes experience to identify the specific ones that have the least amount of unwanted fiber , spines / fiber in the wild. To me they all look alike. you can buy those cleaned packs of leaves in most Mexican food stores. Here I see 4 - 5 varieties usually , dunno the diff. I always think of frying sticky watermelon when cooking these yayahahahaya but if done properly ( a traditional skill );they are tasty. I like them with lime, tomatillo, strawberries, or my favorite leeche fruit. Poblano peppers are good but all this varies greatly area to area. Fresno is 65% Hispanic population with a Vallarta mega Mexican supermarket. But the way it prepared and sold here is different than in , say, McAllen Tx or even San Antonio.

Vallarta super markets have them ready to eat prepared several ways if you have one locally. I like salads prepared with the flowers and fruit, with a bowl of fish and / or mini shrimp ceviche and Hornitos Plata shooters ( lime flavored salt for the back of the hand and liquid lime in a shot glass to sip afterwards, slices are fine too ) ... yummm yummm. I make a couple wicked ceviches ( white fish - poblano and mixed seafood minced jalapeño -poblano) and on tostada rounds from Vallarta. Vallarta has 8 - 10 different ceviches on hand most of the time as well.

Too bad its horribly dangerous to leave the house here , the national hot bed center of coronavirus infections in total lockdown ... maybe I can get some DoorDash from Vallarta yayahahahaya yayahahahaya.

There are plenty of great recipes on google for preparing prickly pear in different ways. For me they are better ordered off the menu in a traditional restaurant..... if you want to get them right. Prickly pear is tricky to do right without the “ chops “ at home.

[Kaliber in reply to Kaliber]

Oh yea ... buy the pads in a Mexican food store ... make sure to get the cleaned ones. And even then you might have to get more spines off. Trim off the outside edge spine area , brush on olive oil and put on your gas grill along with your chicken breast and poblanos ( they skillet fry well too ) I like to toast my poblanos and lay them on the cooking pads. Grill them just long enough to get grill marks and remove most of the sticky - gooey water. They will turn near olive tan when done . Heat your soft flower tortillas on the grill near the end of cooking.

Slice your prickly pear pads into thin long slices, chop / mince your poblanos and slice your chicken breast into long thin slices too.

Take a hot flour soft tortilla lay a chicken strip in it ( this could or should have been marinated with Mexican spices , beforehand ) , lay in a strip of pad, sprinkle on a bit of toasted poblanos , salt and pepper and lay in your favorite sweetish salsa ( prickly pear pads are a little bit tart ) to the desire of the day. Here many different salsa are quite appropriate. Roll up and enjoy with the plata shooters. Yummmmmm yummmmmm.

I like some grill smoke on everything as well but it’s optional ... hickory or applewood. Some like a dollop of Mayo or cream cheese in the wrap .

[Hidden in reply to Kaliber]

Thanks Kaliber...I will try this. I bought one pad over the weekend and it had all the prickers. I just suauted in avocado oil with onions and asparagus....cooked up some wild brown rice and tossed together...I'll have for lunch....oh yea...I added a big read jalapeno for a little bite...salt and peper to taste....not bad...I wanted to get the overall taste to see if I want to add it to the diet...not bad overall but I need more of that southwestern flare.

I'm not experience in the southwestern spices so I want to see if anyone on this site had a recipe that they use.

[Kaliber in reply to Hidden]

Yea , at best those are kinda thought of an affordable tart veggie when used for cooking. There is a whole collection of stuff in that venue like the jicama and others. Where if you are low on fixin’s, you can get that group locally and nearly zero cost . Many have learned to jazz those up to make them more edible but it takes creativity , skill and hunger yayahahahaya yayahahahaya. Its fun to experiment with that class of food but most of it won’t make it into your mainstream pantry. Kinda like picking dandelion greens from the yard , cleaning them ...then wilting them with hot bacon grease to eat them. Taste pretty good but probably not a mainstream food. I do recommend the jelly made from the fleshy reddish bud part of the prickly pear flowers ... it’s delicious.

[Hidden in reply to Kaliber]

Where I live, the hispanic community has been growing and with that growth there has been an increase in hispanic grocery stores. There is one by me that I shop at because the produce section is awesome. They sell a lot of vegetables that I suppose are common in traditional Mexican, southwestern and probably south american dishes. My cooking skills are mainly Mediterranean; italian to be specific. I'm looking to add to my repertoire. Thanks for the response.

[Kaliber in reply to Hidden]

Here in Fresno the primary population is Hispanic... 65%. Then about 18+% Asian. Mostly Hmong , and Cambodian. Then Indians and Armenians and Sikh. The Anglo population here is smallish by comparison but the wealthiest. By California standards , the dollar stretches a long way here. The array of ethnic food stores and restaurants here would make your head spin ( 1.2 million in metro ) . I just love exploring the Hmong veggie roadside stands and ethnic food stores. Nothing is written in English so you need an interpreter when shopping. Most of these groups are “ scratch “ chefs and the “ fixin’s “ layouts are nearly incomprehensible yayahahahaya ....... great fun. I’ve picked up a lot of great Korean , Tex-Mex and Hispanic basic dishes over the years.

[MateoBeach]

search "napoles" the most common cactus in mexican cooking, and the most available. Lots of good recipes. And "tuna" in Mexican cooking is not the fish (which is "atun") but is the beautiful red fruit of the prickly pear cactus. Provecho!en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opuntia

[Hidden in reply to MateoBeach]

Thanks for the response. I did that search and found plenty of recipes. I also know there is a good number of people on this site from the Arizona/Southern California area so I thought I ask if anyone had a favorite recipe/dish that included the nopales. I'm starting with the pads first and then working up to the prickly pear fruit from the cactus. My understand is that the fruit is very sweet.

[treedown]

No access here that I am aware of but I eat plenty of jalapenos. Even put them on my PB&J once in awhile. Also no specific Mexican markets that I aware of. Did you read a benefit to PCa somewhere?

[Hidden in reply to treedown]

I saw the cactus pads in this local grocery store that caters to the local Hispanic community.I got interested so I search and found a few articles/recipes for using them but I wanted to see if someone on this site actually ate them.

I just found this on the mucho searched ncbi site:

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

[treedown in reply to Hidden]

Cool, will try if I get the chance.

[monte1111]

Why would you want to eat cactus? Are you wandering in the desert with nothing else to eat? My wife used to have a succulent garden. Have you ever tried to weed a succulent garden? Pozole is great. My neighbor brings me red pozole and green pozole. I don't think his wife is legally here. But I give her a pass for the authentic Mexican chow. I vaguely remember something about A Cactus Grows in Brooklyn. Jalapeno boats are great if you do dairy. Lots of chili powder. Kaliber is definitely a connoisseur (them buds make you hungry). If you are a vegetarian, could you pull out your canine teeth for me? I need some implants.

[Hidden in reply to monte1111]

Pozole looks like something I would be interested in...I wonder if there is a seafood variation. Can you ask your neighbor? Sorry..still need the canines...

If Wonder Woman wants a succulent garden the Wonder Woman gets a succulent garden.

For your reading enjoyment:

google.com/amp/s/www.southe...

[monte1111]

Succulents don't have thorns? Ok. It was a cactus garden then. Between her cactus, her roses, and her cats I would go to work and people would say, "Wow. What happened to you." My neighbor's seventh wife speaks just a couple of English words. After 20 years he is not much better. Guess I'll have to go to the SPCA and get a dog. Say, you aren't one of those Presbyterians, are you?

[Hidden]

Only when I need to stop drinking

[j-o-h-n]

I have a prickly catcus and porcupine recipe that comes with free toothpicks....

Good Luck, Good Health and Good Humor.

j-o-h-n Tuesday 01/19/2021 11:10 PM EST

[Hidden in reply to j-o-h-n]

How can I pass on this?

[E2-Guy]

I have over 300 cacti on my balcony here in Thailand, but I raise them to look at, not to eat!