How do you cut and prepare prickly pears? Careful. Here’s a step-by-step guide to slicing and using delicious cactus pears, with photos and recipe suggestions.
Please say hello to Garrett McCord as he shows us how to cut up a prickly pear. ~ Elise
What is prickly pear fruit?
Known only to a few, the fruits of the nopales cactus (cacti with beaver tail-like paddles) are actually quite edible. Called prickly pears, these neon fruits yield delicious juice that tastes like a cross between all-natural chewing gum (if such a thing exists) and watermelon.
How to use prickly pear
Prickly pear juice is often used to make jam or candy, but works wonders in cocktails and in vinaigrettes for salads.
I’ve used prickly pear juice to flavor cream cheese frosting for a lime-flavored cupcake and have seen others boil down prickly pears with a little orange and lemon juice to make a sauce for fruit salads and cheesecake.
Where to get prickly pear
Many Mexican markets, farmers markets, and some health food supermarkets stock prickly pear fruit, but prickly pears also grow in California, the Southwest, Mexico, and the Mediterranean.
Be warned though, while the prickly pears in the markets have been cleaned of the tiny hair-like thorns, those fresh off the cactus are covered in them, so be sure to handle them with heavy leather work gloves and give them a good scrubbing to ensure all the painful little barbs are off.
Cut and prepare prickly pears
ingredients
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1 or more prickly pears
method
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Cut off both ends of the prickly pear:
Discard them.
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Make a long vertical slice along the body of the prickly pear.
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Slide your finger into the disk and grasp the skin.
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Pull off the skin:
Begin to peel away the thick, fleshy skin that’s wrapped around the prickly pear. Discard the skin. You are left with the prickly pear itself.
The pulp is riddled with tons of tiny edible seeds, if you like them you can just shred and eat the prickly pear, seeds and all.
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Extract the juice:
To extract the prickly pear juice, place the “peeled” prickly pears in a blender or food processor and puree until liquified.
Place the juice in a fine mesh strainer and squeeze the juice into a pitcher or bowl. Discard the remaining pulp and seeds.
Use the juice as you like. Depending on the size of the prickly pears, 6 to 12 prickly pears will yield about 1 cup of juice. It’s great mixed with some fresh lemonade, just use equal parts prickly pear juice to the lemonade.
Do you have a favorite prickly pear recipe? Please let us know in the comments.
Links:
Tuna juice from Rambling Spoon (prickly pear is also called tuna)
| nutritional information (per serving) | |
|---|---|
| 139 | calories |
| 1g | Fat |
| 34g | carbohydrates |
| 2g | protein |
