Mexican food features a lot of cacti and their fruits. The broad, flat cactus pads, also known as “nopales,” are a common ingredient in many main dishes in Mexico, including salads, eggs, and other cuisines. The cactus fruit, sometimes known as “prickly pears,” is extremely delicious and can be consumed straight from the plant. They can be mildly sweet or syrupy sweet, depending on the degree of ripeness.
Can you consume the fruit of cacti?
Although it may be too soon to label prickly pear cactus as a superfood, it can still be included in a balanced diet. It contains lots of fiber, carotenoids, and antioxidants. Prickly pear cactus is in fact well-liked throughout the world, especially in Latin America where it is a native plant.
Method
Cut off the prickly pear’s two ends:
Peel the skin back:
Peel off a small section of the prickly pear’s thick, fleshy skin. Throw away the skin. The prickly pears themselves will be all that is left.
If you prefer the seeds, feel free to simply chop the prickly pear up and eat it with the seeds and all. The flesh is covered in a ton of tiny delicious seeds.
Take the juice out:
The “husked” prickly pears should be added to a blender or food processor and pulsed until they are liquefied to extract the prickly pear juice.
Put the juice through a fine mesh strainer, then strain it into a bowl or pitcher. Throw away any leftover pulp and seeds.
Anyhow you like, use the juice. 6 to 12 prickly pears, depending on their size, can provide around 1 cup of juice. Just use equal portions of prickly pear juice and fresh lemonade when blending it in.
Do you have a favorite recipe for prickly pears? Please share the information with us in the comments.
- Treatment for urinary tract infections with an infusion of pads
- Raw nopalitos include mucilage (pulp), which lowers the rate of sugar absorption and significantly lessens the symptoms of insulin shock.
- Adult pads as a wound poultice and antiseptic
- mature pads for burn treatment
- Tea prepared from pads to treat scar tissue from tuberculosis
- Mucilage from mature pads has antibacterial qualities because it kills bacteria in cultures.
- Boils are treated with a hot prickly pear pad treatment.
- As a hemostat, split pads are used to halt bleeding.
- Treatment for a swollen prostate using infusion of pads
Insoluble calcium oxalate and soluble mucilage are both abundant in pads. They drastically decrease cholesterol and prevent glycemia due to their hypoglycemic action. Simple carbohydrates are not absorbed as well when exposed to soluble fibers, especially viscous mucilage. In addition, amylose, which breaks down into simple sugars more slowly than amylopectin, the starch found in bread and potatoes, is abundant in pads. However, mature pads have insoluble calcium oxalate crystals that could be harmful to your health. Nopales are beneficial in “preventing diet-related cardiovascular disease and adult onset diabetes” as well as “preserving the male prostate gland,” according to Laredo herbalist Tony Ramirez. (2011) Fowler
Temalpakh, 1972: Cahuilla Indian Plant Knowledge and Use. Press of Malki Museum.
1983 Experiencing America’s Unknown Interior by Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca. New Mexico University Press [Reprint of Crowell-Collier Publishing’s 1961 edition].
1981 Choke Canyon Reservoir and Surrounding Area Historic Indian Groups. Volume 1 of the Choke Canyon Series. Archeological Research Center San Antonio’s branch of the University of Texas. Texas’ San Antonio.
1968 A wooden pestle and mortar from Texas’s Val Verde County. Texas Archeological Society Bulletin 39:1–8.