Few people are aware that the fruit of nopales cacti—cacti with paddles resembling beaver tails—are surprisingly tasty. These neon-colored fruits are known as prickly pears, and their juice tastes like a cross between watermelon and all-natural bubble gum (if such a thing exists).
Which cactus fruit can you eat?
Opuntia, the prickly pear, is a remarkably adaptable food source. Both the fruit (tunas) and the pads (nopales) are edible, although care should be taken when gathering and preparing them.
Is prickly pear skin edible?
First, if the animal was taken from the wild, you will see that the skin has a number of very sharp thorns or spines that need to be cut out before handling. Although they ought to have been taken out if you bought them at the grocery store, be careful since sometimes they forget to take some of them out.
Wearing leather gloves and rolling or rubbing the prickly pear in paper towel or a clean cloth is one method of removing the spines. The thorns are very difficult to remove once embedded in your skin. So be sure to get rid of them! Additionally, avoid biting into a thorny plant because the last thing you want is to have thorns lodged within your mouth.
It’s time to take the skin off. Even though the skin is edible, I always peel it to be safe because doing so ensures that no spines are consumed. Prickly pears should have their tops and bottoms cut off.
Then cut the fruit lengthwise into slices that are between 1/8″ and 1/4″ deep. The fruit’s skin ought should easily peel off at this point.
The skin is simple to discard or compost. All that is left to do is cut up the fruit.
You are now aware of how to consume prickly pear cactus fruit. You can use them in a variety of cuisines or eat them raw. They are frequently used in drinks, snacks, soups, salads, jams, and jellies in Mexico.
- 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.