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Please welcome Garrett McCord as he shows us how to cut up a prickly pear. ~Elise
What is Prickly Pear Fruit?
Known to few, the fruit of the nopales cactus (cacti with beaver tail-like paddles), are actually quite edible. Called prickly pears, these neon fruits provide delicious juice that tastes like a cross between all-natural bubble gum (if indeed there is such a thing) and watermelon.
How to Use Prickly Pear
Prickly pear juice is often used to make jam or candy, but works wonders in cocktails and used in vinaigrettes for salads.
I’ve used the juice from prickly pear to flavor cream cheese frosting for a lime flavored cupcake, and have seen others boil cactus pear down with a bit of orange and lemon juice to make a sauce for fruit salads and cheesecakes.
Where to Get Prickly Pear
Many Mexican markets, farmers markets, and some natural food supermarkets carry prickly pear fruit, but you can find cactus pear growing in California, the Southwest, Mexico, and the Mediterranean.
Be warned though, while the prickly pear in markets have been cleaned of the tiny hair-like thorns, the ones fresh off the cactus are covered with them, so be sure to handle them with heavy leather work gloves and scrub them hard to ensure all the painful little barbs are off.
Either way, handle prickly pear carefully or with gloves just in case.
How to Cut and Prepare Prickly Pears
Ingredients
- 1 prickly pear
Method
1 Slice both ends of the prickly pear off. Discard them.
2 Make one long vertical slice down the body of the prickly pear.
3 Slip your finger into the slice and grab a hold of the skin.
4 Peel back the skin: Begin to peel back the thick fleshy skin that's wrapped around the prickly pear. Discard the skin. You'll be left with the prickly pear itself.
The flesh is studded with tons of little edible seeds, if you like them, feel free to just chop the prickly pear up and eat, seeds and all.
5 Extract the juice: To extract the prickly pear juice, place the "husked" prickly pears into a blender or food processor and pulse until liquefied.
Place the juice into a fine mesh sieve and push out 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 get you about 1 cup of juice. It's great mixed in with some fresh lemonade, just use equal parts of prickly pear juice to lemonade.
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Do you have a favorite prickly pear recipe? Please let us know about it in the comments.
Links:
Tuna Juice from Rambling Spoon (prickly pear is also called tuna)
Garrett McCord is a professional writer and recipe developer whose work has appeared in many print and online publications such as Gourmet Live, Saveur, Huffington Post, Smithsonian, and NPR. Past clients also include numerous food companies, wineries, and distilleries. Garrett writes about cocktails on his website, Coupe de Grace.
How to Cut and Prepare Prickly Pears
So, I’m in NC and harvested some prickly pears for the first time. I’ve scorched off most of the glochids, removed most of the seeds and blended the heck out of them. I’m in the process of trying to shove the slurry through a very fine metal sieve…but it is SOOOO VISCOUS!!! I’ve added some water to try and thin it a bit. I’m not sure I will even be able to get to the clean t-shirt part. I’d like to make this into a syrup but I’m still worried about any glochids I may have missed and the viscosity…advice?
Hi, Rachel! Did you peel the prickly pears or just scorch then blend them? It is thick and pulpy, so it will take bit to push the puree through the sieve.
I like to burn and boil mine. I’m usually making prickly pear margaritas, so have to boil for the syrup anyway. http://thoughtforyourpenny.com/lifestyle/how-to-harvest-and-prepare-prickly-pears/
Hi Brian, I’ve heard about that method! Thank you for sharing it with us.
I just harvested and made a gallon of juice , would love a margarita recipe…share?
That is the right way .. one more thing you should do before cutting .. Soak in water for around 6 hours to soften its thorns .. i do that all the time in Egypt and it works like magic
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That is such a great tip, Mohamed. Thank you for sharing that!
Here’s a hint if you get the prickles in your skin (which I did, it was my first time trying a prickly pear fruit from my neighbour’s cactus in Melbourne, Australia!)
Press a piece of sticky tape or duct tape over the spikes, then carefully peel it off going in the same direction. It will help to pull them out.
I’m soooooo happy to find this article after having this fruit for a week and not knowing what it was or how to eat it. Thanx to my friend for telling me the name and I googled it and this page pop up.