Can i eat prickly pears

Pads are harvested by using a sanitized knife to remove pads where they join a supporting pad. Using protection, either gloves or tongs, bend the pad almost to the breaking point and slice cleanly through the joint. It is recommended to harvest pads from mid-morning to mid-afternoon because prickly pear pad acid content, and therefore flavor, changes throughout the day; it is lowest at these times.

Additionally, younger pads are preferred for their tenderness. The pads are a little more difficult to dethorn, as they are the main part of the plant and, therefore, can have more noticeable and dangerous spines, along with glochids. Commercially grown nopal pads are usually of the spineless variety. If prickly pear have spines, these spines can be taken off with a knife by cutting off the nodes or the needle beds. The prickly pear fruits have an amazing nutritional base.

The two most frequently occurring fruit are red fruit and yellow fruit. The most common are the red variety, which have a dark pink color. This type of fruit contains the most ascorbic acid of all the fruit types. This gives the fruit citric qualities and taste. The yellow-skinned fruits have more carotenoids than their red-skinned cousins.

Carotenoids are an early precursor to vitamin A, a potent antioxidant that is very helpful in preventing some cancers and heart disease. This particular nutrient also gives a boost to the immune system. Because of the change of nutrients, the yellow variety of fruits can have a more vegetable taste. This may be because carotenoids are found in orange vegetables, such as carrots and some types of squash. Both varieties have additional shared health benefits. Prickly pears were used as a cure-all in early Native American societies.

From indigestion to burn wounds, the cactus had all the answers. Both types of fruit have high counts in vitamin C and calcium. They are also high in dietary fiber, which explains why they helped with indigestion. They also contain a high amount of kaempferol, which is an additional aid against cancer and heart disease, and many antioxidants and proteins that aid the body against infection and other maladies.

Beyond that, they are also low in cholesterol, sugars and fats, making the fruit an overwhelmingly healthy treat. The pads are also extremely nutritious, in ways the fruit may not be. Eating both the pads and the fruit results in a larger range of nutritive intake. The most notable health benefit found in the pads is their high counts of vitamin A, a powerful antioxidant.

Along with potassium, the pads carry a large dose of calcium, which helps to improve bone strength and prevent osteoporosis. Similar to the fruit, the pads also contain a large amount of dietary fiber. The pads also contain many amino acids, which are the foundations of protein. The cactus pads are also high in flavonoids, which have anti-inflammatory properties, and contain vitamin C, which absorbs iron and other nutrients into the body, and sodium.

One of the most interesting nutrients in the pads is water. Edible pads contain approximately 85 percent water. Learn why people trust wikiHow. Download Article Explore this Article methods. Tips and Warnings. Related Articles. Article Summary. Method 1. Buy or forage some prickly pear pads. See Warnings. There's a reason it's called the prickly pear cactus. Find pads that are bright green and firm. Small, young pads harvested in early spring are thought to be the most succulent, delicate in flavor, and have the fewest spines.

The thicker a pad, the older it is. Older pads tend to be stringy and their sap will be thicker, which some people find unpleasant. Leave those for other species who use them as survival food during lean foraging seasons.

The tender pads are sometimes sold as "baby nopales". If you're harvesting them yourself, wear extremely heavy gloves or use tongs. Snap the pads off the plant or cut at the stem. Cutting at the stem reduces stress on the pad, and allows the cactus to recover more quickly than snapping or tearing the pad away. This helps keep your cactus plant healthy for future harvests.

Remove the spines from the pad by using a vegetable peeler or a paring knife. The pads not only have large spines, but there are also tiny, invisible and far more irritating spines called glochids that are extremely difficult to remove from the skin.

The spines and glochids can also be removed from the prickly pear pads by burning them off with a small torch or by placing the pad on a gas burner and turning it with tongs. Run the pad under cool water. Peel or cut off any discolorations or bruises. Slice or cut the pads wipe the knife blade after each slice, as there can be small spines sticking to it , or leave them whole, depending on what you will be using the nopales for.

Cook the nopales. They can be either boiled or grilled, as well as mixed with other ingredients to make unique, satisfying and healthy dishes. The thicker the pad, the thicker the sap. Boiling them with a copper coin an old Mexican "veinte" is a common remedy to thin the sap and make it more palatable to unaccustomed diners.

If you grill the nopales, you might want to coat generously with pepper, salt, and other spices. They're ready when they're tender and slightly browned. Grilled nopalitos strips can be seasoned with fresh lime juice and a little olive oil. You can also add grilled portobello mushrooms to the mix.

Try stirring the cooked nopales into soup, mixing them into a salad or omelet, pickling them, or eating them alone. This is usually eaten in a soft tortilla as a taco or with chips. Method 2. Buy or harvest some prickly pears. Store-bought prickly pears are usually spine-free and sometimes can be handled with your bare hands. Unprocessed pears still have glochids that will drive you crazy if you get some on your skin.

Just to be sure, always use tongs or at least a plastic bag as a glove. If you're foraging for prickly pears, remember that while all pears are edible, only a few will actually be ripe and taste good. Get them when they are bright purple and look like rat food, just before starting to wrinkle. Remove the spines. Place the pears in a plastic colander five or six at a time under cold water. Swirl the pears around for about three or four minutes not bruising them.

And red cactus fruit can also be made into a sweet compote. If you live in U. Department of Agriculture hardiness zones 3b through 11, you can grow this type of cactus outdoors. They thrive most in hot, dry areas and can grow up to 20 feet tall and spread up to 15 feet wide. When planted outside and once established, they can tolerate drought conditions for several weeks.

You can learn more about the plant hardiness zones on the USDA website. I cut up 1 or 2 prickly pears with 4 to 6 strawberries and a small tomato, mix them up in a bowl and eat it with plain yogurt for breakfast. Sounds kinda crazy but it is good and tasty. Love prickly pears with strawberries but have never tried adding tomato! While people associate the plant with lots of things, only a few know that cacti fruits are edible and so nutritious. Whether you are intrigued by their beautiful flowers , stems, shapes, or even spines, it is good to keep in mind that cacti plants can offer much more value beyond the aesthetics.

Wondering how to eat a cactus fruit or prickly pear? There are crucial steps you need to follow to make the cactus fruit edible. The process starts with identifying and harvesting the right fruits. From there, you need to get rid of the thorns, get rid of the skin, and decide whether you want to consume it raw or cook it. These fruits have been an essential part of different diets for many years.

They form an integral part of Mexican cuisine and are also consumed in many parts of the United States. In this post, we guide you step-by-step on how to prepare the prickly pear before eating it. Read on to find out everything you need to know. In this section, we talk about how to identify ripe cactus fruits, how to harvest them, and how to prepare them for consumption.

You will need the tools mentioned above to complete the steps successfully. So, let us get started right away. The first thing you need to do is to identify the fruit on the plant and harvest it in the right away to avoid suffering thorn piercings. Typically, cactus fruits grow on the edges of the flat pads of the plant. The fruits are pear-shaped and come in different colors ranging from green not so sweet to red the sweetest. You may also come across fruits with orange or purple spots.

The little spots that form on the surface of the fruit are not spines but glochids. The tiny hair-like splinters can easily stick into your skin, causing severe pain, and they are hard to see.

When harvesting your cactus fruit, be sure to protect your hands with thick gloves or use a towel folded in several layers.

Six or seven paper towels stack together to form one thick layer will also work fine. To harvest the fruit, hold it firmly in your hands then twist it gently. The greener fruits usually require more effort to harvest because they are not fully ripe. However, the red ones that are fully ripe will pop right off the plant with minimal effort. You can also use tongs to get the fruits off the cactus.

There are a few things you need to do to get the fruit ready for the next step. First, you need to remove the glochids to make the fruit safe for handling with bare hands. If you purchased the fruit from a store, the glochids should have been removed already. You can easily burn off the glochids by holding your fruit over an open flame.

Hold it with a pair of tongs or stick it on the sharp end of a fork and slowly turn the fruit over the fire. Continue turning the fruit over the flame until all the glochids burn. Using a fork, hold your cactus fruit steadily and gently peel off the skin using a knife. If the cactus fruit is ripe, the skin will pull off easily with some gentle nudging. However, you may need to use a little bit more effort if the fruit was still green.

Once you have peeled the skin from both sides of the fruit, carefully grasp it to pull off the bottom skin layer. Be careful not to touch the skin since it may still be having some glochids that may pierce your skin. Place the fruit on a clean plate and use a fork or your pair of tongs to discard the bottom skin. Repeat this process with all the other fruits. Just make sure you avoid touching the skin with bare hands. You probably think that the fruit is ready for consumption after peeling off the skin, right?

You are not yet there. Most cactus fruits will have another surprise that you must deal with before you start to enjoy its deliciousness.