BellaOnline Forums Money Frugal Living Uses for prickly pear plants and fruit

You can do all those things with them, Jilly. There are no rules in the kitchen . . . except those that pertain to food safety. Follow those safety rules and run wild with the flavors and cooking techniques. I bet you'll be writing a nopales cookbook before summer's over.

Deb, I think it's funny about living in the desert and buying sand. And I love your sense of humor!!

I'll see if I can't find some nopale recipes tomorrow but what you're already doing sounds wonderful to me. I'll run the idea by Les, too. He's our editor for life in Mexico. I bet he's got a trick or two up his sleeve.

About the okra thing - they are similar in the slime factor but that cooks out nicely in soupy dishes like gumbo. Why not add some nopales to tortilla soup or any other soups or stews? Gotta be good!

Soup ... hmmmm ... well that might act as a natural thickener right there. -doh- I truly enjoy creating new kinds of thick soup. I give people a bowl of soup and they are astonished as to how full they are before the bowl is finished.

Jish Sandy - hadn't even considered it. Me - the queen of turn everything into soup ... lol

I like it that you're the queen of turn everything into soup!

There was time I was private chef at a place where a couple of dozen priests lived. They required soup every day for lunch. It was part of my job description - fresh soup and a fresh batch of cookies every day. For two years.

A few years later, I was corporate chef at a cancer research center. Guess what? Soup on the menu for lunch. Every day.

I learned how to become very inventive with a soup pot.

I don't even like soup.

I'm so glad you wear that crown - I hail thee!!

Just saw these two recipes from Epicurious.com - LOVE that site! - and thought about this conversation.

Dilly Bean Potato Salad

I was thinking about substituting nopales for the green beans. Follow the link for the Dilly Beans to see how to ferment them (read the reviews to avoid a problem). I've never fermented nopales before but would love to know how it works if you try it.

Garden Beignets

Beignets are the French word for fritters. Thought this might be a yummy way to utilize field-harvested baby greens. (No ideas how to incorporate prickly pears, though. Sorry.)

Prickly pear fruit ice cream. Prickly pear fruit candy. And more!

Les has some great ideas for using the prickly pear fruit
right here but I forgot to ask him about how to use nopales. Follow that link; I bet he's got some delicious ideas for that part of the plant, too.

Here is Les' article on how to cook the nopales!

Good info.

Deb, how did you collect your cactus fruits? I use long metal tongs and place them in baskets, wearing garden gloves.

Just a reminder to all desert dwellers - this is the time to get your lovely prickly pear fruits!

I decided to put in my own prickly pear plant, instead of always admiring everyone else's. So I grabbed a spare pad (nopal) and stuck it in my amended soil to start rooting. i will have to get a photo up of it to document how it grows.

Also need to figure out where in the yard it will eventually live. these things get big!

Anyone have their own cactus? Have you ever rooted one yourself?

A friend nearby just harvested, sauced and canned prickly pear fruit sauce today. I wish I had been there to learn this.