How Do You Cook A Cactus Pear?
Cactus pear, or prickly pear, grows in many places in the United States as well as throughout the Americas, and not just in the arid places where most cacti are at home. I know people who use cactus pear for landscaping in North Carolina, Georgia, Virginia and other such places that are anything but dry. Given its wide range and ease of growing, not to mention its abundance in the wild, I’m surprised that it doesn’t show up in more recipes than it does. Perhaps it’s the difficulty of harvesting the cactus pads that deters most would-be cooks. You can find cactus pear pads in many Mexican specialty grocery stores, or tiendas, where you may find it under the name of “nopal.” When chopped up and added to dishes that you may find in a Mexican restaurant, the pieces may be referred to as “nopalitos.” The scientific genus name, covering some 250 species, is opuntia. Even if you decide to harvest some prickly pear pads from a plant growing in your yard, it’s worth the extra effort. Truly, it
