With all the dried beans we’re carrying onboard, I’m always looking for new recipes and anyway, we just LOVE beans in all their forms. Who doesn’t! Here in Portugal, black beans are everywhere so we stocked up and are eating a lot of Mexican food these days, haha!

Anyway, when I’m not eating, I’m going on long walks to burn off those calories. (Am I the only one who’s put on so much weight the past 10 weeks?). Our walk takes us on paths along fields full of wild thyme, rosemary, wild artichokes and orchards of all kinds. And among the fig trees there’s usually a huge clump of cactus. Cactus is everywhere!

That got me thinking about the Mexican-style Nopales I once had. With all the rain the past days, the cactus had plenty of fresh young leaves. So I called up my friend Jenn from SV KAIJU – she’s always up for something fun! The next day, with our knives and a couple of paper bags, we got going to forage some cactus! 

About edible cactus

The cactus we’re foraging here belong to the Opuntia species, also known as Nopales, Nopalitos or the Prickly Pear. You can identify Opuntia species by their oval, flat, paddle-shaped leaves which are covered with small spikes. The green pads are edible all year round as long as they’re young. The cactus pads you want to select to eat are about the size of your hand, young and bright green, the needles aren’t too hard yet. Of course the fruit is also edible. Around the mediterranean, prickly pear fruits are sadly only available in the summer months after the beautiful flowers have bloomed.

So is cactus a fruit or vegetable?

The prickly pear cactus plant is one of the few plants that are a vegetable and a fruit! The green pads -nopal- are the vegetable and the orange or red coloured pear (fig) of the cactus is the fruit. The pads have a fresh, tart taste (yes, you can eat them raw too). The fruits when ripe are juicy, sweet and full of edible seeds. 

OK, so what do you do with cactus leaves?

There are lots of ways to prepare cactus leaves and serve nopales. Whatever you choose to do, the preparation for these ideas is always the same for the first step of cooking the nopales. The recipe’s below if you want to give it a try. Once that’s done, you can add other ingredients for different dishes.

Here are some examples:

• Pile some cooked nopales on a bowl of frijoles refritos – it’s delicious mixed with the black beans!
• Mix with tomatoes, onions and into beaten eggs for a tasty scrambled eggs dish.
• Fry with some fresh corn, cabbage or peppers and beans for a great vegetarian enchilada filling.
• Mix with tomatoes, onion, jalapeno and lots of coriander (cilantro) for a refreshing summer salad.

I’ll be trying other preparation versions soon. I like the idea of grilling them on the barbecue filled with cheese that melts into gooey delight or braising them rather than simmering.

Once back on TALATA, I got to work, scraping and peeling off the spikes. The leaves get quite slimy when you cut the flesh, a bit like aloe leaves in that way so I made a bit of a mess in the galley!

Nopales PREPARATION Recipe

INGREDIENTS – serves 2 to 4

Step 1 – 20 mins

6 Cactus pads

2 garlic cloves whole

1 onion quartered

1/2 tsp salt 

2 cups of water

Carefully hold the pad at one edge and with a sharp knife, scrape or cut away all the needles and peel the edges.

I found it easiest to clean the bottom of the pad on both sides, giving me a clean surface to hold before tackling the other half and edges. (Oh and Lorenzo says, do cut away from your body.) Once you’ve done a few you’ll get your groove.

Give the peeled pads a thorough rinse to wash off the slimy gel and put to one side while you clean up the huge mess on your counter. In my fantasy I’m doing this directly by the cactus bush in a hacienda garden with a tumbler of margarita by my side. Hey, I can dream, can’t I?

Got too many leaves or can’t be bothered due to too many aforementioned margaritas? The peeled pads will keep well – wrapped tightly – in the fridge for up to two weeks.

When you’re ready to start cooking, slice or dice the cleaned pads. Any is fine, and it depends a bit on what you’re doing with the nopales in stage 2. Remember, this is just the preparation cooking step. Keep up!

Put the cut nopales into a wide pan, add water, salt, the quartered onion and whole garlic cloves. The latter are there to add flavour and can be removed once the preparation step is done.

Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and allow to simmer uncovered for 15 to 20 minutes.

The colour changes to olive green when they’re done and they should have a bit of crunch. Remove from heat, drain and olé you’re done with the basic cooking!

Now you can continue with the step 2 recipe that follows below. Or get creative and try something else out!

Nopales  Recipe

INGREDIENTS – serves 2 to 4

Step 2 – 15 mins

Cooked Cactus from step 1

2 garlic cloves – crushed

2-4 green chilli peppers, sliced

4 green onions, roughly sliced 

6-8 sprigs of coriander briefly chopped

2 to 4 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp oregano

Heat up the olive oil and add the cooked and drained nopales. Give it a quick stir and then go ahead and add all other ingredients. Cook on medium heat, uncovered for 15 minutes. 

Like I said at the start, I love this with black beans but its super good with rice too.

The best is these are such simple easy recipes for such a cool dish. Come on! How often do you get to eat fresh cactus?