Turn Prickly Pear into Delicious Dish

Have you ever seen a prickly pear cactus and thought, “that’s boring,” and thought nothing of it?! Well, we are gonna learn how to make it into something delicious!

Prickly pear grows throughout the thriving saguaro cactus forest called the Sonoran Desert. They have flat green pads covered in white spikes. Its inner flesh has the pulp that holds hard black edible seeds. The fruits are called tuna, which taste like a blend of watermelon, kiwi and strawberry with a bright neon pinkish color. People use this to make sweet treats. People use the pads, called nopales, in Mexican food. Did you know that they are healthy too?

In order to make nopales, you have to harvest, wash, and take out all the spikes. People use tongs to harvest prickly pear fruit. Also, they cut the fruit open and take out the reddish purplish pulp. People also blend and strain it to get rid of the skin and also the seeds and spines.

People use this fruit to make sweet crisp lemonade. Another drink is prickly pear horchata. If you want to make this, then you have to use prickly pear puree, oat milk, cinnamon, and prickly pear syrup to make this delicious, tasteful, mouth bursting drink! Don’t those sound so refreshing?!

Next time you see a prickly pear cactus, maybe you can ask your guardian/parents to harvest it and make it something delicious, but make sure to take out all the spines so you don’t get pricked! What do you think about these drinks?

Advisor: Samantha Thompson