Cooking Cactus in the Wild! The Vegetable You Didn’t Know You Could Cook
Printable recipe below! Nopales, cactus pads or prickly pear have actually been cooked for hundreds of years- but it may be the one thing you’ve never thrown on the grill or fried up. But you are missing out, so we’re showing you 3 different ways to turn this forgotten vegetable into a recipe masterpiece!
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Printable Recipes:
https://kentrollins.com/blogs/vegetables/nopales-a-la-mexicana
https://kentrollins.com/blogs/vegetables/grilled-nopales
https://kentrollins.com/blogs/vegetables/deep-fried-nopales
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Kent Rollins
Cowboy Cooking, Cast Iron, Outdoor Cooking, Grilling, Dutch Oven Cooking
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49 Comments
Yall be sure and try these if you get a chance and let me know what you think and as a favor be sure and share the video and the Nopales with friends and family
The timing of this video is amazing! My husband & I sold our home almost 2 months ago and we have been traveling through different states as we venture to visit family in AZ before we decide where to lay down roots. We had SO much in Texas that we wanted to see that New Mexico became sort of an afterthought as we travel through…we ended up renting a cabin in Nogal and your “Best of” video for the neighboring towns of Ruidoso and Capitan became a wonderful guide!! If anyone reads this and has the opportunity to visit the area – DO IT – the views are absolutely breathtaking and the people have been amazing! Kent’s video 10 months ago for the best places to stop and eat has been spot on. Oso’s Grill in Capitan was delicious! While we were in Capitan, I had to buy some prickly pear syrup (delightful!!) and have been trying to find inspiration to cook some cactus, so again..impeccable timing sir! Much appreciated & God bless!
Thank you for the recipes Kent, and Shannon behind the camera. I will definitely have to try the deep fryed dish, and there is plenty of prickly pear around. Y'all have a blessed day.
Great video, been a long time, since I fixed any nopalito/ nopales. I need to whip some up. Thanks ❤. Note, i have run a cactus burner, many decades ago.
I like them with scramble eggs
I’m Apache. My grandfather grew them. My grandmother not only cooked with them. But also used them for healing purposes. Great video Cowboy!
What brand is the Mexican oregano?
Nopales❤. Howdy from Arlington Texas
What is the value of its compounds ?
Nopales are my favorite meat substitute when doing a vegetarian meal, I like it much more than tofu
My dear departed mother in law introduced me to nopalitos and scrambled eggs many years ago and I absolutely loved them (and her)!
Hey Ken. Love your channel and your personality. I lease land on a ranch in Eastland Texas and there’s prickly pear all over the place. A ton of mesquite too.
Can you do a video on the fruit (tuna)? I’ve pulled a couple of gallons this month. Should be a lot more in August.
I love how you’re in Texas yet you’re using an ulu the knife of the Inuit in the north.
I make breakfast tacos using leftover barbacoa. I know it's an oxymoron but work with me here… Eggs homemade pico de gallo or store-bought. If I can get the stuff from HEB it's close enough to homemade for me and nopales. I used to have prickly pear along the side of my house in a planter and unfortunately it did not like that. I'm going to have to try planting directly in the soil… I don't think to me it tastes much like a pepper so much as a I'm not sure how to describe it. Spicy green beans… It happens to be one of my favorite vegetables if not my favorite.
I really don't like nopales but I will eat the kettle fruit quick in a hurry cuz that's how I was raised. Not not on the cactus but on the fruit
The vegetable we didn’t know you can cook. Us Mexican Indigenous Americans have been eating cactus literally forever.
Kent, I've been sitting at home recovering from oral cancer and can't eat. But do a lot of cooking for friends and family. Watching your show gives me hope and inspiration to get past all of this. Keep up the great work and appreciate everything you teach
"Grilled veggies" Smoked corn on the cob, seasoned and half bathing in butter, rotated every so often to ensure slight char but buttery goodness all around.
invasive weed
I've tried nopales twice now from two different decently-rated taco shops. Both times it was terrible. I just don't think I can handle that disappointment a third time.
I love my nopales con huevo rancheros.❤ 😋
Googling “where to buy cactus for cooking”….Thanks Kent!
Love Nopales. I first had them in California when I was living in SanDiego area. I prefer them over Green Beans.
Better! Great video!
The Spaniards did not bring tomatoes from Europe, it was all the way around, they took tomatoes to the Old World as tomatoes are indigenous to Mexico.
Shout out from Durango Mexico 🇲🇽 ✌️😎
Here’s a video of a rancher burning the needles off cactus plants to feed his cattle. https://youtube.com/shorts/Inas8OUuJQs?is=xQnVC9Hjt94nXpA_
Makes good jelly to😊
Easy recipe: Get some pre-cut Nopales (if you can find them), put them in a hot skillet with some onion, garlic powder, a can of Rot-Tel with some butter. Saute' … and you got some easy Nopal delisousness!
Dear Kent, I had been eating nopales all my life, cooked in many, many different ways. My recommendation is not to boil them because they loose some of the most important health benefits. Cook them directly in a pan, with little bit of oil and keep moving them, they will loose their slimming juice and will help them keep all their healthy nutrients on them. They are one of the best food for diabetes. There are persons that said that taking a cactus every single morning with plain water, or blended juice pure water or mix it with low-sugar green vegetables like celery and spinach. help them to regulate their blood sugars. Great video dear Kent!👍😊😍
Everytime I’m Mexico I order these.
GOD BLESS YOU TOO!❤😊
The only way I really enjoy eating the young cactus is the way my mom cooked them for us. You slice up the cactus in small pieces and fry them up. Once you're about 3/4 of the way cooking them you add regular chili powder enough to cover them up completely so I would say maybe depending how many cactus you're cooking at least two tablespoons minimum but you have to add the chili powder before you add the eggs it doesn't come out the same if you add it after you add the eggs I know from experience. The regular chili powder does not really have heat. You go ahead and cook it for a little bit longer and then you scramble some eggs and pour it on them. And then just cook up and enjoy them with corn tortillas or flour tortillas with some avocado and salsa or pico de gallo. Add salt to taste when you make a taco. That's the way I eat mine I don't like them plain and I don't like them mixed with egg by itself they need to have that regular chili powder for me to really enjoy and live my childhood again when my mother cooked it for us.
I saved some seed when I had a fruit salad with opuntia fruit at a hotel in Sicily some years ago. The seed grew well in my greenhouse in the south of England. The pads had no spines and very few hairs. The only preparation was with a propane blow torch. Very tasty grilled with smoked paprika, salt and garlic powder. They need to be well browned or the skin can be tough. Some butter or olive oil goes well with them.
I enjoy them in my omlets.
We cleaned the bumps and grilled them over an open fire. They tasted like a combination of green beans and spinach.
Howdy from Texas 🤠
As a former Chef and Chef Instructor here in Texas Kent I truly enjoy your content. I really enjoy your outdoors / Chuck Wagon cooking style.
I have to mention however that although its possible that the Spanish brought tomatoes with them to the Americas its not very likely because of the timelines. Tomatoes are indigenous exclusively to the Americas. And the Spanish didn't even discover tomatoes until the 1500s after arriving here in the Americas. And they didn't encounter the Aztecs until 1515. So while it's possible that Spain had tomato plants already, given it was only 15 years prior that they even landed in the New World it's not very likely that they brought any with them at that point in history. Not to mention that for over two hundred years after their discovery of tomatoes. Many Europeans considered them to be poisonous considering that they are in the Nightshade family of plants. And tomato plants were relegated to only ornamental plants.
But as I said, there is a possibility that they had them in sufficient amounts to have a tomato plant or two onboard a ship. Because tomatoes themselves are very perishable so they would have had to be grown on board the ship to have fresh tomatoes for cooking. But there were tomato plants growing in the Americas where they landed and it's quite likely that the Aztecs were already eating them.
I don't mean to knit pick, but it was a statement that you made that just stuck out to me. Nopales and Nopalitos are a large part of Mexican and Tex-mex cuisine. As well as their fruits, aka Tunas.
I swear!! I think you wish you were a Mexican 😂😂😂😂. Tex-Mex food is an amazing dish. 😂😂😂
My one question is are they all edible? My neighbors say the ones I have aren’t. Maybe because the amount of spines.. I dunno I’m asking for a friend😂😂🤔
Mexicans eat them all the time gringo!
no dancing no!!!!!! its getting old , we just want the content no dancing!
Very interesting.
Thank you. Stay safe and well dear soul.
Correction: Tomatoes are native to North America. The Spanish took them back to Europe. You should do a video with the Tasting History guy, Max Miller. I bet you guys could do something really interesting.
Mexican wife taught me how to prepare nopales with pork. Good stuff!
I've been looking for a couple of recipes on how to cook nopales. Thanks, Kent. I will have to give these a try.
Blend the (raw) pads with orange juice; orange and pineapple is my personal favorite. Now you have a refreshing green juice.
🍺
Scrambled eggs with nopales and chorizo is the bomb 💣