Fruit and Veggies Monday

Nopales Harvest

Just in case you all don't know what Nopales are, I am going to post a picture right away.

You say, wait a minute. That is a cactus!! What is it doing in a fruit and veggies challenge? Are you crazy?

Actually, there is a good chance that I am just a little bit crazy- but that is not the subject of this story. And as far as the cactus is concerned, I am more than serious.

Nopales are a not only edible, they are delicious! And. Get this. This cactus provides us with a vegetable and a fruit! The cactus fruit is called Tuna in our area. But today, we are going to talk about the cactus pads - the nopales.

See the small pads in the front? They are a good size to harvest. A bit bigger is still okay but the smaller ones are so tender. Always be aware that cactus has developed weapons against predators. Many animals survive living in the desert by getting their water from eating or sucking on cactus.

Keep that in mind if you ever find yourself stranded in a desert without water!

But nobody, including a cactus, likes to be sucked dry. To make it hard and to defend themselves, cacti developed some pretty nasty thorns. If you get them stuck in your fingers - or worse - your mouth, it is not fun! Those tiny things hurt! And are hard to find and pull out. So, prevention is the key.

When I harvest cactus, I wear leather gloves and use a tongs to hold on to the pad. Depending on the size, good clippers or a very sharp knife are best to cut the pad off the plant.

In the Kitchen

Once you have washed your pads, the fun begins. Remember, whenever you handle the nopales, use tongs. See the pad in the front? The thorns are still very soft and you might get away with using your bare hands, but the slightly bigger ones behind already have their full hurting power developed.

As with most things - better safe than sorry.

Holding the pad with your tongues, first cut all the sides of the pad off.

Then transfer the pad to a paper towel and start scraping all the little thorns off. A sharp flat knife is required for this job!

This is one of the few occasions when I use a paper product instead of a reusable clothes towel. As I keep saying, those tiny thorns can really hurt and once they are stuck in a clothes - or your gloves for that matter, that's it. Game over. Throw those gloves out and the same goes for anything else.

Just in case you are wondering - I know this from experience and I don't want to talk about it :)

The minute I am done cleaning the pads, I fold up the paper towel, wiping up what might have spilled on the counter and that little package goes straight into the compost.

Wash your pad again and pad them dry.

Cooking the Nopales

Nopales tend to have a bit of a slimy consistency similar to okra. If you don't like this, boil the strips of nopales in water for maybe 20 minutes. Then add them to your recipe. This will take care of the texture problem. I don't mind it, so, I am omitting that step.

Here are the other ingredients I gathered from my garden.

onion
tomatillo
garlic
tomatoes
basil

I chopped everything up. You can see on the right the nopales all clean and sliced. This time, I used just my hands. No more danger after the cleaning is done.

I let the chopped onions and garlic rest for 10 minutes. This is an important step and I will address that in a separate post.

Put a bit of coconut oil in the pan with a generous spoon of turmeric and most everything else goes into that frying pan. In case you didn't know, you need a bit of fat with the turmeric to unlock its healthful properties.

After the onions were nice and glassy and the nopales soft, I added the tomatoes, cooked them for a couple of minutes and then on my plate it all went. That is when I added the fresh basil.

I ate it just like that but could have cooked some rice or eaten it with tortillas. This meal was a product of what happened to be available in the garden and not of planning to make a certain dish.

It turned out pretty good.

And did you know that eating nopales has all kinds of health benefits? That too I will write about soon.

Update Thanks to Hive account@melinda010100 I found out that I can be funny without trying. Instead of writing to pick up the nopales with tongs - I wrote to pick them up with tongues!! Please don't do that. You will hate me forever :).

Do You Want to Show Off Your Fruits and Veggies?

Have you considered joining Lena's challenge? It is fun and it is fun to look at all the beautiful pictures people post. Check it out! Just click on the tag

And a big THANK YOU to the creator @lenasveganliving