Certainly, most Mexican specialties involve meat in some form or another. And as delicious as these dishes can be, it may seem a bit discouraging for vegetarians. Unfortunately, even people who work in the food service may not be aware of this, so often times when asked for alternatives to meat dishes, they tend to recommend a salad (which means iceberg shavings with a slice of tomato).
Gotta Know What to Ask For
However, this doesn't mean there aren't tasty options for people who don't eat meat, some of which are even local delights, one only needs to ask for them. A typical such specialty is the nopal, in English also known as prickly pear cactus. The plant itself has many edible parts, including the fruit called tuna (not the fish, that would be atún), which is usually eaten raw or blended in smoothies, as well as its leaves (or branches would be probably more appropriate), which are cooked, fried, and eaten with salsa in tortillas.
There are many ways you can be fancy with this plant, from baking it to melting cheese over it, but for introduction purposes I want to give a simple recipe of how you can enjoy this lovely cactus at home. Of course you need to find it in the first place, but any Mexican market or specialty food store should have them. In many places outside of Mexico the nopal grows wild. I remember seeing them in Spain, New Zealand, and of course the Southwestern US, but even in certain places in Canada. Since they are not always part of the local cuisine, I don't think anyone would care if you harvested a few leaves for yourself. In that case I recommend the younger, more tender shoots. And watch out for the spines! It's a cactus we're dealing with...
Getting Rid of the Spines
Here in Mexico they are everywhere of course, sold whole, sometimes even with the spines on them. Cleaning them well, meaning scraping off the spines with a sharp knife, can be a bit of work. Fortunately, many vendors anticipate the lazy customers, and for them they have nopal leaves already scraped, sometimes even cut in stripes. If you have to harvest your own, you won't get around scraping it yourself. Taking off the entire outer layer will make sure no spines are left. Their sizes range from huge to minuscule, and it's more than likely that you'll catch one or two in your fingers. As much as they hurt, it's good to remember that they would hurt a lot worse in your tongue!
Getting Rid of the Slime
Once you've scraped your nopal leaves clean, and cut them in stripes, put them in a big pot, cover them with a good amount of water, and set it to boil. You'll need to cook them for a good amount of time. For half a kilo (a pound) of nopal leaves I would estimate about 30 minutes of boiling, but it can be more. The nopal is a tough little succulent plant, and unlike most veggies it won't shrivel into nothingness from too much heat. Some people may actually like the slime, so they are welcome to skip the boiling part. It won't hurt you. But it's better without.
On an interesting side-note, the nopal slime was frequently mixed into mortar and plaster in prehispanic constructions, such as Teotihuacan. Today, with cement being king and all, the nopal slime is considered an inferior technique, but it can't be that bad if it's still holding together those pyramids.
From the Cooking Pot to the Frying Pan
Once you think the it has boiled out most of the slime, you can pour the water off, and go on to fry the nopal pieces. There will always remain a little slime, but not nearly as much as in the raw plant. Also the frying process will get rid of some of it, but once again, not all. A little sliminess is part of the nopal experience, anyway.
I like to fry my nopal pieces with a good amount of onion, and a bit of salt. For the half a kilo (one pound) I'd say half a large onion is just enough. It doesn't need to be fried for long, a good ten minutes should be good. Once finished, you can even crumble some cheese on top of it, or leave it as it is to keep it vegan. Serve it with salsa, re-fried black beans, guacamole, and tortillas, and you have a delicious, filling, purely plant-based, and 100% authentic Mexican meal.
If you liked this I recommend you to check out my other posts from the series What to Eat in Mexico: