How to Use Prickly Pear
Prickly pear juice is often used to make jam or candy, but it also works wonders in cocktails and in vinaigrettes for salads. I’ve used the juice from prickly pear to flavor cream cheese frosting for a lime flavored cupcake and have seen others boil cactus pear down with a bit of orange and lemon juice to make a sauce for fruit salads and cheesecakes.
Where to Get Prickly Pear
Many Mexican markets, farmers markets, and some natural food supermarkets carry prickly pear fruit, and you can find cactus pear growing in California, the Southwest, Mexico, and the Mediterranean. Be warned: while the prickly pear in markets has been cleaned of the tiny hair-like thorns, the ones fresh off the cactus are covered with them, so be sure to handle them with heavy leather work gloves and scrub them hard to ensure all the painful little barbs are off. Either way, handle prickly pear carefully or with gloves just in case. The flesh is studded with tons of little edible seeds. If you like them, feel free to just chop the prickly pear up and eat, seeds and all. Place the mixture into a fine mesh sieve and push out the juice into a pitcher or bowl. Discard the remaining pulp and seeds. Use the juice as you like. Depending on the size of the prickly pears, 6 to 12 prickly pears will get you about 1 cup of juice. It’s great mixed in with some fresh lemonade (equal parts of prickly pear juice to lemonade). Did you love the recipe? Leave us stars below!
