Ensalada de Napolitos ( Cactus Salad ) - Had this today, it was great.

[pinto]

A basic Mexican salad using diced fresh Opuntia (cactus).

This is the canned version, yet it works well.

2 cups napolitos, coarse diced and drained
2 cups whole corn, drained

1/2 cup fresh tomatoes, coarse diced and drained
1/4 cup green onion, chopped
2 serrano chilies, diced, or more to taste

cilantro, chopped, to taste
cumin, to taste
coarse salt, to taste
pepper, to taste

juice of 2 lemons
1 tbl. vegetable oil to blend

toss all, let set for a bit

toss before serving

[Warpy]

1. Every spring all the main stream supermarkets here carry nopalitos

They're the small, young blades of paddle cactus. The store even tries to despine them, although careful handling with leather gloves and final spine shaving is necessary.

If you ever find them, the process is despining them, cutting off the tough outer edge, and then cutting them into strips. They suffer from the same slime problem that okra does: parboiling and grilling will both remove a great deal of it.

The above recipe looks like it would work very well for fresh nopalitos. This post tells you how to prepare them.

The large blades of cactus are nopales and are better cooked and served hot as a vegetable, IMO.

[pinto]

2. They're a common item here in CA, jarred or fresh. Jarred, they're spined, skinned and cooked -

fresh, already spined yet need to be skinned and cooked. Farmer's markets here often have the larger nopales, but I don't fuss with them. Sometimes they have candied nopalitos ready to go. Kind of a neat, in-hand treat for a street event.

[kestrel91316]

3. I just finished up a jar of nopalitos. I gotta try the fresh ones soon.

I made the salad with tomatoes and vinaigrette, a la my Bayless cookbook. But I think the fresh are probably extra special.

I also used them atop a corn tortilla and beans, with salsa, for dinner. That was tasty.

[EFerrari]

4. Ooo, I wanna try this.

Thanks, pinto.