Do prickly pear usually go the sweet route? I found prickly pears via Melissa's and tucked them into a tomatillo salsa. But I remember them being green, not that gorgeous magenta in your photos, Elise and Garrett.

They can be green, orange, yellow, or magenta. Each has their own variations of taste. The green ones being a bit bitter, the orange and yellows ones having a more bright flavor. ~Garrett

Ooh I've never had a prickly pear before, but absolutely love its largest cousin the 'dragon fruit'. Wonder if they taste similar?

Chevy's Tex-Mex restaurant has a delicious prickly pear margarita . . . YUM!!

I remember the first and only time I had Prickly Pears. I visited Mexico City about 25 years ago and had a Mexican guide that took my friend and me out to the Aztec pyramids. On the way we saw roadside vendors selling "tunas" which I believe is the Spanish name for the fruits. They had them sliced up in ice chests and they were green. Our guide insisted that we had to try them. They were very exotic and sweet even in their green state, so I imagine when they're fully ripe, they are even better.

Thanks for bringing back that memory! I will have to look for them in my local market.

I used to make Prickly Pear jam every season when I lived in CA as we had them growing in our backyard.

One thing I always did right after picking them, and before pealing them was hold each fruit in a pair of tongs and wave it through the side burner on my BBQ. That way I was sure all the little hair-like thorns are burnt off and wouldn't contaminate my jam as those little suckers get everywhere. I would then drop them in a big bucket of water to rinse them off.

My family called them Tunas.
When I was a little girl, my grandmother and I would pick the prickly pears from her garden. They were so tasty and sweet. My family is Spanish and my mother always picked and cooked the nopales too. They were her favorites.

Here in Oaxaca, Mexico we eat a lot of "TUNA" or prickly pear. Depending on the variety they are green inside, deep red, or even gray (the outside of the gray ones are a beautiful magenta)
I use them to top a pavlova, a cheesecake, or as a fruit garnish. Since berries and kiwi are expensive here - Tuna are a great substitute.
The leaves of the plant - nopales - are a major food here - they are very good for you and delicious - some people don't like the "slimy" feel to them - so put them in soup. Look for recipes for both in Suzanna Trillings' cookbook of Oaxaca "Seasons of my Heart". What a great plant - with practically no water & not instecticide you get vitamin C, great fruit, healthy veggie.

I've never had prickly pear before! I wonder what it tastes like...

Well done Elise, beautiful prickly pears and super user-friendly instructions! I would not recommend handling the skin, even carefully, with your fingers. If you slip a knife blade between the skin and the flesh, yea shall peel it without trouble - and without damage to your fingers!

My grandmother in New Mexico used to make a jam with the prickly pears (we called them tunas) she grew in her back yard.

I was never able to get her to write it down but this was base of it and what I use (an altered recipe from online):

4 cups prickly pear juice
4 1/2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
lemon zest
2 packages of powdered pectin

Follow the pectin manufacturer's directions for adding ingredients. Stir frequently. Bring to a very hard boil for three minutes. Pour the jam into sterilized jars and seal them as you normally would while canning.

I live in South America and our Tunas are mostly green, by the time they turn any other colour (like red or brown) is because they're already rotten. They have a lovely taste similar to green melons, that's why we call those melon: melon tuna.

Talking about tunas, peel them with a knife and a fork and you won't have a problem with the thorns.

We call these Tiin Shoki in Egypt, where I grew up. I can't remember them being used much in cooking, although I think my mother would make preserves with them occasionally.

They are sold on the street there in the summer months, on donkey carts. The man selling them skins them, and then hands you the skinned fruit-- so you eat them right away, usually.

Ours are also always the green/yellow sort. They taste rather different than the ones I've had in America (the redder kind). The taste is hard to describe, but it's less watermelony, and a bit tarter.

We have oodles of prickly pear cacti here on the northern prairie, but I hadn't really thought about eating them. I must try now. Thanks for the info everybody!

Jody

I've read that prickly pear juice is great at preventing a hangover. Just drink 8 oz 4-5 hours before going out to drink and you won't feel much pain. Haven't tried it myself, have any of you?

I LOVE prickly pear lemonade. An absolute favorite! If the hubby is ever in the dog house, he knows he can get out of it by bringing home flowers and a bottle of prickly pear lemonade.

http://www.bolthouse.com/html/cs_cactus_n.html

Though I've never had a prickly pear I have a recipe for "cactus pear butter" that I'd like to try. However, there is a typo in the book and there is no absolutely indication as to how much sugar to use--it's not even in the ingredients list, though halfway through the recipe the directions say "add the sugar". The only ingredients are prickly pears, tart apples, honey, and sugar. Does anyone out there have this recipe and if so how much sugar would it take? I'd also settle for an educated guess as I'm new to making jelly and preserves and haven't the vaguest idea how I'd guesstimate how much sugar to use.

Oh, and I have to say the prickly pear lemonade sounds intriguing!

How do you eat the seeds? Do you chew them or swallow them whole? I wonder how much potassium is in one or say, a 1/2 cup serving.

Just chew them. =) ~Garrett

I found Prickly Pear Fruit at the pike Place Market today! Found this site searching for recipes, since the only way I've ever had Prickly Pear is in tequila drinks . . .

Great information. Yesterday I went out in the wild of Arizona again. We have big beautiful prickley pears growing out here, we make syrup, jam, juice, salad dressing.
We put a big pot on the stove, boil, turn off, cool, all prickleys are gone.
Cut in half. I do use plastic gloves for colour, scrape with spoon the inside, bag it in freezer bags, voila!

I've been around these cactus apples most of my life here in central Texas. Outside is a hedge row of them approximately 500' next to a 5 strand barbed wire fence ( see if you can sneek into the property at night) They are called the yellow rose of Texas also orange blooms and red. We have different colors sectioned off. When it rained during the summer year before last the low part of field was covered with them and they turned black and almost died but the spanish daggers profilated. Last year,however these apples were harvested and were hand picked with gloves and put on a tray and I used the flamer or propane
torch to de-prick them. I cooked them down after washing them and made some pretty kiss-arsh cactus apple jelly. A local recipe here around Comanche County but in Hamilton County.

We harvested fruit in Arizona, a slightly different variety but we found if you burn off the tiny thorns the thin skin will peel right off, leaving a layer of meat between the skin and the seeds. See the photo illustration here http://mostlyphotos.wordpress.com/2009/08/29/prickly-pear-jam/

I love prickly pear but after moving from Texas I can't find the fruit for sale anywhere, anyone know a online provider or contact info for a place that ships it? If so I would be most grateful!

I originally had the prickly pear as a margarita in a bar down on the river walk in San Antonio. Have not heard of it since. Was in the a local discount grocery called Marc's here in Cleveland and saw the Prickly Pear, the thing with Marc's is they MAY never have it again. So I bought a couple and accidentally pealed it like it explains above, lucky me. I tasted a small slice, and found the seeds annoying, grabbed a small strainer and pressed the two pear meat through the strainer with a bowl underneath until just the seeds remained in the strainer. Don't have the booze around, so I used Canada Dry Diet Ginger Ale and three teaspoons of the juice, it foams up really good, so start small, added more ginger ale and ice, MAN is that GOOD...... But still wish I had the margarita instead. Can't mess up making the juice, it's easy and worth the few minutes. Made more juice than I expected.