Nopal Cactus Sauteed with Onion, Garlic, and Tomato

One of the many wonderful things about our farmers’ market is the occasional surprise among the usual seasonal offerings. Like nopal cactus, also known as prickly pear, for example. I recently discovered some with spines removed, paddles cleaned and cut into bite-size pieces, bagged, and ready to prepare. Having harvested and cleaned nopales a few times myself, I know what a gift it is that the farmer has saved me from that difficult job.

I like to sauté the cactus in a cast iron skillet with garlic, white onion, and tomatoes, and eat the mixture on fresh corn tortillas with black beans in the mix or on the side.

A recipe from chef Adan Medrano’s Truly Texas Mexican: A Native Culinary Heritage in Recipes is usually my basic guide. He, however, starts with spiny, uncleaned paddles, doesn’t include garlic or tomatoes. I start with a quart-size baggie of cut-up cactus and include garlic and tomatoes in the process.

Ingredients for four to six servings, depending on how the mix is eaten

• One quart-size baggie of bite-size cactus
• Two to four tablespoons of olive oil
• One white onion, thinly sliced
• Garlic cloves to taste, minced
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Two or three medium-size tomatoes, skins removed

Preparation

Heat the olive oil in a cast iron skillet on medium heat, add the cactus, and sauté for about fifteen minutes.

Add the minced garlic (I like lots of garlic and use three or four cloves) and sliced onions, and cook until the onions are soft and translucent but not brown. Add salt and pepper.

To skin the tomatoes, drop them in a pot of boiling water just long enough for their skins to break. Lift them from the pot, peel off the skins, and add the tomatoes to the skillet, breaking them to pieces as you stir them into the mix until the mixture is heated through. Adjust the salt and pepper, and serve.