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Home » How-To (DIY stuff) » How to Cook Nopales

How to Cook Nopales

By Hank Shaw on May 13, 2019, Updated October 15, 2020 - 12 Comments

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Uncooked nopales ready to cook
Photo by Hank Shaw

Cooking nopales without slime is the end goal of, well, I’d say almost everyone who cooks the paddles of the prickly pear cactus.

I get it. Nopales are a vegetable with twin barriers: First, you need to clean nopales to remove the spines. Then you need to remove the slime they exude, especially once the nopales hit water. Think okra with a runny nose.

Once you get there, however, they are fantastic. Crunchy, tart, like lemony green beans. Nopales (pronounced “no-PAH-les”) are good pickled, dried and reconstituted for soups and stews, grilled, added to salsas, etc.

But that slime! The Mexicans call it babas. Fortunately there are many ways to remove it.

When you eat raw nopales, you will want to toss them in fine sea salt for about 10 minutes first. Maybe a tablespoon or two per large paddle. Dice or slice the nopales how you plan to eat them in a salad, then put them in a bowl and toss with the salt.

Move to a colander for 10 to 20 minutes to drain, then rinse under cold water, vigorously rubbing the nopales to remove all the slime.  You’re good to go for your ensalada de nopales.

Now that we have raw down, how to cook nopales without slime?

nopales on the grill
Photo by Hank Shaw

A Few Tricks

  • First, the old abuelas tale about putting the husk of tomatillos in the water when you boil nopales actually works. I have no idea how, but it does. I boil however many nopales, diced or whatever, as I plan to eat, in salty water with the husks of about 3 to 6 large tomatillos, for about 10 minutes. Drain and proceed.
  • Baking soda. Adding a healthy pinch of baking soda near the end of boiling works pretty well. Boil your nopales in salty water for 10 minutes, as in the previous method, but add the baking soda in the last 3 to 5 minutes. Be careful, though, because it can make the water froth over — so make sure you have some room in your pot for the water to expand.
  • Grill them. If you cross-hatch a nopal, just scoring the skin, not actually cutting through the paddle, and grill it, the babas will seep out and evaporate over the fire. Grilled nopales are fantastic.
  • Bake them. This is a Rick Bayless trick. Preheat an oven to 375°F. Dice your nopales and toss with a little salt, as much as you’d want just to season them (so a lot less than when you prep them raw). Arrange in one layer on a baking sheet and bake about 20 to 30 minutes. The slime will ooze out and dry up.
  • Saute them. Doing this requires some faith and a little patience. If you have a stir fry or saute with nopales, all will go well, until the babas flows. There will be a moment when everything in your pan is snotty and nasty. Hang in there. It cooks away. Once it does, you’re good to go.
  • Dry them. Yep. I learned this trick by accident. I happened to know that cholla buds are much better dried, then rehydrated. It eliminates the slime in that vegetable. Wonder it it would with nopales? The answer is yes, it does.
dried nopales on a cutting board
Photo by Hank Shaw

Drying nopales is also a fantastic way to preserve your prickly pear cactus paddles for the long term. Sure, you can buy Mexican ones all year long, but if you have them in your yard or you forage for them, the young paddles only come out once a year.

Now that you know how to cook nopales, what sort of recipes can you put them in?

Look to Mexico. I have dozens of Mexican cookbooks, in English and Spanish, and every one has at least one recipe for nopales. As I mentioned above, nopales salad is a great way to start. It’s normally but not always raw, and needs to be eaten right after it’s made; two-day-old ensalada de nopales is sticky-icky.

I add previously dried nopales into stews and soups all the time. You will see them grilled, then diced and put into salads, or felt whole to serve as a sort of edible plate called a huarache because it looks like the sole of a sandal.

But my favorite is nopales en escabeche, pickled nopales. You know those pickled jalapenos, carrots and onions you get at the taco truck? It’s that, plus diced, de-slimed nopales. Makes a fantastic counterpoint to beans and rice, or a bright note for a taco.

My friend Elise over at Simply Recipes like to stew them with tomatoes, and Rick Bayless has a dish of nopales with dried chiles and caramelized onions.

Let me know in the comments if you have other favorite ways to cook nopales.

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Filed Under: Featured, Foraging, How-To (DIY stuff), Mexican

Avatar for Hank Shaw

Hank Shaw

Hey there. Welcome to Hunter Angler Gardener Cook, the internet's largest source of recipes and know-how for wild foods. I am a chef, author, and yes, hunter, angler, gardener, forager and cook. Follow me on Instagram and on Facebook.

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Comments

  1. Avatar for NoberNober says

    November 1, 2019 at 3:07 am

    Supose we don’t have tomatillos in the country we’re living in. Which other husk do you think it would work?

    Reply
    • Avatar for Hank ShawHank Shaw says

      November 5, 2019 at 8:12 am

      Nober: None. Sorry.

      Reply
      • Avatar for PeggyPeggy says

        March 6, 2021 at 12:13 am

        I wonder if the husks from other closely related fruit might work? Ground cherries, Cape gooseberries/golden berries, etc have that same weirdly tacky feel to their skins that tomatillos do, though I’ve no idea if that’s relevant. I’ve none of them growing, but will have a try when I do (no foraging or grocery store possibilities for any of that here).

  2. Avatar for IsabelIsabel says

    October 18, 2019 at 2:32 pm

    Why is the slime not desired ? Is it bad for you? My mom’s from Mexico City and the way she learned to cook it was to leave it slimy and use little or no water. I’ve made it that way too, but all online say drain the slime. To me it seems it will be all dry and less natural flavor.

    Reply
    • Avatar for Hank ShawHank Shaw says

      October 18, 2019 at 2:50 pm

      Isabel: It’s a texture thing. Most people, on both sides of the border, don’t like it. Babas, it’s called in Spanish. No me gusta!

      Reply
  3. Avatar for Autumn Ogden-SmithAutumn Ogden-Smith says

    May 16, 2019 at 3:17 pm

    Thanks for all the different ways to get the slime out! I have always treated them like okra and just sauteed them. It’s nice to know there are non-oily options.

    Reply
  4. Avatar for Dawn MurriettaDawn Murrietta says

    May 15, 2019 at 8:51 pm

    What would you Serve with the grilled nopales?

    Reply
    • Avatar for Hank ShawHank Shaw says

      May 16, 2019 at 6:53 am

      Dawn: I’ve served them as a base, with lots of good things on top, as if it were a sort of grilled vegetable tostada. You can also slice them and use as part of fajitas.

      Reply
  5. Avatar for Jim volpeJim volpe says

    May 15, 2019 at 9:52 am

    You mention “the young paddles only come out once a year”, is this dictated by time of year or paddle size? Thanks,
    Jim

    Reply
    • Avatar for Hank ShawHank Shaw says

      May 15, 2019 at 10:20 am

      Jim: Cactus are mysterious, at least to me. It looks to me like time of year is the key, and most prickly pears in a given area will sprout new paddles around the same time. But it’s also species dependent. I have one species putting out pads like crazy now, and another species next to it is spending its time putting out fruit.

      Reply
  6. Avatar for Ellen SmartEllen Smart says

    May 13, 2019 at 4:55 pm

    The way to prevent okra slime is to cook it with something acid, like tomato or lemon. I suspect that that is what would work well with on nopales, too. No drying, no cold rinse, etc.

    Reply
    • Avatar for joseph heidelmeierjoseph heidelmeier says

      November 29, 2021 at 8:19 am

      A little vinegar works also!

      Reply

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Hi, my name is Hank Shaw. I am a James Beard Award-winning author and chef and I focus my energies on wild foods: Foraging, fishing, hunting. I write cookbooks as well as this website, have a website dedicated to the intersection of food and nature, and do a podcast, too. If it’s wild game, fish, or edible wild plants and mushrooms, you’ll find it here. Hope you enjoy the site!

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