How to clean Nopales (Cactus Paddles)

Diced up cooked nopales or cactus paddles

How to clean Nopales (Cactus Paddles)

Nopales (cactus paddles) are delicious, but you might be thinking it's challenging to clean them up. Learn the right way to clean nopales and start adding them to your salads, soups, stews, etc.

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Course: dinner, how to, Salad

Cuisine: latin american, Mexican

Keyword: cactus paddles, healthy, nopales

Cook Time: 15

Total Time: 15

Servings: serving

Calories: 0.2kcal

Author: Ana Jimenez

Equipment

1 pairing knife
1 fork
1 cutting board
1 medium-sized pot

Ingredients

1 large cactus paddle
2 tomatillo papery husks can be substituted with ¼ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt

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Instructions

Pinch the bottom of the nopal with a fork and with the help of a knife, remove the thorns and the black spots in the paddle. Do it on both sides of the paddle.
Cut the edge of the nopal to make sure there are no thorns left there.
Cut the bottom of the nopal as well.
Rinse your nopal paddle under running water. Shake off the excess water and cut in stripes and dice it up.
To a saucepan at medium heat, add in enough water to fully cover the nopales, add in salt, and the tomatillo papery husks or baking soda. Cook for approx 10 mins or until the nopales feel soft if you pinch them with a fork and have changed color to a deeper green color.
Remove the papery husks if using them. Rinse your nopales under cold water and drain.

Notes

You can substitute the tomatillo papery husks with ¼ teaspoon of baking soda. The papery husks or baking soda will help remove the viscous liquid typical of nopales.

Nutrition