Nopales, Cactus Pads

Also Nopalitos, and, incorrectly, Cactus Leaves

Five years ago if you had not been brought up in a Mexican community or read cookbooks with a fine-toothed comb, you would probably never have encountered a nopalito, or been able to find out what it was. Now, with the Mexican population growing and restaurants popping up overnight, it is possible to pick up fresh cactus pads in supermarkets throughout a good part of the country. What is mysterious is why Mexico and a few parts of Central America are the only countries that have incorporated the (admittedly unlikely) vegetable into their meals and cookbooks, since many people in southern Europe, North Africa, South Africa, Southwest Asia, Australia, and Central and South America choose to consume quantities of the cactus pear, colorful offspring of several Opuntia varieties that supply the pads. The above might lead one to the conclusion that nopales (no-PAH-les), to use their most common Mexican name, are good only if you’re starving, which is far from the case—although you might certainly call them an acquired taste, or more exactly, texture. If okra doesn’t appeal to you, pass over the next pages, but if you like the idea of a vegetable that is soft but crunchy, with the flavor of green pepper, string beans, and asparagus (all touched with a sorrely citric edge) and the slipperiness of okra, read on.