• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

The Other Side of the Tortilla logo

  • RECIPES
  • INGREDIENTS
  • ABOUT
  • TRAVEL
  • RESOURCES
menu icon
go to homepage
  • RECIPES
  • INGREDIENTS
  • ABOUT
  • TRAVEL
  • RESOURCES
search icon
Homepage link
  • RECIPES
  • INGREDIENTS
  • ABOUT
  • TRAVEL
  • RESOURCES
×
  • Tejocotes, also known as Mexican hawthorn, in a blue and white ceramic bowl over a white marble countertop
    What are tejocotes?
  • Avocado, queso fresco and fresh salsa verde are served inside a blue and white ceramic talavera molcajete atop a table at a restaurant. There is a spoon inside the molcajete.
    What to eat at El Cardenal in Mexico City
  • La Gruta Ehden: A Taste of Lebanon in Mexico City
  • How to make a Day of the Dead altar
  • jicama: top left peeled, top right sliced, bottom right whole jicama, bottom left jicama sticks
    What is Jicama?
  • red chamoy Gushers on a piece of parchment paper sprinkled with Miguelito chamoy powder
    How to Make Chamoy Gushers
  • tomatillos in their husks inside a white ceramic colander on a white and gray marble countertop
    What are tomatillos?
  • Peach ring gummies covered in chamoy and Tajín
    Chamoy peach rings
  • mexican pan de anis in a square pan
    How to Make Pan de Anis
  • Sugar Crunch Rosca de Reyes
  • Polvorones
  • Atole de nuez

How to peel and eat cactus fruit

Published: Dec 29, 2019 · Modified: Sep 1, 2024 by Maura Wall Hernandez · This post may contain affiliate links · 6 Comments

972 shares
  • Share
  • Tweet

Cactus fruit, also know as cactus pear or prickly pear, comes from the nopal cactus.

Native to Mexico, the nopal cactus is sometimes called prickly pear cactus, but the plant’s Latin name is Opuntia. In Spanish, cactus fruit are called tunas. The fruit grows on the rounded edges of cactus paddles and has a thick skin covered in small spines. Once cut open, you'll see they have a soft, juicy meat inside with lots of dark, round seeds.

Red cactus fruits

How to cut and peel cactus fruit

Using a sharp knife, cut the two ends of the fruit, making sure to cut all the way through to the flesh. Stand the fruit on one side and make a vertical cut through the skin (it's OK if you cut into the flesh a bit). With your finger or the tip of the knife, lift a corner of the skin where you made the vertical cut and use your fingers to peel the skin away from the fruit. Discard the skin.

In our house, the most common ways we consume cactus fruit is fresh or agua fresca de tuna roja or frozen cactus fruit margaritas. I much prefer the taste of the red fruit over the green, as the red is much sweeter. The juice can even be turned into prickly pear sorbet!

The seeds are completely edible, but if you don't like them, you can just spit them out. When cactus fruits are used in juices, the seeds are always filtered out.

When are cactus pears in season? How do I pick them out?

Cactus fruits are normally harvested from July through October, but it's common to find them in grocery stores in the U.S. as late in the year as December depending where they come from. Sometimes they also appear in stores after they're in season because they've been frozen.

Red and green cactus pears are the most common in the U.S., but there are lots of other varieties and colors that exist in Mexico.

Red and green cactus fruits

To pick out ripe cactus fruit, you'll want to look for a few signs: firm skin, and no signs of decay such as bruises, soft spots or mold.

Red cactus fruit or tunas rojas, when ripe, should be a deep red color, with little or no green on the skin.

Green cactus fruit or tunas verdes won't change color much as they ripen, like the red variety. The color green can range from very light green to medium green, getting slightly lighter in color as they ripen, and the fruit inside is white or very pale green. When they start to over-ripen and decay, sometimes the skin turns a bit yellow or palid.

Green cactus pears

A tip on handling cactus fruits

When you buy cactus fruit at the grocery store, most of the time the spines have already been cleaned off and the fruit is safe to touch with your hands. However, sometimes there are very small spines that are difficult to see with the naked eye, so I suggest that you use tongs or a plastic bag to handle them in the store rather than your bare hands.

If you get home and find that your cactus fruits still have small spines, use rubber gloves to protect your hands and a kitchen tool such as a potato brush to gently scrub them under running water and remove the spines. You won't eat the skins, but it's a horrible feeling when you get a spine stuck in your hand that you can't see to remove!

Cultivation and consumption in Mexico

Cactus fruit typically grows wild, and some people plant them in home gardens. They're mostly cultivated in the central Mexican states of Estado de México, Guanajuato, and Queretaro.

Prickly pears are usually eaten fresh, as shown in the video here with the skin removed and cut into chunks or slices just like any other fresh fruit.

Cactus fruits cut in half

There are also several uses of red cactus fruit in traditional Mexican gastronomy. One of those is a fermented alcoholic beverage called colonche, which is a sweet, red and effervescent drink made from the boiled and fermented juice of the red prickly pear. Because of the natural high sugar content of red cactus fruit, it ferments quickly. Another type of alcoholic beverage made with red prickly pears is called chiquito, which is liquor made with the cactus fruit and cinnamon.

Another traditional use of the fruit is called queso de tuna, which is essentially a dessert similar to ate or fruit paste, made by boiling the fruit pulp until thick and sticky and air drying.

Melcocha is another traditional use for cactus pears—it's a type of jelly made by boiling the pulp until thickened so it can be spread on bread or tortillas. And red cactus fruit can also be made into a sweet compote.

This is what prickly pears look like while still growing on the nopal cactus:

wild tunas and nopales

Can I plant the nopal cactus to grow my own cactus pears in the U.S.?

Yes! If you live in U.S. Department of Agriculture hardiness zones 3b through 11, you can grow this type of cactus outdoors. They thrive most in hot, dry areas and can grow up to 20 feet tall and spread up to 15 feet wide.

You can grow Opuntia cacti from seeds, but if you don't live in an area where it can thrive outdoors, it will require a lot of extra care. When planted outside and once established, they can tolerate drought conditions for several weeks.

You can learn more about the plant hardiness zones on the USDA website.

USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map

33

More Mexican Ingredients

  • Guide to Mexican Pan Dulce
  • How to choose a ripe avocado
  • Mexican limes in a yellow metal colander over a white and gray marble countertop
    Guide to Mexican limes

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Devlin says

    October 08, 2020 at 3:06 pm

    I cut up 1 or 2 prickly pears with 4 to 6 strawberries and a small tomato, mix them up in a bowl and eat it with plain yogurt for breakfast. Sounds kinda crazy but it is good and tasty.

    Reply
    • Maura Wall Hernandez says

      October 19, 2020 at 4:41 pm

      Love prickly pears with strawberries but have never tried adding tomato! What an interesting combo idea!

      Reply
  2. Joyce says

    October 04, 2022 at 12:03 pm

    Great info. I am interested in the peeling the spines off. Very spiney. Ow! I have a ton of red ones but need to de spine before can use.

    Reply
  3. Michael Plemon says

    September 29, 2023 at 9:47 pm

    As a child, my late mother would hand me a kitchen knife while cooking dinner and tell me to go outside and pick some young cactus. I swore it was a form of punishment because she knew I DID NOT like the taste! At 58yo I still don't, however, it is a very healthy food. She never bothered with the pears and at the time I was greatful since they probably tasted the same. I only recently discovered that they were not only eatable but very sweet and tasty also.
    I have two 5 gallon buckets half full of pears a little smaller in size than a tennis ball. I'm going to attempt to do something with them tonight without getting poked. I was once told that using a small butane torch was effective at eliminating the sharp spines, but that sounds like more work since they need to be washed anyways. I'll go with a small brush under a running faucet.
    Up until I read this article, I was under the impression that after a quick rinse I could just toss them in a blender and puree them. LOL! Now that I know they must he peeled first and are full of seeds, I understand why my mother never bothered with them! I almost wish I could out them back on the plant! Since I cant puree them with all those seeds, I'll have to figure out a way to crush or press the fruit since I'm only after the juice to make jelly with.That's the goal anyways.
    As someone new in preparing prickly pears I found this article informative and helpful. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge.

    Reply
  4. Frank Sepulveda says

    October 22, 2023 at 3:45 pm

    I’ve been curious for a long time re: the prickly pear cactus, specifically tunas Rojas y amarillas & how to serve them up since coming to southern CA.. grateful for finding this source reference.

    Reply
  5. Maggie Arambula says

    August 05, 2024 at 4:52 pm

    Hi Maura! Nice write-up on the "tuna." My dad just brought a big bag of cactus fruit over and I was a bit at a loss since I already had a platter filled with other fruit, "when am I going to finish all this?" So in searching for ideas on how to use them (besides just, ya know eating them after peeling), I found your post, "Yay, I know Maura!" I miss you, lady. Hope you're well.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

¡Bienvenidos!


Hi, I'm Maura Hernández, an award-winning food and travel writer, recipe developer, and former journalist sharing my passion for all things Mexico. I've traveled Mexico extensively over the last 18 years and Mexico City is my home away from home. Here, you'll find a mix of traditional and modern Mexican cooking, along with my advice on where to eat, stay and play on your visit to Mexico!

More about me

Paletas

  • Berries and cream popsicles are a mixed-berry spin on the traditional Mexican fresas con crema dessert. Recipe via theothersideofthetortilla.com
    Moras con Crema Popsicles
  • How to make strawberry hibiscus popsicles via theothersideofthetortilla.com
    Strawberry hibiscus popsicles
  • Mangonada popsicles displayed on a cookie sheet
    Mangonada popsicles
  • How to make banana, chia and coconut milk popsicles. This recipe is dairy-free and vegan-friendly! Via theothersideofthetortilla.com
    Banana chia popsicles
  • Mango cantaloupe and chile powder paletas from The Other Side of The Tortilla
    Mango cantaloupe paletas with chile powder
  • #Vegan fudge #popsicles made with avocado, raw cacao powder, coconut sugar and coconut milk. Get more #recipes from theothersideofthetortilla.com #paletas #receta #recipe
    Vegan avocado fudge pops

Footer

↑ back to top

About

  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimer

Contact

  • Contact Me
  • Media Kit
  • FAQ

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Copyright © The Other Side of The Tortilla, 2009-2024

972 shares