How Do You Eat Prickly Pears? When Are They Ripe?

Want to eat bright yellow, orange, or pink prickly pears for the first time? You can find out here when prickly pears are ripe and how to get past the nasty little thorns and get to the delicious pulp.

Prickly Pear: Exotic summer fruit

Prickly pears, the size of goose eggs, grow at the ends of the Opuntia cactus’s “ears” all over the Mediterranean. When you can buy them from us depends a little on the variety. From late summer to autumn, you can find cactus figs in our supermarkets with extensive fruit departments and from time to time at discounters.

Is prickly pear already ripe?

When is it perfectly ripe and tastes delicious like a combination of melon and pear? The flesh of prickly pears is yellow or pink in color and interspersed with numerous edible seeds. Due to the different varieties, you cannot clearly tell the ripeness of the prickly pear from the shell.

When you can really enjoy the delicious, pleasantly sweet, and sour aroma depends on the following criteria:

• The fruit looks juicy and soft
• Shell gives way under slight pressure
• no cracks, especially in the upper area

A ripe opuntia cactus fruit can be kept for about 2 days at room temperature, a little longer in the refrigerator. You should use up the prickly pear within a week.

Tip: Cactus figs with a hard shell were harvested too early. Unfortunately, they no longer ripen, are quite tasteless, and not particularly great to eat.

Nasty for the fingers

Take a close look at the superfood: the thick, solid shell of prickly pears has dark, wart-like bumps. Small, sharp thorns protrude from them in clusters. Although most of the cactus figs that are bought have largely removed the worst nasties, some thorn remnants – extremely small and mean – are still there. Once you get the hang of it, it’s no longer fun to eat the prickly pears.

Prickly pears: prickly affair!

First of all, if you still lack practice with prickly pears, it is best to wear thick rubber gloves when touching and peeling. Since there could still be a few spikes hidden. Alternatively, you can go over the peel with a stiff brush before peeling so that you don’t have to wear gloves the whole time peeling.

You should also make sure not to process the prickly fruit on a wooden board but on a plate or glass cutting board. Otherwise, the thorns end up in the wood and if you’re unlucky, later in your skin or even your mouth.

Note to protect against figs – pardon fig thorns:

• best to handle with gloves
• Remove thorns with a stiff brush
• never peel on a wooden board, better on a plate
• Fork, pasta, or barbecue tongs are suitable for holding (if required)

Peel and eat prickly pear

The exotic fruit has two hard ends. One is the one with which it was attached to the cactus. The flower grew out of the other at the beginning of fruit development. Both pieces cannot be eaten and must be cut away. The following instructions will help you to peel and eat your prickly pear without any problems:

1. first assessment with gloves
2. remove the remains of thorns with a hard brush (-> peeling now also without gloves)
3. Place the prickly pear on a plate, metal or glass plate
4. Cut off the tough ends with a sharp knife
5. Cut a slit lengthwise across the fruit in the skin
6. scrape off the peel with a knife
7. Completely unroll the flesh from the skin

Attention: If a thorn has made it into your skin, try to remove it with tweezers.

Scoop out the prickly pear

If you want to avoid peeling, there is another quick way to eat the prickly pear: simply halve the prickly pear in half and scoop it out like a kiwi. Again, you have to watch out for the small thorns.

Before you spoon out a prickly pear, the following also applies to protect your skin:

• Impale glove on or with a fork

alternatively:

• Scrub off thorn hairs with a stiff brush

Process prickly pears

The pulp of the prickly pear with the numerous edible seeds can be used in the kitchen with the fresh sweet and sour taste in many recipes. Because you can eat cactus figs not only as a raw fruit snack.

Tip: If you don’t mind eating the many small seeds, you can simply process the pulp into a mush and finally press it through a fine sieve.

Are you a fan of exotic jams? Then puree and boil them down as jam. The prickly pear also cuts a fine figure as a cool sorbet or as a syrup on a cake. The prickly pear gives sweet dishes, but also spicy dishes such as poultry or game dishes that certain something.