Nope, not Peyote.. damn!
So I finally found out some things to do with the Optunia leaves they sell at the grocery stores. So I made a few pans of beef and cactus burritos for work this weekend!
First you gotta scrape the spines, just use a big wide knife and cut off all outter edges, then wash them in cold water
Do not scrape off all the skin, they become a big slimey mess! I did that with the first pad and then tried to dice it. It was like a bunch of green worms having an orgy, all slimey and gooey! That went in the trash! Just scrape off the spines and cut off all around the edges and wash them then dice them up like a big flat gren pepper:
First I sauteed them with onions then added the meat and black/green olives, garlic & herbs. The light green stuff in the pan is the cactus you can't see much but there's a 1/2 lb of cactus in there.
The meat was browed fully and wrapped with cheese in corn tortilas.
The Cactus is interesting. Raw it's very cooling to eat diced bits, they remind me of a cross between a cucumber and a green pepper but it has a very sweet aftertaste. Cooked in the burritos they are stiffer than a green pepper but don't give me the heartburn I always get from them and seem to add a certain sweetness.
So I finally found out some things to do with the Optunia leaves they sell at the grocery stores. So I made a few pans of beef and cactus burritos for work this weekend!
First you gotta scrape the spines, just use a big wide knife and cut off all outter edges, then wash them in cold water
Do not scrape off all the skin, they become a big slimey mess! I did that with the first pad and then tried to dice it. It was like a bunch of green worms having an orgy, all slimey and gooey! That went in the trash! Just scrape off the spines and cut off all around the edges and wash them then dice them up like a big flat gren pepper:
First I sauteed them with onions then added the meat and black/green olives, garlic & herbs. The light green stuff in the pan is the cactus you can't see much but there's a 1/2 lb of cactus in there.
The meat was browed fully and wrapped with cheese in corn tortilas.
The Cactus is interesting. Raw it's very cooling to eat diced bits, they remind me of a cross between a cucumber and a green pepper but it has a very sweet aftertaste. Cooked in the burritos they are stiffer than a green pepper but don't give me the heartburn I always get from them and seem to add a certain sweetness.