Prickly Pear Juice Recipes

HOW TO MAKE PRICKLY PEAR JUICE

Steps:

• If you are picking fresh prickly pears from a nopal cactus, be sure to use thick rubber gloves or tongs to avoid pricking yourself with the glochids.
• Before handling the prickly pears, brush them under cool running water to remove as many of the glochids as possible from the skin. (Store-bought prickly pears may already have most of their glochids removed).
• To peel the prickly pears you still may want to wears gloves or use tongs in case of any remaining glochids. Cut off both ends of the prickly pears. Make a skin-deep incision along the length of the fruit. Now you can easily pull the skin away from the inner flesh.
• Add the peeled prickly pears to a blender along with optional lime juice and agave syrup. Prickly pears are so juicy that I have never needed to added additional water to get the blender going. Blend until smooth.
• Pour the blended juice through a sieve to strain out the hard seeds.
• Adjust lime juice & sweetener if needed. You can drink the juice as is or diluted with water. It is also great in smoothies or margaritas.
• The juice can be stored refrigerated for 2-3 days. To store for longer, fill the juice into an ice cube tray and freeze. The frozen prickly pear juice cubes can be added to water for flavoring, or blended into smoothies or frozen margaritas.

PRICKLY PEAR JUICE

Steps:

• Remove the spines from the fruit, as noted in the text above. Put the fruit in a pot and just barely cover with water. Bring to a boil. Turn off the heat, and when it cools enough to work with, mash everything with a potato masher.
• Run the mash through a food mill, or of you don't have one, push it through a colander with a rubber spatula. You need to get rid of the many seeds. Once that's done, strain the mash through a fine sieve, pushing it through with a rubber spatula. If you want a very clear juice, run that one more time through a sieve with a paper towel set inside it, and do not push it through -- just let it drop through over the course of an hour or two.
• Add sugar, plus citric acid or lime juice to taste. Enjoy over ice.

PRICKLY PEAR JELLY

Steps:

• Simmer 3 pint-size jars in a large pot of water until ready for use. Wash lids and rings in warm soapy water.
• Slice ends off each prickly pear. Make 1 long vertical slit down each one. Use the slit to hold the skin and peel off. Discard peel.
• Place peeled pears in a blender; puree in batches until liquefied. Press puree through a fine-mesh sieve set over a bowl. Discard pulp and seeds.
• Measure out 3 cups prickly pear juice, lemon juice, and pectin into a large pot. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Add sugar and return to a boil, stirring constantly. Let cook, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat.
• Pour prickly pear mixture into hot jars, filling to within 1/4 inch of the top. Wipe the rims of the jars with a moist paper towel to remove any food residue. Top with lids and screw on rings.
• Place a rack in the bottom of a stockpot and fill halfway with water. Bring to a boil and lower jars 2 inches apart into the boiling water using a holder. Pour in more boiling water if necessary to bring the water level to at least 1 inch above the tops of the jars. Bring the water to a rolling boil, cover the stockpot, and process for 15 minutes.
• Remove the jars from the pot and place onto a cloth-covered or wood surface, several inches apart, and let cool, at least 24 hours.

PRICKLY PEAR TONIC AND LIME

Steps:

• Mix water, prickly pear juice, diet tonic water, and lime juice together in a glass.

PRICKLY PEAR CANDY

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Strain prickly pear juice into a bowl through 2 layers of cheesecloth.
• Combine the juice and sugar in a saucepan. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat; pour candy mixture onto the prepared baking sheet.
• Bake until firm, about 5 minutes. Remove and let candy cool in the pan until set, at least 30 minutes.
• Cut candy into bite-size pieces and wrap in plastic wrap.

BEACHCOMBER'S PRICKLY PEAR JELLY

Steps:

• Harvest tunas (prickly pear fruits) wearing thick gloves. A 2 quart colander full to top should yield about 8 cups juice. Be sure to include a few that still are a wee bit green if possible. Do NOT handle these with bare hands (you will be sorry because they are deceptive- she writes while gnawing at her right thumb pad - LOL).
• Rinse the fruits in a colander (we have a lot of salt spray here). Then put them in a large nonreactive kettle with the 2 cups of water. Cover & bring to rapid simmer. Simmer until fruit soft - about 30 minutes.
• Ladle now mushy fruits into blender & blend with enough water to make thick slurry. Ok to do this after fruits cool if this recipe has been too high risk up to this point. Otherwise blend when hot but be sure to hold down blender lid with a thick cloth between it & your hand because boiling brilliant magenta juice with tiny tiny spines REALLY hurts! (Clorox cleanup gets it off countertops & walls).
• Pour blended fruits back into pan with residual water & stir.
• Drape 4 layers of cheesecloth in colander (which should sit in another pot or bowl) & dampen.
• Pour or ladle then pour the brilliant magenta fruit slurry into the cheesecloth & gather the edges to twist and squeeze the juice out (need to wait a bit if the mush inside is still hot). Your hands will be stained brilliant magenta if you opt not to wear gloves but the cheesecloth effectively sieves out any little spines.
• Rinse out the initial kettle (use those gloves just to be safe) and pour the strained juice back into it. Add lemon juice. Heat to boil & add the 2 packets of powdered pectin. Bring to a hard boil for 1-2 minutes.
• Add 7 cups of sugar, blend well & bring to a hard boil for 2 minutes.
• Ladle into sterilized 1 cup jars, lid & process in covered hot water bath for 20 minutes. Leave 1/2 inch headroom when filling jars & be sure to have jars in hot water bath covered by at least 2 inches of water.
• Remove from bath & place on flat towel on counter. Jars should "pop" within 5 minutes. ENJOY!