Best Prickly Pear Recipes and Prickly Pear Cooking Ideas

Top Rated Prickly Pear Recipes

Tanque Verde Ranch’s Prickly Pear Margarita

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Prickly pear season guarantees two things: a spike in Band-Aid sales, and fresh Prickly Pear Margaritas at Tanque Verde Ranch in Tucson, Arizona. This year, for the first time, guests of the country’s largest dude ranch are invited to pick their own spiky fruit from the cacti-laden trails of the ranch’s 60,000 acres of stunning desert landscape, adjacent to the Saguaro National Park. After harvesting the seasonal fruit, the Tanque Verde Ranch culinary team will lead interactive demonstrations and remove the “prick” from the sweet fruit by carefully de-thorning the colorful cactus fruit with tongs. The ranch staff will then make the sweet harvest into delicious prickly pear margaritas, syrups, and desserts. If you can’t make it to Tanque Verde’s Dog House Saloon for drinks but you’ve got your own cactus fields to harvest, you can try de-thorning and juicing your own prickly pears to make these sweet, bright fuchsia margaritas at your own home-on-the-range.

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Prickly Pear Frozen Margarita

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Madeline Monaco

This margarita comes from Muy Bueno: Three Generations of Authentic Mexican Flavor by Yvette Marquez-Sharpnack, Veronica Gonzalez-Smith, and Evanglina Soza, courtesy of Hippocrene Books, Inc. The author of the recipe writes: Grandma had several nopales (cactus paddles) growing along the fence in her backyard in El Paso. Together we would pick the tunas (prickly pears) off the cactus, peel, and eat the sweet fruit. As a tribute to my Grandma – who loved her tunas and color de rosa (the color pink) – I dedicate this beautiful pink margarita in her honor.”

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Prickly Pear Mezcal Mule Recipe

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Emily Alford

Christine Dionese, health specialist and author of The Best Craft Cocktails & Bartending with Flair, has long been suggesting prickly pear for its blood sugar lowering effects. Researchers at the University of Vienna in Austria have found in a small study that prickly pear decreased blood glucose by 11 percent. Read more about the Best Alcoholic Drinks for Your Diet.

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Tuna Cooler Margarita

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Marcy Franklin

Don't worry, there's no real tuna in this margarita — it's Spanish for "prickly pear," so Don Julio says. But the prickly pear is what makes this Don Julio margarita so enticing. Says Don Love (who created the marg), "This drink is inspired by a soda commonly found in Southern California called the 'Cactus Cooler,' and is a twist on a traditional margarita with the addition of prickly pear purée to the recipe. This drink is easy to make yet unique and delicious, making it the perfect recipe for the novice at-home mixologist looking to celebrate the holiday."

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American Firecracker

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Madeline Monaco

The American Firecracker is exactly what it sounds like. With hints of bell peppers and jalapeno, this cocktail brings a kick. The agave nectar and pear syrup add just the right amount of sweetness to make this cocktail shippable all Fourth of July. Crafted by Carlos Ruiz at Salud Lobby Lounge at JW Marriott Starr Pass Resort & Spa in Tuscon, this drink will easily become a crowd pleaser at any get together.

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Jicama Salad with Mint Crema

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Eric Werner and Mya Henry

When we inspected the plot where we would build the restaurant, we found a twenty-foot-long jicama vine growing wild. It was insane. The vine was so large it was taking over entire trees.Jicama is starchy and crisp and completely refreshing. Imagine crossing a potato, an apple, and a cucumber without the seeds. Jicama is almost entirely water by weight, so when you shop for it, look for the firmest and heaviest. You want the skin to be tight, not wrinkled.We garnish this salad with Prickly Pear Preserves, but you could use a handful of ripe watermelon cubes instead. And, yes, the mint crema recipe makes double what you’ll need, but we promise you’ll want to make this salad again.Excerpted from Hartwood by Eric Werner and Mya Henry with Christine Mulke and Oliver Strand (Artisan Books). Copyright © 2015.

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Prickly Pear Pie

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Natalie Lobel

Prickly pears may seem intimidating. They are covered in protective glochids for goodness sake. That simply means they have teeny tiny spikes that hurt if you touch them. The taste of the fruit is almost cotton candy meets raspberry (if you ask me) and the color is out of this world bright reddish purplish pink. I have enjoyed making shrubs, jams and cocktails with the fruit but one of my favorite things is making pie! Here I used a flakey sourdough crust with a sweet lattice top to encase the prickly pear filling. You can either make the sourdough pie crust (or use 2 store bought refrigerated pie crusts if you are in a pinch)This recipe is courtesy of Women's Heritage.

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Sonoran Sun

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The Daily Meal Staff

There are lots of tart juicy flavors without the pitcher being overly sweet. The cucumber slices give off a little bit of flavor that give the pitcher a nice grassy finish.Recipe courtesy of Edwin Cruz, Bar Director, Winsome.

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Prickly Pear Margarita Recipe

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Maryse Chevriere

This garden-to-glass cocktail from Cindy Pawlcyn's Mustards Grill features the juice of prickly pears grown right in the Mustards garden.

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Prickly Pear Purée Recipe

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Emily Alford

Christine Dionese, health specialist and author of The Best Craft Cocktails & Bartending with Flair, has long been suggesting prickly pear for its blood sugar lowering effects. Researchers at the University of Vienna in Austria have found in a small study that prickly pear decreased blood glucose by 11 percent. Take a look at our Prickly Pear Mezcal Mule Recipe Read more about the Best Alcoholic Drinks for Your Diet

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