GrillinFools
We remove the spines from some nopales cactus paddles, spritz with oil, season with SPG and char over a hot charcoal fire in a kettle grill. After toasting up some corn tortillas, we add some leftover tri tip steak along with strips of the grilled nopales, fresh avocado, roasted corn, fresh onion, ripe tomato and some cotija cheese to make some epic grilled nopales tacos. A squeeze of lime finishes these unique street tacos off.
I know what you are thinking. Nopales? Yep, it’s cactus. That’s right, these are cactus tacos. The first time I had eaten them was when I made these tacos. However, I have to say that these were amazing. I’d make them again in a heartbeat. It’s also a great way of polishing off some leftover tri tip steak. Scroll down for the step-by-step, pic-by-pic, foolproof grilling instructions for these grilled nopales tacos
If funky tacos are your thing, may I suggest these beef cheek tacos? And run, don’t walk, to get the ingredients for these Big Mac Tacos.
Maybe we should back up just a little.
What are Nopales?
Nopales are the paddles on the prickly pear cactus.They are an ingredient that is growing in popularity for a variety of dishes like tacos and salads. Nopales are usually either grilled or boiled once the spines have been removed.
Additionally, prickly pear makes one of my favorite beers.
So I’ve been a fan of nopales before I knew what nopales were!
Back to the nopales recipe
Grilled Nopales Tacos Ingredients
- 5 nopale paddles, spines removed
- High flash point vegetable oil, divided
- Your favorite BBQ seasoning
- 15 corn tortillas
- 30 ounces leftover tri tip steak (2 oz per taco), optional. You can skip the beef and keep these vegetarian
- 3 ripe avocados, sliced
- 6-8 ounces fresh onion, chopped
- 8 ounces roasted corn or elotes (sliced from the cob) – we can help with this easy elote recipe
- 12-15 ounces fresh tomatoes, chopped
- 8 ounces cotija cheese, substitute fresh grated Parmesan, Romano or asiago
- 1 lime
This first step is probably the most important when working with nopales.
Take the edge of a knife and drag it across the flat sides of the nopale paddles, scraping the spines free.
The knife below is scraping from right to left, over and over again, on both sides:
Also, in that pic above, you can see I have sliced off the very edges of the prickly pear cactus paddle.
The spines that grow straight out of the thin edge of the paddle are difficult to scrape off, however you can simply slice the edges away to remove those spines.
Editor’s Note ~ Since publishing this, I was informed that the thick bases of the paddles need to be cut off. We cooked with these on but didn’t eat them.
Pro Tip ~ After scraping them, make sure to give the nopales a good rinsing in the sink to make sure none of those spines remain
Seasoning Doesn’t Stick to Nopales
Thus, hit them with a little vegetable oil and season with your favorite BBQ seasoning.
I used SPG seasoning (which is just a blend of Salt, Pepper and Garlic)
I used an atomizer to spritz some grape seed oil because grape seed has a very high flash point. We will be dealing with some seriously high heat here.
Speaking of which, get that grill going and don’t bother with a medium or even medium high fire.
For this nopales recipe we’re talking 500F or higher.
Indeed, cactus is REALLY good at retaining water. It’s almost as if it was the cactus’s mission in life to retain water.
And we have to get that liquid out of the cactus before it chars.
Clearly, the char is where it’s at!
How to Make Grilled Nopales Tacos
Scrape or slice the spines off the nopale cactus paddles. Then, rinse them off in the sink to make sure no spines remain. Next, brush or spray on vegetable oil and season with your favorite seasoning. Crank up the grill to north of 500F and char the nopales on each side. When both sides are charred, brush more oil on the corn tortillas and brown them on the fire. Then, slice the nopales and warm up the leftover tri tip, or leave the meat out to and go vegetarian. Finally, assemble the tacos on the roasted corn tortillas and mow down some totally tasty tacos.
Nopales Recipe Step by Step Instructions
Place the nopale cactus paddles directly over a raging hot fire as I did here in a kettle grill, oiled and seasoned side down:
Then, hit the other side with the oil and seasoning.
You can use a BBQ brush to apply the oil if you don’t have an atomizer:
This will take a lot longer than it would seem.
Nopales aren’t that thick.Therefore, it shouldn’t take that long to cook them, but they take quite a while.
Did I mention that cactus paddles do not like to give up the water?
The key to this nopales recipe is some nice char.
The little one charred pretty quickly, but the bigger nopales paddles took quite a bit longer:
The grill is set up with a cool zone around the edge, so the little cactus paddle is slid over to the edge with no direct heat so it stays warm but doesn’t burn:
Char the Tortillas
Once the nopales are charred on both sides, brush or spritz some oil onto the corn tortillas and slap them down over that fire.
Don’t try to char them without the oil.
Remember, wicked hot fire. Without the oil, the corn tortillas will burn in mere moments:
Once the tortillas char on each side, which will not take all that long even with the oil, remove everything from the fire and assemble the grilled nopales tacos, AKA cactus tacos.
Additionally, if the leftover tri tip has been in the fridge, toss that beef on the grill and bring it back it up to temp.
Luckily for me, I’ve been doing a ton of tri tip recipes lately and had cooked some right before doing these tacos.
Assemble the Grilled Nopales Tacos
Slice the grilled nopales into strips/chunks:
Then, layer up the tacos on those roasted corn tortillas:
Finally, finish up the nopales recipe with a squeeze of lime:
And enjoy, although I wasn’t sure about grilled nopales tacos.
But check the video below.
I mowed one of these down and it was amazing:
Would you try these?
Grilled Nopales Tacos Recap
So what do they taste like? First, they are definitely unique. Second, they are firm, yet tender. Finally, they are juicy and have a nice smokiness from the char. Thus, nopales might be the perfect ingredient for a taco. I thoroughly enjoyed these.
If you have any questions or comments about this nopales recipe, feel free to leave them below or send me an email.
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Nopales Recipe Card:
Grilled Nopales Tacos
Ingredients
- 5 Nopale paddles Spines removed
- High flashpoint vegetable oil Divided
- Your favorite BBQ seasoning
- 15 Corn tortillas
- 30 ounces Leftover tri tip steak (2 oz per taco) Optional. You can skip the beef and keep these vegetarian
- 3 Ripe avocados Sliced
- 6-8 ounces Fresh onion Chopped
- 8 ounces Roasted corn or elotes Sliced from the cob
- 12-15 ounces Fresh tomatoes Chopped
- 8 ounces Cotija cheese Substitute fresh grated Parmesan, Romano or asiago
- 1 Lime
Instructions
- Scrape or slice the spines off the nopale cactus paddles. Then, rinse them off in the sink to make sure no spines remain.
- Brush or spray on vegetable oil and season with your favorite seasoning
- Crank up the grill to north of 500F and char the nopales on each side
- When both sides are charred, brush more oil on the corn tortillas and brown them on the fire
- Then, slice the nopales and warm up the left over tri tip, or leave the meat out to and go vegetarian
- Assemble the tacos on the roasted corn tortillas and enjoy some tacos
Video
More Pics from this Shoot:
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