en route from church to ivins for lunch today, we stopped by fairprice finest. I stumbled upon a basket of cute cactus pads that are edible. decided to give it a try and bought the smallest pad I could find.

the prickers had been removed, so I just diced the pad, separated the flesh from the skin, and washed away the slimy substance. put them to a blender, added in sugar and ice cubes, and voila.. a glass of refreshing cactus juice!

it tasted quite nice, similar to green pepper, asparagus, or any other raw green fleshy vegetables. the flesh is soft and crunchy. according to the instruction pasted on the wrapper, cactus can be eaten raw, mixed with salad or fruit juice, and also added to dishes. it contains beta carotene, iron, vitamin C and calcium.