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Nopalitos is a dish made with diced
Nopalitos is a dish made with diced nopal
''Nopal'' (plural ''nopales'') is a common name in Spanish for ''Opuntia'' cacti (commonly referred to in English as prickly pear or tender cactus), as well as for its pads. The name ''nopal'' derives from the Nahuatl word for the pads of t ...
es, the naturally flat stems, called pads, of prickly pear cactus (''Opuntia
''Opuntia'', commonly called the prickly pear cactus, is a genus of flowering plants in the cactus family Cactaceae, many known for their flavorful fruit and showy flowers. Cacti are native to the Americas, and are well adapted to arid clima ...
''). They are sold fresh, bottled, or canned and less often dried. They have a light, tart-like flavor, and a crisp, mucilaginous
Mucilage is a thick gluey substance produced by nearly all plants and some microorganisms. These microorganisms include protists which use it for their locomotion, with the direction of their movement always opposite to that of the secretion of ...
texture. Nopalitos are often eaten with egg
An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the ...
s as a breakfast and in salads and soup
Soup is a primarily liquid food, generally served warm or hot – though it is sometimes served chilled – made by cooking or otherwise combining meat or vegetables with Stock (food), stock, milk, or water. According to ''The Oxford Compan ...
s as lunch and dinner meals.
See also
*List of Mexican dishes
The Spanish invasion of the Aztec Empire occurred in the 16th century. The basic staples since then remain native foods such as corn, beans, Cucurbita, squash and chili peppers, but the Europeans introduced many other foods, the most important of ...
References
Salads Mexican soups {{mexico-cuisine-stub es:Nopal#Gastronomia