Cuban teaches how to cook nopal in Santiago de Cuba: "And it tastes glorious!"

The nopal, tunas in Cuba, is a food that, although it may seem extreme or synonymous with scarcity and misery, is actually consumed in several nations, primarily in Mexico.


A woman from Santiago showed how she prepares the nopal, known in Cuba as tunas, a highly appreciated food in Mexico and also consumed in countries like Ethiopia, Guatemala, Peru, Chile, among others.

Accompanied by the unique message: “How to make the meat stretch for 300 people?”, priest Leandro NaunHung shared a video on Facebook of a woman from a rural town in Santiago de Cuba explaining that the first step is to select the youngest tunas for its preparation.

"You take off all the edges," the woman pointed out, and added: "You remove all the little spines, and with a cloth and water, you clean them well."

"You can chop them into cubes or strips, whichever you prefer, and then put them to boil," she indicated.

He pointed out that after boiling, the water is discarded and the tunas or nopal are left to cool. At the same time, he noted that the spices are prepared, which can include onion, garlic, chili, or bell pepper: "All the seasoning you have."

"And if you have the kind of meat you know, the good one, from the moo (moos), from chicken, from pork, or ground beef, they cook together, and it results in an exquisite compound, and it tastes glorious!" he explained.

Despite numerous criticisms, the Catholic priest Leandro NaunHung has taken on the noble mission of helping the rural communities of Santiago de Cuba, providing them with tools to help them survive the current economic crisis affecting the country.

At times, he shares food with the parishioners who attend mass, in addition to teaching them alternative and legitimate sources for generating income, such as recycling aluminum cans, and he frequently presents recipes that he considers ideal for coping with shortages.

Recently, she shared another recipe that used nopal (cactus pears) as one of its main ingredients.

At a large community party, everyone prepared a soup made with nopal and plantain flower, ingredients that, although uncommon in Cuban cuisine, are regularly used in other countries.

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