How to Make Sabra Juice for Rosh Hashanah
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Eating new fruits on Rosh Hashanah is a well-established tradition. For families, and kids especially, choosing which fruits to buy is as much a part of the Jewish New Year as the simanim ceremony itself. But sometimes, the fruits that we choose are so strange that we don't even know how to eat them! For instance, the star fruit. Or the rambutan. Or the horned melon. (Is it a cucumber or a melon?)
And then there's the prickly pear.
What is a Prickly Pear?
Prickly pear cactus in Israel
The prickly pear is an oddity: It's the thorny, spiky fruit of a cactus indigenous to the New World but full of symbolism ascribed to the Old World. In Hebrew, it's called a "tzabor" and it's known in English as "sabra," which is the word famously used to describe the hardiness of a native-born Israeli.
The prickly pear cactus grows wild all over Israel: in the wilderness, on the sides of roads and even in between homes.
Prickly Pear: Health Benefits
This low-cal, high-fiber fruit, with tons of vitamin C and complex carbs, makes a delectable-tasting juice. I discovered this wholly by accident after finding these fruits at a local farmers market and not knowing what to do with them at first! Prickly pear health benefits include the potential for decreasing blood sugar levels in people with type 2 diabetes, as well as mitigating the effects of hangovers due to its anti-inflammatory properties.
And it makes a fabulous beverage with which to surprise and delight your Rosh Hashanah guests.
Why Juice a Prickly Pear?
When eaten whole, the prickly pear has two characteristics working against it:
The thin, thorny spikes make the fruit very difficult to handle without getting pricked.
Like a guava, the seeds inside the flesh are large enough that they are difficult or uncomfortable for a lot of people (myself included) to eat.
Therefore, if you want to get maximum enjoyment out of this fruit, it's perhaps most easily enjoyed in juice form, with honey, lemon juice, water and a dash of salt.
Where to Find a Prickly Pear
In Los Angeles, you can find sabras this time of year in Persian markets, some mainstream specialty stores and at farmers markets. I buy mine from a vendor at the Larchmont Farmers Market, Pedro's Organic Ranch. They carry red, green and orange variants. There are only slight differences in flavor, and I tend to combine them.
How to Juice Prickly Pears
Ingredients
4-6 prickly pears
1/2 cup filtered water
1 Tbsp fresh-squeezed lemon juice
1 Tbsp raw honey, agave or similar sweetener (you cold add 1.5 Tbsp to make it a bit sweeter)
Dash of salt
Method
Wash and slice the prickly pears (slice the fruit in half like you would a lemon, then remove the peel)
To a blender, add prickly pears, filtered water, 1 Tbsp fresh-squeezed lemon juice, 1 Tbsp raw honey and a dash of salt
Blend for 30-45 seconds on high
Filter out the seeds with a nut bag
Serve chilled
NOTE You want to use a nut bag to strain the seeds out of the juice. A fine-mesh strainer will let through sand-sized particles of seeds, whereas the nut bag will keep those particles from going through the bag.
