What Nopal means
Nopal is a Mexican ingredient name of Nahuatl origin meaning "prickly pear cactus". It comes from nohpalli (prickly pear cactus). It is pronounced noh-PAL, and it is most associated with central Mexico.
The paddle is the nopal and the fruit is the tuna. The eagle on the Mexican flag stands on a nopal, which is why the plant is on the coat of arms as well as the plate.
Nopal is one of the many Mexican food words formed in Nahuatl. Spanish borrowed it, and in several cases English borrowed it again from Spanish. See how Nahuatl builds words and the full list of Mexican food names.
This is a site about what Mexican words mean, so there is no recipe here. For the name itself: The words that appear inside dish names: the chiles (ancho, guajillo, pasilla, chipotle), the corn words (nixtamal, masa, tortilla, elote), and the tools (comal, molcajete, metate). Learn these and most menu items decode themselves.
