Start The New Year Off Right With This Nopales Medicine Water Recipe From A Mexican Traditional Healer

The holiday season is full of opportunities to indulge on the food and drink front: succulent roasts, homemade cookies, mulled wine, glasses of bubbly—the list goes on. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with enjoying these things, but if you’re looking for a reset of sorts in the New Year and beyond, this recipe for nopales medicine water (below) is a great one to try.

The recipe comes from Felicia Cocotzin Ruiz, and it’s featured in her new book Earth Medicines: Ancestral Wisdom, Healing Recipes, and Wellness Rituals from a Curandera. Ruiz is a curandera (traditional healer), an indigenous foods activist and a natural foods chef. The book is a culmination of her 25 years of training under indigenous grandmothers of the Southwest. 

For Ruiz, food as medicine is a concept she’s known about for a long time. She views it as a crucial part of preventative health. “I’ve always thought of food as medicine, but I see food more as preventative medicine,” she said. “I think that what is out there in the wellness spaces feels like more of an afterthought; changing people’s diets after they receive a diagnosis.” While she also believes in the latter, Ruiz stresses the importance of eating nourishing foods from the get-go. “Being well fed is different from being well nourished,” she said. “I don’t subscribe to a certain way of eating, but I do my best to eat nutrient-dense foods, antioxidants and all of those amazing things from plants.”

Every morning, Ruiz starts her day by drinking a large glass of water with lemon or lime (“something citrusy”), but for an extra boost she drinks nopales medicine water. It’s a twist on an agua fresca, but without all the sugar plus an extra boost of nourishing ingredients. “Nopales, prickly pear pad, is full of fiber and antioxidants, and it’s really helpful for your glycemic levels,” she said. “I also have ginger in there, which offers digestive properties and some good heat; I like things a little spicy. There’s also basil, which has wonderful antiviral properties, so it’s good to take or to drink at least a few times a week. This drink is also great for your skin!”

Recipe for Nopales Medicine Water

Excerpted from Earth Medicines: Ancestral Wisdom, Healing Recipes, and Wellness Rituals from a Curandera (Roost Books 2021) 

Makes 4 servings

Ingredients:

4 c water

1 c fresh nopales, despined, rinsed, chopped*

1 c fresh basil

2 large limes, juiced

1 inch piece fresh ginger, peeled

Natural sweetener (honey or maple syrup, optional)

Put the water, nopales, basil, lime juice and ginger in a blender. Pulse until smooth, adding more water if needed to achieve the desired consistency. 

Add a sweetener of your choice to taste. 

Serve chilled or over ice.

*Nopales are cactus pads from the nopal cactus. They are readily available cleaned and despined in most Mexican or Latino grocers.