Passion fruit plant is believed to have originated from Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina and Spanish explorers are credited for its name and for its spread around the world. Usually, passion fruit is either yellow or purple. The most common variety we find up here in Chiang Mai is the purple kind. Passion fruit plant is a vine that produces psychedelic looking flowers. These flowers then turn into young fruit that eventually matures into a 3 inch round or oval purple or yellow fruit. When you cut open a passion fruit, you’d find sweet yet tart juicy pulp filled with edible black or brown seeds. Passion fruit is rich in vitamins, minerals, dietary fibre and antioxidants. The flowers are also used as medicinal supplement to treat various illnesses. Some health and medicinal benefits of passion fruit include prevention of cancerous growth, support healthy digestion, boost immunity, lowering of blood pressure, etc.
I guess you can say this little fruit is a powerhouse on its own right. But how do you pick the best fruit? Here’s a short guideline: pick fruits that are ripe, plump and are heavy for their size and don’t shy away from fruits with wrinkled surface because as the fruit matures, the flavours become more complex and sweeter. To store passion fruit, you can leave them in a bowl on your counter top or refrigerate them to lengthen their life expectancy.
We like to add passion fruit to our smoothies – pulp, juice and seeds. Personally, we’ve never used passion fruit in cooking or baking yet. How about you? What’s your favourite way of enjoying this beautiful, complex fruit? Drop us a line and share some ideas with us because as you know, sharing is caring!
Here’s some recipes using passion fruit we have tried and would like to try one day:
mango and passionfruit crepe cake via sprinklesandsauce
passion fruit cordial via drizzleanddip.com
passion fruit panna cotta via stupideasypaleo.com
passion fruit greek yogurt with cashews via loveandoliveoil.com
avocado and mango salad with passion fruit vinaigrette via epicurious.com
passion fruit vanilla bean cheesecake ice cream via kitchenmccabe.com
We are sure there are plenty more amazing recipes using passion fruit. So go on, use your googling skills and share with us some of your fave recipes!
