Passionate about Passionfruit

Passionate about Passion Fruit

A new ingredient is on the market: inviting, invigorating and refreshing. Have you noticed a change in flavors at your favorite restaurant, your juice at breakfast, your yogurt at lunch? Perhaps you picked it up in the scent of your new lotion? This strikingly, excitingly and mysteriously different fruit, native to Brazil, is the latest foreign fruit in local farmers markets and grocery stores. Following in the path of mangoes, papayas and guava, passion fruit is the newest exhilarating flavor on the market. Exotic to the United States, passion fruit is familiar to many immigrants making their home in the “melting pot.”

Knowing Your Passion
Contradictory to the ways America marketers present this new flavor – connecting it to lust, passion, or portraying it as an aphrodisiac - passion fruit was once sought after for the reference to Christ. According to the Food Lover’s Companion, passion fruit gained recognition because the symbols of Christ’s crucifixion are found in the plant’s flowers.
Peak season is from March to September, although the passion fruit is gaining popularity and will eventually have year round availability. Many varieties are grown natively but two forms are commonly found around the world, a yellow version, better known to Brazil, and the purple version available in the United States. The fruit is grown in South America (where it originated and is called granadilla), as well as in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, California, and Florida. In Hawaii, the lilikoi variety is grown.

Getting your passion
Looking for a way to eat your five a day? According to a March 1997 article of Men’s Health, passion fruit has “17.5 calories, 0.4 grams of protein, 4.2 grams of carbohydrate, 0.1 grams of fat, 5.4 milligrams of vitamin C, 126 I.U. of vitamin A, 63 milligrams of potassium, and 2.2 milligrams of calcium.” When eating fruit becomes a chore, change your tactics. Plunge into something new.
Choosing your Passion
Pick a firm, heavy fruit, however don’t be perplexed by the surface when you find the flesh wrinkled, it is still firm; the oval fruit, deep purple in color is ready to use and most deliciously ripe, wrinkled. Another option is buying the fruit with tight skin and keeping it in the refrigerator for up to ten days. The pulp and juices freeze well without losing gusto in flavor.

Preparing your Passion
Place the fruit lengthwise in front of you on a cutting board. With a sharp knife, carefully slice through the stiff shell-like membrane over a bowl. Scoop out the pulp, juices and seeds into a bowl or a sieve, depending on your purpose. (The seeds are edible or can be strained according to preference). With its fragrant and pungent flavor, passion fruit can be eaten as a dessert in itself, added to ice cream, yogurt, or beverages.

Tasting your Passion
The fresh flavors of passion fruit are related to other tropical fruits and accompany mango, papaya, lychee or peach very well. The tang is original, intense, and unmistakably rich. Stringy pulp, concentrated yellow color and black crunchy seeds (similar to watermelon seeds in size, but edible) add to the complexity of this fruit.
With historic value and increasing popularity this fruit is easy to prepare, keeps well in the freezer and has an incredibly tangy and unique taste. Take a look in your local produce aisle.