Sunday, 2 December 2012

In the spotlight - Passion fruit



You need 5 or 6 of them to count as one of your 5 A Day. What are we talking about? No, it’s not strawberries, but passion fruit.  Not sure I'd fancy eating that much passion fruit in one go though, so I'm doubtful whether anyone ever eats them in this way for their nutritional value - in these quantities they are rich in Vitamin A and C and fibre, while providing smaller, but still useful amounts of B vitamins and surprisingly iron. 

Remove their unwelcoming purple skin and the inside reveals an orange flesh and as many as 250 seeds. They have quite a tart taste, so not a fruit to eat on their own. If I was to buy passion fruit I would add the flesh to a fruit salad, though I can't take credit for this, as it was a recipe from second year Home Economics at school. The only other time I've come across them is either drizzled in the form of a coulis on the side of a plate with a sweet dish or in a cheesecake. However, looking at the recipes available online it seems that passion fruit have their place in savoury dishes too; salsa and sauces to accompany fish seem a popular use. If you like a zombie cocktail, they involve passion fruit syrup, though how much fruit this actually contains is another matter!

Photo by Manuel Anastacio via Wikimedia Commons

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