The passion fruit gets its name from the impressive blossoms of the passion flower, which are said to contain symbols of the passion of Christ with their appearance. Of the fruit, only the pits from the inside of the shell with the pulp adhering to them are eaten.

Identify a ripe passion fruit by its skin and weight

It is often wrongly rumored that a passion fruit is only really ripe and suitable for consumption if the skin is heavily wrinkled. The purple-colored fruits with their spherical shape usually taste good even with a smooth skin. However, it is true that fruits with a wrinkled skin usually have a sweeter and less sour taste. This process of shrinking the skin of the fruit can be easily observed at home at normal room temperature. However, you should not buy the fruit in the supermarket with a totally shriveled surface, this could be a sign of too long storage. In addition to the dents on the skin, a very light weight is also a sign that a ripe passion fruit may already be very old. In such a case, the taste is no longer optimal and the pulp can smell and taste fermented.

The uses of a ripe passion fruit

A ripe passion fruit can be processed into various foods in the kitchen, for example as:

  • smoothies
  • Fruit portion for sundae
  • fresh fruit
  • Garnish for cakes and tarts

When processing the smoothie, you should make sure that the seeds are first finely chopped up with the blender. In general, passion fruit is often halved and the flesh with the edible seeds is then spooned directly out of the shell. A popular cake recipe from Australia prescribes the pulp of passion fruit as a garnishing portion on the so-called pavlova. This is a meringue cake with colorful toppings of exotic fruit.

The difference between passion fruit and maracuja

A halved passion fruit is often incorrectly depicted on juice bottles with a portion of passion fruit juice. In principle, the passion fruit is also botanically counted among the passion flowers, but strictly speaking it is a separate type of fruit. This is often also referred to as yellow passion fruit or grenadilla. With passion fruit, even fully ripe fruits can feel very hard. This is due to the harder pulp compared to the purple colored passion fruit.

Grow your own passion fruit

In principle, you can also grow the passion fruit in this country. However, since it is a plant that comes from South America and other tropical countries, successful cultivation in this country is only possible on the windowsill, as a container plant or in a greenhouse.

tips and tricks

If you want to use the seeds from a purchased passion fruit for growing in a pot, you should first carefully remove the pulp. Otherwise, the seeds can easily become moldy.

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