How to Eat Dragon Fruit
Dragon fruit is actually a type of cactus and is grown in South and Central America, Southeast Asia, Mexico, and Israel. It is colorful with its tropical pink or reddish body with yellow and green tipped spines. The fruit’s skin is leathery red and inside of it you will find flesh with tiny seeds.
It is high in fiber as well as in vitamins B and C. The dragon fruit is one of the healthiest fruits that you can ever have. Most people describe its taste as something between a watermelon, a kiwi, and a pear.
It can be difficult to find dragon fruit as it grows only in a few countries and places. If you don’t live in one of the countries where it grows, then you will have to search for it in a foreign market or specialty market in your city and then how to eat dragon fruit.
Step by Step – How to Eat Dragon Fruit
Once you have found a ripe dragon fruit how to eat it is the next thing to discover. Choose a ripe one by pressing its flesh with your fingers and see if it has a little give – but it shouldn’t be mushy or very soft. If it is too soft, then it is overripe and won’t be that good to eat. If it is too firm to the touch, then it is not yet ripe and you need to wait for few more days for it to be ready to eat. Never taste or eat a dragon fruit that has dark blotches, spots or dry spines because chances are, it is overripe and will not be any good.
- Cut the fruit in half. Use a sharp knife to cut it in half. When you have finally divided it, you will notice that its flesh is similar to a kiwi with a bright color (some have pink flesh whereas others have a white flesh) and tiny black edible seeds are distributed throughout the fruit’s flesh.
- Scoop the flesh. Run a spoon along its edges and slowly scoop underneath until the whole flesh is loosened. The flesh should easily separate itself from the skin if it is ripe. Otherwise, it will be hard to separate the flesh from the skin.
- Slice it. As the flesh is now detached from the skin, you can now put it on the cutting board. Turn the mound of flesh over and check for any residual skin and make sure you cut it off. It is not healthy to eat the skin as it is not easy to digest. Slice the flesh it into small bite sizes, in cubes, or in quarters. Do the same thing with the other half.
- Taste and eat the dragon fruit flesh. After cutting into pieces, you can now taste and eat the fruit. However, it is best to refrigerate dragon fruit. Its taste is best when it is deliciously cold. Never eat a dragon fruit’s skin. It is inedible and could give you a stomachache.
If you are serving dragon fruit for a special occasion or a party, you can enhance the presentation by putting back the slices or cubes of dragon fruit flesh into the skin. Other dragon fruit recipes might call for various sizes of the dragon fruit.
Eat the dragon fruit the same way you’d eat an apple or most other fruits. You can even combine it with other fruits so that you can serve a healthy fruit salad.