What is dragon fruit? This unique-looking fruit with a vibrant exterior is also known as pitaya or a strawberry pear because its seeds look similar to that of a strawberry or chia.
Dragon fruit is an exotic fruit from the cactus family and was initially enjoyed primarily in Southeast Asia and Latin America. You can often find them sold one at a time in the produce section of many large supermarkets. We found ours through an online Asian market that sells them by the pound.
However, dragon fruit is now a worldwide favorite and can be eaten on its own as a snack, put in smoothies or punches, or cut up and mixed into a salad.
Dragon fruit is full of antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals, with tender, watery fruit (like melon or ripe kiwi) and is sweet with crisp but entirely edible seeds.
What does dragon fruit taste like?
Some people may be wary of giving this exotic fruit a try because of its appearance, but you shouldn’t let this be an obstacle. The “dragon” part of its name comes from the appearance of the outside skin: a scaly-looking exterior with protruding leaves. It’s actually in the cactus family.
If you’ve ever had kiwis and pears, imagine what they would taste like when mixed. Maybe a bit like a very ripe honeydew melon.
Some associate the flavor with a mix of watermelon and kiwi as well. The seeds give it a texture much like that of kiwi.
How to eat dragon fruit
Dragon fruit is usually eaten raw. Just cut the fruit in half, and you can use a spoon to scoop the fruit out and use the skin as a bowl like you eat kiwi.
You can also remove the skin, cut the fruit up into chunks, and eat it with a fork. To make a smoothie, add almond milk or coconut water and blend until you get a creamy consistency. Dragon fruit makes a great addition to a salad as well. Just pair it up with some greens, like spinach, and season it with vinaigrette.
Meanwhile, some people prefer to grill it by cutting the fruit into blocks and grilling it on skewers.
How to cut dragon fruit
Use a sharp knife to slice the dragon fruit in half. If you’ve ever removed the skin of an avocado, you’ll find it similar to that of peeling a dragon fruit.
Use a spoon to detach the fruit from the inside of the skin and lift it out of its shell. Now, you can cut the fruit into cubes or slices.
Make sure you don’t leave any skin on the fruit.
How to tell if dragon fruit is ripe
Check the color to ensure that the dragon fruit is ripe. The outer skin should be bright pink or yellow (depending on the variety).
The color should be even throughout the skin, with minimal patches of a darker or lighter shade. This indicates that the fruit is ready to eat. The leaves should also be brown and dry, meaning the fruit is ready to consume. Colored “wings” that are red or yellow show that the fruit needs time to ripen.
Upon cutting it open, the fruit should be white, purple, or pink. Again, this depends on which variety of dragon fruit you have. A brown interior means that the fruit is overripe.
How to pick out dragon fruit
To pick out the right dragon fruit, squeeze and check how soft it is. If your thumb causes an indent and damages the exterior, the fruit is overripe.
If it is hard, then it needs a couple of more days to ripen. If you don’t want to buy your dragon fruit ripe, you can also get underripe fruit and ripen it at home.
You can pick out an under ripe dragon fruit and let it sit at room temperature for two to four days, and it will soon become ripe enough to eat. One aspect to consider when choosing the right fruit is if it has any bruising or signs of moisture loss.
When fruits are damaged during transport or harvesting, they might have cuts in the skin that leak the moisture. A shriveled and shrunken dragon fruit with a dried stem indicates that it has lost its moisture content.
The bottom line
Dragon fruit ripens fast and is ready to eat very soon after harvested. It has a thick peel that’s easy to remove, and the flesh can be eaten much like a melon: scooped. There is a high water content to most dragon fruits so they are heavy, and one large dragon fruit can serve about four people. The seeds are small and crisp like chia or a strawberry. It’s a delicacy here in the U.S. rather expensive but the red-fleshed variety are prized for their rich flavor and brilliant dark pink to purple color.