Ingredient

Dragon fruit

Dragon fruit is the fruit of a climbing cactus, and it is one of the most striking things in any greengrocer — bright pink with green scales outside, speckled white or magenta inside. It is also, in the common white-fleshed variety, extremely mild, which surprises people who expected the flavour to match the appearance.

The varieties, and why it matters

The difference in flavour between them is much larger than the difference in appearance suggests.

White-fleshed

Pink skin, white flesh with black seeds. The commonest and by far the mildest — faintly sweet, mostly texture.

Red-fleshed

Pink skin, deep magenta flesh. Noticeably sweeter and more flavourful, and it stains everything.

Yellow-skinned

Yellow skin, white flesh. The sweetest of the three and the hardest to find.

Ripeness

The skin should be bright and even, with the leafy scales beginning to dry at the tips. It should give slightly, like a ripe kiwi.

The seeds

Edible, tiny and crunchy, distributed evenly through the flesh like a kiwi.

Managing the mildness

A white-fleshed dragon fruit has a mild, faintly sweet flavour somewhere between a melon and a pear, and a texture close to a firm kiwi. On its own it is refreshing and not much more.

What it needs is acid and salt, in the same way as melon or watermelon. Lime juice transforms it. So does a pinch of chilli-salt, which is how it is eaten across Southeast Asia and Latin America.

Serve it cold. Warm dragon fruit is even less interesting than cold, and the texture is much of what it has going for it.

Preparing one

Straightforward, and the skin is not eaten.

1. Cut it in half lengthways.
2. Scoop the flesh out with a spoon, running the spoon round the inside of the skin — it comes away in one piece.
3. Cube or slice the flesh. Alternatively, score the halves in a grid and scoop out cubes with the spoon.
4. The skin is not edible. It can be used as a serving bowl, which is most of why people photograph it.
5. Dress immediately with lime, and chill before serving.

What to do with it

• Cubed, with lime and mint, chilled hard. The default and the best simple treatment.
• With chilli-salt or Tajín, which is how it is eaten where it grows.
• In a fruit salad, where the texture and colour do the work and something else supplies the flavour.
• Blitzed into a smoothie, particularly the red-fleshed sort, where the colour is spectacular.
• Frozen in cubes and blended into a sorbet with lime and a little sugar.
• In a salsa with mango, red onion and coriander for fish.
• As a bowl, halved and hollowed and refilled with other fruit, which is legitimate rather than merely decorative.

Common questions