Passion fruit

Passiflora edulis · Tropical fruit

40 pairings

The passion fruit (Passiflora edulis) is the round, hard-shelled berry of a vigorous tropical passionflower vine — a leathery purple or smooth yellow rind enclosing a cup of intensely aromatic, tart-sweet golden pulp studded with crunchy edible black seeds. Famous for an aroma so powerful that a single fruit can perfume a whole dish, it is scooped out by the spoonful, strained into juice, and folded into desserts, cocktails and tropical sauces across the world.

Picking a good onedrag

Hard, smooth, under-ripeCollapsed, weeping, fermented

First wrinklesScoop over yoghurt, into curd, dressings and cocktails.Everyday best

SkinDeep purple, the first fine wrinkles showing

In the handHeavy still, shell gives under a thumb

Stem scarScar dry, sunken, dark-rimmed

Smell at the scarFaint scent right at the stem end

What to look for, from hard, smooth, under-ripe to collapsed, weeping, fermented.

What one gives you

52%

Usable yield

18 g of pulp and seed - the rest is shell

35 g

Typical weight

one specimen

33%

Juice yield

about 330 ml a kilo, seeds strained out

Keeping ittap a band

A domestic fridge holds it about 4× longer than the counter.

Humidity

90-95%

Shrivel is the main loss and it is only water leaving through the shell; bagged in the fridge it puckers slowly, bare on a warm shelf in days.

Airflow

Loose bag, never wet

Bags and waxes are used to slow that water loss, so keep it bagged but not sealed damp, and never mist or ice it - wet skin brings brown spot.

Ripens whatever sits beside it

Among the heaviest emitters measured, hundreds of microlitres a kilo an hour at its peak, so it hurries along any avocado, banana or pear in the same bowl.

Preparing