How to Eat Passion Fruit 16 Delicious Ways

If you’ve ever wandered down the produce aisle of the grocery store and wondered what that round, wrinkled, aubergine-hued fruit is, we can help—it’s passion fruit! A staple in many tropical and subtropical countries—including Brazil, which is the largest producer and consumer—passion fruit remains an underutilized ingredient here in the United States. Part of that comes down to accessibility; the rest probably has something to do with not knowing how to eat passion fruit. 

We love to use passion fruit in sweet and savory dishes, from adorning a bowl of yogurt to adding an antioxidant boost to smoothies and acai bowls, but we're always looking for more ways to enjoy this tropical treat. We spoke to a California tropical fruit farmer to get the lowdown on this sweet-tart tropical fruit.

What Is Passion Fruit?

Passion fruit is a round, golf-ball-sized vine fruit with a hard outer shell and juicy interior filled with soft gelatinous pulp and edible black seeds. It’s grown all across the globe, but flourishes particularly in warm-weather climates along the equator, such as Brazil, Ecuador, Columbia, Peru, and Indonesia. There are also native wild varieties that can be found in the rainforests and jungles of Costa Rica and Hawaii. "Fresh passion fruit is also grown domestically and commercially in Southern California and a bit in Florida," says Nicholas Brown, a sixth-generation farmer and owner of California-based Rincon Tropics, which grows passion fruit and other produce. "You can sometimes find it at farmers’ markets in these states when it’s in season." Passion fruit season lasts from August through April. 

What Passion Fruit Tastes Like

In terms of flavor, passion fruit is unmistakable, and it's impossible to replicate with any other kind of fruit. Each fruit is a little tart and a little sweet. The levels of sweetness and acidity vary depending on where it’s grown. While there are hundreds of types of passion fruit plants, just a handful produce fruits, and of those, only a limited number produce edible fruits, says Brown. "The most common, and what we grow, are the reddish-purple passion fruit," he says. This type has a great balance of sweetness and lip-puckering tartness and packs a punch. Yellow varieties are less common—some are incredibly tart, while others have very little acidity.

Buying Passion Fruit

Ripe fresh passion fruit is the obvious option for enjoying the singular flavor of the fruit but when the fruit isn't in season or isn't available, there are other frozen and juiced forms to enjoy.

Choosing a Ripe Passion Fruit

There are two things to look for when choosing a fresh passion fruit to ensure it’s ripe and ready to eat. The first is the skin: Passion fruit that is fresh off the vine is perfectly edible but can be rather acidic. Brown recommends waiting until the outer shell has started to wrinkle—generally a week or two after the fruit drops—for the best flavor. "As they wrinkle, the acids are converted into sugar and the pulp inside becomes sweeter."

There is a point where wrinkling has gone too far. "The fruit gets less heavy in this process, so you don’t want to choose a fruit that looks like a raisin, as it could have lost most, if not all, of its juice inside," says Brown. You don’t want to break open a passion fruit to find nothing but seeds (even though they are indeed edible). 

Ripe passion fruit should have a nice aroma to it, as well. It should smell sweet and fragrant.

Frozen and Packaged Passion Fruit

If fresh passion fruit isn't a viable option for you, many brands such as Pitaya Foods sell pre-packaged passion fruit in the freezer aisle. The fruit is seeded and the pulp is frozen in cubes, so the flavor is nicely concentrated. 

You can also buy passion fruit pulp purées from brands like Goya and Boiron. These can be found online and at many specialty markets.

16 Ways to Eat Passion Fruit

Whether you’re craving something sweet or savory and whether you have fresh passion fruit, frozen, or passion fruit puree, there are so many ways to enjoy it.

Enjoy It Fresh

Grab a knife (either a chef’s knife or a paring knife) and place the passion fruit on a cutting board. Use the knife to cut straight through the passion fruit crosswise (along its equator). Use a spoon to scoop out the flesh and seeds—and enjoy.

Here are a few ideas for adding fresh passion fruit to your favorite foods:

• Granola: An easy way to use fresh passion fruit pulp is to spoon it over bowls of yogurt and granola.
• Ice cream: Top scoops of vanilla or chocolate ice cream with passion fruit pulp.
• Fruit salad: Combine passion fruit with other fruits to make a nutritious fruit salad.
• Edible decoration: It’s fun to halve the fruits and use them as edible decorations on fruit platters.
• Cocktails: Passion fruit is a cocktail’s best friend. Shake the pulp into margaritas, mojitos, daiquiris, and caipirinhas for parties—guests won’t know what hit them. 
• Salad dressing: Use the fresh pulp as a substitute for vinegar in your next salad dressing.
• Marinade: Use the pulp in a marinade with fresh herbs and spices. It pairs well with just about any protein, including fish, chicken, pork, and tofu.
• Ceviche: The fresh pulp adds bright flavor to seafood ceviche and other raw fish dishes.
• Cheese: You can even use it into a sweet and spicy relish to spread onto a grilled cheese or serve on a cheese board.

Use Frozen Passion Fruit

• Smoothies and acai bowls: Our favorite way to use frozen passion fruit is in frosty treats, such as smoothies and acai bowls. It pairs well with other tropical fruits like bananas, pineapple, and kiwi. You can swap the mango in this recipe for frozen passion fruit to make a quick three-ingredient sorbet. 
• Fruit curd: You can make fruit curd with other fruits, not only with lemon juice, and passion fruit is a great option. These vanilla cupcakes are filled with homemade passion fruit curd and topped with a swirl of Swiss meringue buttercream. 
• Buttercream: Chocolate and passion fruit go together just as well as chocolate and orange. We like to use the passion fruit curd to make a pillowy buttercream frosting to spread between decadent layers of chocolate cake.

Use Passion Fruit Purée or Juice

• Cream Cheese Frosting: As if cream cheese frosting couldn’t get any better, try adding fresh passion fruit juice to the mix—both passion fruit and cream cheese lean tart in terms of flavor, so they complement each other perfectly. Spread the frosting onto a banana sheet cake and top with more fresh pulp for decoration. 
• Cheesecake: Passion fruit is a great addition to cheesecake. Add a rich passion fruit layer on top of the cream cheese layer to give this favorite dessert a tropical spin. 
• Meringue pie: Give lemon meringue pie the passion fruit treatment. Substitute passion fruit purée for citrus juice and mix it with condensed milk and egg yolks to create a silky custard for this luscious dessert.