How to cut pitaya fruit

• Dragon fruit is a tropical fruit that’s popular due to its exotic look, refreshing taste, and numerous health benefits.
• It’s simple to cut, and you can cut it in a number of ways.
• You can eat dragon fruit alone or add it to other dishes for variety.

Dragon fruit is certainly one of the more interesting looking exotic fruits. Also known as a pitaya or pitahaya, dragon fruit is a tropical fruit that grows on a type of cactus called hylocereus. Its flavor is lighter than its bodacious appearance would suggest — it tastes something like a kiwi but with less tang and more sweetness. 

It doesn't just taste good: In addition to being high in fiber and good for digestion, it has high levels of magnesium and vitamin C.

While the fruit may look intimidating to cut, it's fairly simple to work with. There are a few ways to cut a dragon fruit, and when you get down to it, you'll quickly learn that the fruit makes an easy addition to your diet. Follow along and we'll cover options for dicing the dragon — but first, let's cover some basics.

Where to Find Dragon Fruit and How to Choose a Ripe One

There are three varieties of dragon fruit: 

• Red skin with white flesh
• Red skin with red flesh (called red dragon fruit)
• Yellow skin with white flesh

They all taste quite similar, though some connoisseurs will insist that the red flesh version is the sweetest. They're often found at Asiangrocery stores or in any tropical country.

Picking the fruit is simple. The skin should be bright pink with rubbery-feeling appendages attached to it. The fruit should also have some give to it. It shouldn’t be mushy or hard. Don't worry too much about blemishes on the skin: It's a fairly hardy fruit and doesn't bruise easily. It does, however, cut quite easily — which we’ll discuss below. 

How to Cut Dragon Fruit

Dragon fruit slices up quite nicely. Although the name conjures the image of a scaly, thick-skinned lizard, a knife will slide through dragon fruit without much resistance. Consequently, there are a few options when it comes to cutting it.

The Simple Cut Down the Middle

The easiest way to cut a dragon fruit is simply to cut it down the middle. This can be done either lengthwise or widthwise. In either case, the outside flesh of the fruit will effectively serve as a bowl: A very polite way for the fruit to behave.

Dragon fruit's flesh is not particularly tough, so you can use any sharp knife: Your chef's knife, utility knife, paring knife, or even serrated knife will work. It only takes one quick slice down the middle to separate the two halves. Following that, the simplest option to eat it is to scoop out the inside with a spoon. 

The tiny black seeds in the fruit's flesh are entirely edible too, so don't fret — they even provide a satisfying crunch to contrast the fruit's otherwise soft texture.

Cut Into Wedges

In addition to simply cutting the fruit down the middle, you can cut it into wedges. This is a good option if there are a few people who intend to share the fruit. 

You'll want to begin by removing the top and bottom parts of the fruit. This part is simple enough: Put the fruit on a cutting board and use whatever knife you have on hand to slice the two ends off before discarding them. 

After that, you'll continue by cutting the fruit down the middle lengthwise. Following that, you can slice the fruit into wedges. The skin peels easily off of the flesh — you can simply use your hands to pull it off. It’s simpler to eat if you pull off the skin than if you try to eat around the skin like a watermelon rind. Do note that the skin isn't edible: You'd quickly find that out if you tried to eat it. It's not dangerous, however. It just doesn’t taste nice and has a rubbery texture.

Cubed for Fruit Salad or Smoothie Bowls

If you're looking to add some dragon fruit to a fruit salad or smoothie bowl, you'll likely be pleased with the results. Combined with other fruit like watermelon, papaya, or even kiwi fruit, dragon fruit can add some color and a refreshing, light taste to a fruit ensemble. 

Begin by cutting the fruit into wedges as described above. Following that, use a paring knife and slice the fruit into smaller pieces, leaving the skin intact. After you've done that, slide the knife between the skin and the slices of fruit. Voila! You now have “cubed” dragon fruit that both looks nice and tastes great.

Alternatively, you can use a spoon to scoop out the flesh in one big lump. Place it on the cutting board and proceed to slice it into cubes. This method is faster but potentially messier as the flesh will be in contact with the cutting board. The flesh is wet and can slide around the board, leaving residue and seeds. If that doesn't bother you — or if you have a cutting board to catch the juices — then no problem.

Do note that because of the rounded shape of a dragon fruit, many of the pieces will not be perfect “cubes” unless you decide to square off the fruit first. But hey, that's a small price to pay for a tasty treat.

How to Eat Dragon Fruit

Aside from simply eating the fruit by itself or adding it to smoothies or fruit salads, you can get more creative with dragon fruit.

For example, you can make popsicles using the fruit. If you're up for it, you can get creative with this and add multiple fruits to make a compelling flavor. Any combination of dragon fruit, pineapple, watermelon, mango, coconut milk, or honey would produce a refreshing tropical treat that'd help you beat the heat.

Besides making popsicles, simply freezing the fruit can make it truly refreshing. Cut it into cubes as described above, pop some toothpicks in it, and put it in the freezer for an hour or two. The fruit freezes well, and you'll get some extra crunch out of it.

Additionally, adding dragon fruit to an avocado smoothie can be an excellent choice. Avocado smoothie, you say? Hear us out. When combined with sweet coconut milk and other fruit, an avocado smoothie can be both filling and healthy — an excellent choice as a meal replacement, for example. Adding dragon fruit to the avocado smoothie ups the water content of the smoothie, making it easier to drink and cutting calories, while adding a light, refreshing flavor. 

The Fruit That's Making Waves

Dragon fruit is booming in popularity in western countries, and it's popularity has been well-established for ages in places where it grows. It's a colorful and tasty addition to your kitchen and would make for a pretty still life painting. 

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Dragon fruit is becoming more and more common these days. You never used to see it where I am let alone know what to do with it, with it’s fancy looking skin in super appealing bright colors! Knowing how to cut Dragon fruit and how to eat it means you can start incorporating this exotic fruit into the kids diets. And it’s called Dragon fruit: It’s pretty kid friendly from the off :)

What Is Dragon Fruit?

Dragon fruit is from the Cactus family. Originally native to Central and South America, this beautiful looking fruit bears no resemblance to the cactus we have on the kitchen window sill (thankfully:) and is delicious.

My kids were slightly skeptical to start with. It’s so different looking to the fruit they’re used to having, although the little ones were delighted by the look of it, it took a bit more convincing to get them to eat it! The flesh is creamy and fresh, and is dotted with Dragon fruit seeds, a bit like a Kiwi is.

What Does Dragon Fruit Taste Like?

In this house I’ve got 2 votes for Dragon fruit tasting like pears, one for tasting like melon and one for tasting like….nothing. And I’d agree with all of them really. To me, there’s definitely a hint of sweetness. It’s no where near the sweetness of a ripe banana, but it’s there.

Some people think Dragon fruit tastes most like kiwi, others are unimpressed by the lack of a strong flavor. I think this is because the skin is so vibrant, you’re almost expecting something show stopping inside!

How To Cut Dragon Fruit

Cutting Dragon fruit is easy. Simply cut down the length of the fruit and scoop it out. If I want some nice neat little diced pieces of fruit I run a sharp knife around the outside and then use a spoon to ease the fruit out so it’s in one piece You can then cut it easily.

If the whole thing’s going into a smoothie, I just use a spoon to get the fleshy part out. You could also cut your fruit into rings and use a sharp knife to peel the skin off, leaving you with Dragon fruit discs.

Once you’ve cut your Dragon fruit open, you can then chop it into pieces ready to use as you like.

Can You Eat Dragon Fruit Raw?

Mostly, Dragon fruit is eaten raw. A ripe fruit is tender and easy to eat, even for little kids. It blends well in smoothies and is easily cut for a fruit salad. You could grill or gently pan fry your Dragon fruit in much the same way you would pineapple, or bananas, and have it on a skewer.

How To Know If Your Dragon Fruit Is Ripe

As with most fruits, you want the fruit to feel tender, but not soft, when you gently press down on it. The color of the Dragon fruits skin should be brightly colored, if it’s looking brown, the fruit is likely over ripe. Sometimes you can find fruits that are just starting to turn brown but are mostly still bright. These are fine if you’re going to use and eat them straight away and are especially good in smoothies.

If your fruit is very hard, leave it on a bright window sill where it can sit in the sun, and it will ripen up in a few days.

Health Benefits

Dragon fruits has loads of health benefits and reasons why you might want to include it in your kids (and yours!) diets. It’s loaded with fibre, contains probiotics that promote a healthy gut and happens to be one of the few fresh fruits that contains iron. Handily, it also contains vitamin C which helps us absorb the iron.

There’s a few other things Dragon fruit has to offer us: Magnesium, along with several types of antioxidants.

How To Eat Dragon Fruit

There’s load of ways you can eat dragon fruit, much as there are with any fruit. However, these are the ways my kids like to eat and drink it best:

Fruit Salad

The skin of a Dragon fruit makes a really cool bowl to serve your fruit salad in. Once you’ve scooped out the fleshy fruit and make the fruit salad, just serve it in the Dragon skin and voila: An instant kid friendly quick and easy fruit salad!

I mostly use strawberries with the dragon fruit for this fruit salad. The color combination makes it amazingly appealing for kids, and strawberries are always a winner, right?!

Dragon Fruit Smoothie

Smoothies are standard in this house and if times short, a smoothie’s my go-to. The flesh of the dragon fruit I usually have is white. We all know it’s white, but the expectation for the Dragon fruit smoothie to be pink never really goes, and the little ones would be So disappointed if the smoothie didn’t come out pink.

Therefore, while this smoothie has loads of Dragon fruit in it, depending on what’s in the freezer I add a handful of strawberries and raspberries for flavor and color. I don’t add banana to this as so many smoothies have it in and I like to change it up a bit!

One dragon fruit to a handful of strawberries and raspberries, ice and a cup of milk blended in a powerful blender, gives you enough smoothies for 4-5 kids, and makes a pretty neat breakfast!

Dragon Fruit Punch

When the weathers hot and the kids want a fancy drink, I often make them a fruit punch soda. It’s not hard, it look impressive and it’s a chance to get some of the good stuff into the kids.

Start by making a homemade strawberry syrup base – I do this by blending a punnet of strawberries with 2 tbsp of Maple syrup in a blender until I have a smooth strawberry base, then I add soda to this in a large jug with masses of ice. Then, you can add whatever fruit you like to make the punch: I like using Dragon fruit in this as it’s so pretty. Raspberries and more whole strawberries get thrown into the jug, and the kids help themselves. It’s refreshing, fresh and….good for you!

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