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 tablespoon 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!
