What the heck do you do with dragon fruit?
23 Mar 2015

Dragon fruit look so damn interesting but your first ever mouthful of them was probably incredibly disappointing. Far from being as wild and fanciful as it looks, the fruit is actually very mild, very bland, very creamy and just a bit , well, nothing. But it turns out, when you add a little citrus juice or flavoured vinegar, the hideously spiky fruit comes alive. To help you change your mind about them while they’re in season, we’ve got a few recipes from Nims at The Jam Pantry that will have you counting down the days until they’re at grocery store every year.
Chef’s tips
The Asian fruit, which grows on a cactus plant, typically comes in two colours, yellow with white flesh and pink with white or hot pink flesh. When choosing them, a ripe fruit should have the feel of a half ripe avocado with unblemished bright skin. Don’t attempt to eat it like an apple as the skin is inedible, but inside, the flesh is dotted with hundreds of tiny black seeds that are kiwi fruit-like in texture.
Dragon fruit cured salmon
Get this recipe right (it’s easy) and you’ll wind up with prettified salmon with a hot pink outer edge dotted with black seeds, slowly graduating to an orange middle and a soft, tender bite. Serve it up with twice cooked crunchy potato hash, lime crème fraiche and a salsa of dragon fruit, red onion, chilli, strawberries and purple basil.
To serve four:
Dragon fruit salad
Dragon fruit is the perfect sweet addition to a salad. Toss together some salad leaves with a slight bitterness like mache or rocket and some lemon verbena leaves. Layer with perfectly chopped dragon fruit, sliced avocado, finely sliced red onion and toasted macadamias. You could even toast the nuts with a drizzle of honey for an extra dimension of fun. Then drizzle over this zippy dressing:
- 1 x 500g piece salmon, skin on
- 100g each salt and sugar
- 1 dragon fruit

- 1/4 cup olive oil
- Juice and zest of one lime
- Juice of 1/2 lemon
- 5 mint stems and leaves
- 1/2 avocado
- 2 tsp honey
- Pinch sea salt
- 2-3 tbsp water for consistency