Dragon Fruit Salad -Taste the Exotic!

Sometimes when certain things are there forever with you ,you take it for granted and really don't realize how worth it is.It can be in a relationship or things or even food stuffs.Dragon fruit is one such fruit that I have taken for granted and failed to mention about it in my blog until I saw a post by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen.

It is such a commonly available fruit in the orient that I simply 'ignored' it.I have been making salads and sorbets with this exotic fruit but never once blogged about it!So here it is today...

The recipe comes with a story.When I came to the orient,I saw this strange looking pink fruit.It looked very attractive and a little mysterious.I did not venture anywhere near it.I didn't even know its name!Then one day my landlady came home to visit me and handed me a bag of fruits and in this I found the mysterious pink one too.

She asked me if I liked it and I frankly answered her that I have never tasted it before.She looked shocked and immediately set about cutting the fruit [I have shown in this post how it is done].Looking at the beautiful color,I imagined the fruit to be very tasty and the flesh to be pink.But when I saw it ,I was amazed.It looked so nice with numerous black needs on the white flesh.It was not at all sweet and I liked the little crunchiness of the seeds.

Today I will post the salad recipe that is a breeze to prepare...

Before I go on to the recipe ,here is some interesting facts about this fruit....

This fruit comes from a cactus like plant
It is called huǒ lóng guǒ in China and the other names included - Pitaya/ pitahaya / lóng zhū guǒ/ strawberry pear or nanettikafruit.
There are three varieties of this fruit -

                 Hylocereus it has red skin and white flesh,the one that is commonly referred to as the dragon fruit.
              Hylocereus polyrhizus it has red skin and red flesh.
                 Selinecereus megalanthus it has yellow skin and white flesh.

It is rich in Vitamin C
It is said to lower blood glucose level.
Improves appetite and digestion
Helps strengthen bones,teeth,good vision.
Improves memory!!!

This fruit is relatively cheap in places where it is grown for I got 1 fruit which weighed around 500g for RMB 7 but elsewhere I have heard that its pretty expensive.

Here is what it looks like.....

This is how you prepare the fruit for the salad / smoothie / sorbet....

Using a sharp knife cut the fruit length wise.

Insert a spoon between the skin and the flesh of the fruit and run it along the cut half.

Remove the flesh and keep aside.Scoop out the remaining flesh if its sticking to the skin

Check if the skin is sticking onto the flesh and remove it.Cube the flesh and use as desired

For the salad you need:

Cubed dragon fruit
Lemon juice
A pinch of salt/ sugar[optional]
Mint leaves,chopped for garnish.[I have used coriander since mint leaves were not available.]

Empty 'shells' of scopped out dragon fruits- refrigerate till ready to use- To serve the salad

In a bowl put in the cubed dragon ,drizzle lemon juice and add sat/sugar as per your choice.Toss gently and serve garnished in the reserved dragon fruit 'shell'.