Mystery Fruit of San Pedro, Belize: Passion Fruit

I had heard of passion fruit before (juice, jelly, etc) but yesterday some friends of mine handed me two fruits I had never actually seen before.  Yellow Belizean Passion Fruit.  They grew them right in their backyard.

So…I continue my series about the more mysterious fruits in Belize.  If you missed the last few, you can check out:  Dragon Fruit and Craboo and Seagrapes.

Here are my fruits posing on my balcony.  It was a gorgeous afternoon and everyone deserves a little sunshine.

Apparently there are purple and yellow types and the fruit is native to Paraguay and Brazil.  Both colors grow on vines with large pretty flowers and produce a very strange fruit.  Yellow is bigger with a more acidic but sweeter smelling “filling”, purple means smaller but sweeter fruit.

They were good sized with a smooth and shiny, light and airy husk…inside is the fruit/seed gelatinous mass that smells DIVINE.  Perfumey and sweet.  Each of mine produced about one to two tablespoons of pulp each.

Take a look…

Aside from smelling delicious, this fruit is pretty tart.  But tasty after you get over the strange mucousy consistency.  And the seeds give it a nice crunch.

Here are the uses that I have dreamed up for it.  Add some to thick Greek yogurt with a bit of sugar.  Yum.  Use it for cocktails.  Muddle the pulp of one large fruit with one tablespoon of sugar.  Add 2 ounces of white rum, lots of ice and top with seltzer water.  Yum.  Or add a bit to some sweet sparkly white prosecco.  Yum.  Somehow add it to a shrimp and avocado ceviche.  I’ll have to work on that recipe.

Bottom line.  If you can find it, buy it.  (Though I have never seen it sold in San Pedro.)  This unique sweet and tart flavor will have you penning recipes too.