Sweet granadilla

What it is

Sweet granadilla is Passiflora ligularis. The oval fruit turns orange-yellow with little white specks when ripe. Its shell feels hard and brittle outside, but has a soft white lining inside. That casing holds very juicy, fragrant pulp around many flat black seeds. A cut half makes its own little bowl for eating the pulp with a spoon.

Where it comes from

Sweet granadilla is the common passionflower fruit of the mountains from central Mexico through Central America and down western South America to Bolivia and south-central Peru, growing wild and cultivated at 900–2,700 m (3,000–8,850 ft). It has grown in Hawaii since the late nineteenth century, and vines also fruit in Jamaica and mountainous Haiti. In Colombia it fruits well at 1,500–2,500 m (4,900–8,200 ft).

How it's eaten where it grows

Where it grows, granadilla is usually cracked open and eaten with its seeds, or cut in half and spooned out at the table. In Peru, sorbete de granadilla turns the juice into a frozen dessert with sugar syrup, lime juice and zest.

Crema de granadilla takes a different route: mashed bananas are mixed with the pulp and cream, topped with more pulp and chilled. The sorbet uses juice; the banana cream uses pulp scooped straight from the shell.

How it's grown

The vine has a woody base, heart-shaped leaves and curling tendrils that pull it up whatever supports it. New plants start from seeds or cuttings.

Despite its looks, sweet granadilla is subtropical, not tropical, and it dislikes heat. In Hawaii it finds cool enough air at 900 m (3,000 ft). Go too high, though, and the vine flourishes and blooms but won't fruit.

When and where you'll find it

The vine bears one crop a year; in Bolivia the fruit ripens in May and June. Despite its hard shell, it keeps poorly and soon deteriorates after harvest. Fresh granadilla is a common market fruit through its Central and South American growing regions. In the US, Miami-based Tropical Fruit Box lists the whole orange-shelled fruit.