Dragon Fruit Salad – Antioxidant High
Dragon Fruit Salad Recipe
Holy cow, we had a ton of dragon fruits this year! Which means more of this awesome dragon fruit salad. The beastly vines have finally matured and almost every node gave off an odd-ball looking fruit. What a spectacular sight they are and it’s especially fun when friends come over and stumble upon the dragon fruit vines breathing fiery rows of red balls.
Watch How to Cut a Dragon Fruit
As spectacular looking as they are, the nutritional value of dragon fruit is equally impressive. Full of antioxidants, high in vitamin C and other minerals, dragon fruits are extremely healthy and nutritious. But, they can be light on flavor and a little on the mild side (depending on the variety). We grow 5 varieties and the most prolific one is the white centered variety, which is the lightest in flavor, but still very refreshing.
Eating dragon fruit is really simple because the red outer skin simply peels off the heart of the fruit. Better yet, just cut the fruit in half, gently scoop out the white fruit with a spoon and go to town from there! The red skin usually remains firm enough to be a bowl too, so definitely use the skin as a serving vessel. Chilling the dragon fruit in the fridge before serving also adds to the refreshing flavor and is additionally helpful at firming up the texture if your dragon fruit is particularly soft.
We simply love eating the dragon fruit by itself, or with a medley of other delicate flavored fruits. Even the addition of some lettuce to green up the salad is great too and the greens will add even more antioxidants. Call it the high antioxidant bowl and make it sound really healthy to make you feel good about eating good for the day.
More Articles on Dragon Fruit :
Summer of 2009 Dragon Fruit Flowers. The flowers were especially huge this year, thus producing some of the biggest dragon fruit we’ve ever had. With a late heat spell, the dragon fruit matured later, resulting in fruit all the way till December 2009! Enjoying summer fruit all the way into winter is why we live in Southern California.
Photographs of the ripe and almost ready dragon fruit! Here is post from our Summer of 2008 crop. They were beautiful and sweet. When harvested right off the plants, the flavors are really fresh and refreshing. Most of the time, the store bought dragon fruits were picked rather pinkish, then allowed to ripen to red, so the flavors tend to be much more mild. Read the post here and get some dragon fruit recipes too.
The Life Cycle of Dragon Fruit Flowers!
This was from the crop of Summer 2007 and we have pictures showing the whole blooming cycle. We shared it with everyone in January of 2008 (when we started blogging!) and it’s so fun for everyone to see the cycle from beginning to end. You can read the post here- Life Cycle of Dragon Fruit
Previous Dragon Fruit Posts and Photographs:
- Summer 2014: Gorgeous and freshly picked dragon fruit!
- Dragon Fruit Salad Recipe
- 2009 – Dragon Fruit Flowers
- 2008 – Dragon Fruit growing on the vine and more Dragon fruit recipes
- 2007 – Cool pictures showing the whole life cycle of Dragon fruit plants
Dragon Fruit Salad Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 dragon fruit , chilled
- 1 cup chopped fresh fruit of choice (apple, grape, stone fruit, etc.)
- 1 cup torn lettuce leaves (optional)
- 1 tablespoon fresh mint leaves , thinly sliced (optional)
- 1 tablespoon honey
Instructions
- Cut dragon fruit in half. Gently scoop out the white center fruit. Cut the white fruit in chunks. Reserve the red dragon fruit peel as a serving bowl.
- Add fruit in medium bowl with other fresh fruit and/or lettuce leaves and mint. Drizzle honey over fruit, gently toss together.
- Optional - To serve, use the dragonfruit peel as the bowl.
Dragon fruit is easy to grow from cuttings if you live in the right climate i.e. SoCal, Florida, Thailand, Hawaii etc. Just take a cutting at least 8 inches long and stuff it into a pot with potting soil, water and then wait. Mine had one fruit the very first year. The second year I put it into the ground because it got too leggy. After another 3 years it is 6 1/2 feet tall and has masses of fruit on it this year.
Here in SoCal farmers grow it in pots in a row with a trellis similar to grapes and then let the vines drape down, with a drip line running across the pots.
My daughter is trying to grow one in MONTANA with a stake in a pot on her deck in the sun. After 2 months a 3 ft cutting has 3 little arms growing from the top. She is planning on bringing it inside for the winter. I wish her luck to get it through that time as it will not have much light.
A number of years ago a neighbor gave me what I thought was a night blooming cereus. I was surprised by the size of the flower as large as a saucer and then was surprised a second time when I found the gorgeous fruit a short while later. Since then no other flowers have bloomed. It would be great to learn exactly what conditions the plant needs to succeed in producing more fruit. My plant was climbing a grapefruit tree, but now the dead tree has been cut down and the cactus needs to be relocated. Can you give me that information?
I was lucky to have discovered a dragon fruit growing on what I thought was a night-blooming cereus in my back yard. Several years ago I saw them displayed in piles at Thai markets and never ventured to buy any. Wish I had. My plant hasn’t produced any more fruit since then even though it has grown a lot all over the lowest tier of a grapefruit tree. It was originally growing in an orchid pot hanging in the tree, but rooted itself in the soil below the tree. The roots could’t get below the agricultural cloth covering the limestone gravel, but they fanned out in several directions under the gravel. I would like to find out exactly how best to grow this plant to get more fruit. I live in southwest Florida. The beauty of the flower is breathtaking.
When stems start hanging down is when it starts to flower/fruit.
“carl June 2, 2011 at 5:54 pm
can get dragon fruit through http://www.localharvest.org/dragon-fruit. or check melissa’s its a fruit compay that supplies stores ,its kind of pricey though . any one who wants seeds can e-mail me and I would be happy to send some for free of course”
Hi Carl would so very much love to grow my own dragon fruit plant in Hermanus, South Africa. would it be possible to send me some seeds. Let me know thanx
thank you for the bio on dragon fruit, lovely recipe btw, love your site, love your recipes and the humour behind them.
“the bang me was awesome” btw lol
kudous
stu
you can get dragon fruit through http://www.localharvest.org/dragon-fruit. or check melissa’s its a fruit compay that supplies stores ,its kind of pricey though . any one who wants seeds can e-mail me and I would be happy to send some for free of course
hello to you all. i have seen dragon fruit on other webb sites and i too would love to try it. i live in the far north of new zealand where the climate is subtropical. from what i can gather this would be fine for growing the plant. i would love to know where i can buy some to try it. i live about 100 miles from auckland where there are many asian markets. if anyone can tell me where i can buy some that would be awsome.
Thank you for all the information and the recipe for the salad. After waiting for seven years for our dragon fruit plant to fruit, it has finally fruited. Meanwhile I have taken nearly a hundred cuttings from the original mother plant and all of them are doing quite well. The mother plant fruited only after I stopped taking cuttings from it. Tomorrow I shall be plucking the first fruit which is now soft. On our farm in India which is already over crowded with other fruit trees, I am growing dragon fruit on shade trees. The plants are doing well but to fruit they need a lot of sunshine.