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.
Omg! SO jealous!! You grow dragon fruit??? Awesome! I live in Miami and they sell it (very rarely, of course) at some farmer’s markets, but for a ridiculous price. I love the purple one and the juice made from it. You can find that pretty easily at local Nicaraguan restaurants. Love that stuff!!
Is it hard to grow?? Wouldn’t it grow here, too?
Can hardly wait to read your post on how you guys grow dragon fruit. Supposedly they’ll grow here in Houston with protection from the occaisional freeze. I’d really like to see pictures/ description of how you have it trellised.
I’ve never seen a dragon fruit! Wish I had them around!
I wonder where I can order some seedlings of this amazing fruit vine/tree. Can someone help me on this, please! Thanks
Wow !!! I just love every post and recipe with the veggies/ fruits/herbs that you guys have in your backyard ! The Victory Garden is just amazing ! Would you have any tips or books for people who want to start a garden in their backyards ( I live in Southern California too ) ? Thanks !
Thank you for such gardening excitement. We actually are in the process of creating a gardening section of our website which will give more gardening resources and links. It should be up in a week or so. What we did to start the garden was to make a list of plants, fruits & veggies that we love. Then we researched what would grow here and started planning from there. Talk to the people at the local nurseries for info on good plants for your area. Even areas like Southern Cal. have lots of micro-climates. The people at the nurseries are great resources for understanding problems that come up (bad soil, bug or fungus problems, etc…) Happy gardening!
Vietnamese dragon fruit tastes good, looks good, nutritious, and available year round.
I just wonder why big companies like Fresh Del Monte Produce, Inc. and Chiquita Brands International Inc.
are not bringing this great fruit to Americans & people of the world like they did with banana.
Vincent- It’ll take some time for dragon fruit to catch on to the public and to encourage farmers to grow it. But it would be awesome, great idea!
looks absolutely refreshing and delicious!
Oh man, those are just lovely!
+Jessie
The photos are fab, I don’t think I can find dragon fruit here in Japan….. unless they are an import….. I haven’t checked though either… .I love fresh figs though and poms… Well done on the photography.
I love dragon fruit. Buying them in New Zealand was a treat as they were imported and very expensive. I have seen them on a trip up into North Queensland where they grow them I need to check our local shops to see if they are available. I love that first photo.
just bought 5 dragon fruit for $3 at the gin gin qld saturday markets [white ]
cheers judith