October 31, 2014

by Jason Ford
Ford on Food

Passionfruit is an elongated oval or round fruit which originates from Central America. The two most common varieties are the yellow or purple kind, but the ‘Passion’ in the name is not referring to love.

The fruit is named after its flower, which is in fact a reference to the Passion of Christ.

Spanish priests adopted the passion flower as a symbol of the Crucifixion centuries ago.

The outer layer, made of 72 colourful, fine petals represents the Crown of Thorns; the 10 larger petals represent Christ’s faithful apostles (Judas appears to have fallen off the passionfruit vine).

There are three stigma which symbolize the nails of the Crucifix; the five lower stamen signify the wounds of Christ; and the vines of the plant were seen as whips.

Quite amazing really!

When buying passionfruit, its best to choose fruits that feel rather heavy for their size.

Passionfruit can be stored out of the fridge for up to two weeks or refrigerated for up to a month. Store them in plastic bags so they don’t dry out.

If you aren’t able to use them all up, the pulp freezes really well.

And – contrary to popular belief – passionfruit does not have to be wrinkled to be considered ripe.

Passionfruit are also easy to grow at home, they just need a fence or structure to grow on.

Although they generally have a sweet, perfumed taste, passionfruit are often tart and are a great accompaniment to sweet desserts, such as pavlova or sponge cakes.

I’ve also made curds and jams with them.

However, the easiest preparation is to cut them in half and scoop the passionfruit pulp straight into your mouth.

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Pumpkin and Passionfruit Soup

It might sound like chalk and cheese, but this is actually a gem of a recipe and I think you’ll love it.

Ingredients:

  • 750g pumpkin
  • 15g butter
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 2 rashers of bacon, diced
  • 100g potato, diced
  • 50g carrots
  • 50g celery
  • 1 Lt chicken stock
  • 6 passionfruit, pulped
  • salt and pepper
  • 250ml cream

Method:

  1. Peel the pumpkin, remove the seeds and chop into smallish pieces.
  2. Melt the butter in a heavy-based saucepan.
  3. Add the onion and bacon and cook, stirring regularly, until onion is soft.
  4. Add the pumpkin, potato, carrot, celery and the stock.
  5. Bring to the boil and simmer for about half an hour or so, until the pumpkin is really soft.
  6. Remove from the heat and let the soup cool down, then add the passionfruit pulp.
  7. Process it in batches in a blender. Pour it back into the saucepan, season to taste and stir in the cream. Reheat it to serve.

Serves 4.