Fruit (View Vegetables)

Banana

Also known as

• Cavendish Banana

Bananas are classified either as dessert bananas (meaning they are yellow and fully ripe when eaten) or as green cooking bananas. Refrigerating ripe bananas will keep them from getting softy and mushy, though the peels will darken.

Substitutes

• Plantain (for baking, mashing, and frying)
• Mango (different flavour)

Breadfruit

Breadfruit can be roasted, baked, fried, or boiled. When cooked the taste is described as potato-like, or similar to fresh baked bread (hence the name). Whole cooked fruits can be cored and filled with other foods such as coconut milk, sugar and butter, cooked meats, or other fruits and further cooked so that the flavor of the filling permeates the flesh of the breadfruit.

Substitutes

• Jackfruit (larger than breadfruit)
• Plantain
• Potatoes

Cherimoya

Also known as

• Custard Apple

The fruit is fleshy and soft, sweet, white in colour, with a custard-like texture, which gives it its secondary name, custard apple. Some characterize the flavour as a blend of pineapple, mango and strawberry. Others describe it as tasting like commercial bubblegum. Similar in size to a grapefruit, it has large, glossy, dark seeds that are easily removed. The seeds are poisonous if crushed open; one should also avoid eating the skin. When ripe the skin is green and gives slightly to pressure, similar to the avocado.

Substitutes

• Combine equal parts strawberries, bananas, and pineapple

Coconut

The most common form of coconut is the dry coconut, with a hard brown shell surrounding firm coconut meat with liquid in the centre. To crack one, hit it along its equator with a blunt instrument, pouring off the water when the first crack appears.

Substitutes

• Brazil Nut
• Macadamia Nut

Date

Dry or soft dates are eaten out-of-hand, or may be pitted and stuffed with fillings such as almonds, walnuts, candied orange and lemon peel, marzipan or cream cheese. Dates can also be chopped and used in a range of sweet and savoury dishes. Fresh dates are crunchy, and not as sweet as dried dates.

Dragon Fruit

Also known as

• Pitaya
• Strawberry Pear

Dragon Fruit may be eaten raw as a dessert fruit, juiced and used in cocktails, ice creams and fermented into an alcoholic beverage. The fruit is mildly sweet and low in calories.

Durian

Also known as

• Stinky Fruit

The edible part of the durian is the creamy-white pulp, which is comparable to a rich custard highly flavoured with almonds. There are occasional wafts of flavour that call to mind cream-cheese, onion-sauce, sherry-wine, and other incongruous dishes. The odour is pungent and unique!

Feijoa

Also known as

• Pineapple Guava
• Guavasteen

Feijoa is usually eaten raw and has a sweet, aromatic flavour. It can also be used as an interesting addition to a fruit smoothie, yogurt or ice cream, and to make feijoa wine and feijoa infused vodka. Feijoa may be cooked and used in dishes where one would use stewed fruit.

Substitutes

• Kiwifruit
• Pineapple
• Strawberries

Fig

Figs can be eaten fresh or dried, and used in jam-making. They come in several varieties, with skin ranging from green to dark purple, and flesh from white to pink. Dried figs are not good substitutes for fresh.

Substitutes

• Pear

Jackfruit

This is the largest tree-borne fruit in the world, weighing up to 35kg. The yellowish pulp tastes a bit like banana. It can be eaten unripe (young) or ripe, and cooked or uncooked. The seeds can be boiled and eaten.

Substitutes

• Breadfruit (smaller than jackfruit)
• Papaya
• Pineapple
• Lychee

Longan

The fruit is edible, and is often used in East Asian soups, snacks, desserts, and sweet-and-sour foods. They are round with a thin, brown-coloured inedible shell. The flesh of the fruit, which surrounds a big, black seed, is translucent white, soft, and juicy.

Substitutes

• Lychee (larger and juicier, but not as sweet)

Lychee

Also known as

• Litchi

Underneath the reddish, scaly shell is a colourless, sweet, translucent pulp, siliar to a grape. The pulp separates easily from the seed and is eaten fresh or dried.

Substitutes

• Longan (smaller and sweeter, but not as juicy)
• Grape

Mango

The fruit flesh of a ripe mango is very sweet, with a unique taste. Mangoes are very juicy; the sweet taste and high water content make them refreshing to eat. Mangoes are widely used in chutney, which in the West is often very sweet, but in the Indian subcontinent is usually made with sour, raw mangoes and hot chillies or limes.

Substitutes

• Peach
• Nectarine
• Papaya

Mangosteen

Also known as

• Mangostan

Mangosteen is best enjoyed raw. It has sweet, creamy, cool flesh that some haver described as as orange-like in taste. Before ripening, the mangosteen shell is fibrous and firm, but becomes soft and easy to pry open when the fruit ripens.

Substitutes

• Strawberry
• Mango

Papaya

Also known as

• Tree Melon

Ripe papaya fruit is usually eaten raw, without the skin or seeds. The unripe green fruit of papaya can be eaten cooked, usually in curries, salads (shredded) and stews.

Passionfruit

Also known as

• Granadilla

This aromatic fruit has a tart, tropical flavour. The fruit can be grown to eat or for its juice, which is often added to other fruit juices to enhance aroma. It comes in purple or yellow (golden) varieties. It is commonly used as a dessert topping (eg. pavlova) and in cocktails.

Substitutes

• Pineapple (especially for juice)

Pepino

Also known as

• Melon Pear

Pepinos are juicy and have a mild melon flavor. They are often combined with other exotic fruits in fruit salads and platters. The peel is edible.

Substitutes

• Tamarillo
• Pear
• Cantaloupe
• Papaya

Persimmon

Persimmons are eaten fresh or dried, raw or cooked. When eaten fresh the peel is usually cut/peeled off and the fruit is often cut into quarters or eaten whole like an apple. The flesh ranges from firm to mushy and the texture is unique. The flesh is very sweet and when firm possesses an apple-like crunch. Dried persimmon is often eaten as a snack or dessert. It can be used in cookies, cakes, puddings, salads and as a topping for breakfast cereal.

Substitutes

• Plum
• Pumpkin

Pineapple

Pineapples are juicy, mildly acidic, and very versatile. They can be squeezed for juice, sliced on cakes, skewered and grilled, or eaten raw without adornment.

Substitutes

• Papaya

Plantain

Also known as

• Cooking Banana

Plantains tend to be firmer and lower in sugar content than dessert bananas and are used either when green or under-ripe (and therefore starchy) or overripe (and therefore sweet). Plantains or generally boiled or fried, or eaten raw when very ripe.

Substitutes

• Banana (preferably underripe)
• Sweet Potato
• Breadfruit
• Potato (especially if fried)

Pomegranate

Pomegranate can be used to make juice, dip, dessert toppings, sauces and eaten raw. The taste differs depending on the variety of pomegranate and its state of ripeness. It can be very sweet or it can be very sour or tangy.

Rambutan

Rambutan fruit flesh is translucent, whitish or very pale pink, with a sweet, mildly acidic flavour. They are similar to lychees and longans. The seed is soft and crunchy, is edible, and may be eaten together with the pulp.

Substitutes

• Lychee (smaller)
• Longans (even smaller)

Tamarillo

Also known as

• Tree Tomato

When lightly sugared and cooled, the flesh makes a refreshing breakfast dish. In addition, they give a unique flavor when compoted or added to stews and curries. They are also tasty and decorative in fresh salads. In Colombia and Ecuador, fresh tamarillos are frequently blended together with water and sugar to make a juice.

Substitutes

• Papaya (sweeter, not as acidic)

Tamarind

The pulp from the tamarind pod is used as a souring agent in cooking. There's also a sweet tamarind, which looks like the sour variety and is used primarily to make drinks.

Substitutes

• Lime Juice
• Lemon Juice