Summer fruits, more than just a fruit salad.
With warmer weather setting in, summer fruits are front of mind again in Australia.
When you think tropical fruits you probably normally picture fruit salads and ice creams, but these delicious, fragrant and brightly coloured fruits are so much more than that.
The harvest season is almost upon us for these delicious fruits with crops from in Vietnam and Peru and Costa Rica are almost ready to move into harvest. The range of tropical fruits is extensive from mango, passionfruit and banana from Vietnam and Peru, to pineapple, papaya and dragonfruit from Costa Rica.
We are now locking in tropical fruit puree, juice and IQF orders now for delivery this summer.
Below we’ll explore their nutritional value and include some recipe and production ideas from these fruits that you may not have considered, until now!
Pineapple
Who doesn’t love pineapples? The average pineapple takes about 18-20 months to be ready to harvest, and it’s built from hundreds of fruitlets that fuse together as the fruit grows. Pineapples are a great way to add sweetness to any meal. The real question is, is this fruit better served hot or cold? We’ll let you decide!
Nutritional information;
| Calories | Total Fat | Sodium | Potassium | Fibre | Vitamin A | Vitamin C | |
| Pineapple (approx 115g) | 50 (210 kj) | 0 | 10mg | 120mg | 1g | 2% RDI | 50% RDI |
Have you considered these recipe ideas for Pineapple?
- Pineapple shortbread
- Pineapple and coconut slice
- Pineapple Jam
- Pineapple fried rice
- Pineapple salsa (perfect with Grilled Salmon)
- Pineapple fried brown rice
- Bacon wrapped pineapple pieces
- Chicken and pineapple Quesadillas
Dragonfruit –
Arguably the most popular smoothie fruit, dragon fruit gives any drink a gorgeous pink colour and adds great nutritional value as well. This member of the cactus family has some interesting nutritional bonuses like Omega 3, 6 and calcium. Available in pink and white varieties.
Nutritional information;
| Calories | Total Fat | Sodium | Potassium | Fibre | Magnesium | Vitamin C | |
| Dragon Fruit (approx 100g) | 60 (251kj) | 0 | 0 | 156mg | 3g | 10% RDI | 77% RDI |
Some recipe ideas that will have you tickled pink!
(That aren’t smoothies)
- Dragonfruit soda or cordial
- Dragonfruit pancakes
- Dragonfruit salsa
- Dragonfruit protein balls
- Avocado and Dragonfruit salad
- Dark chocolate Dragonfruit cake
- Dragonfruit bread
- Dragonfruit cheesecake
Passionfruit –
One of the most underrated tropical fruits, the passionfruit packs any recipe with flavour, crunch and colour. I mean, you can’t have a pavlova without finishing off the decorating with some fresh passionfruit!
Nutritional information;
| Calories | Total Fat | Sodium | Potassium | Fibre | Vitamin A | Vitamin C | |
| Passionfruit (approx 100g) | 97 (406 kj) | 0.7g | 28mg | 348mg | 10.4g | 45% RDI | 50% RDI |
Recipes full of seedy passionfruit goodness;
- Passionfruit and coconut muffins
- Banana and passionfruit bread
- Passionfruit relish
- Passionfruit Jelly
- Passionfruit Lassi
- Rosemary and passionfruit cookies
- Wasabi and passionfruit sauce
Banana
Whether it’s frozen banana in a smoothie, banana slices cooked with caramel or eaten solo, bananas are part of our everyday life. True, they have high sugar content, but along with that comes high amounts of fibre, vitamin C and Vitamin B6.
Nutritional information;
| Calories | Total Fat | Sodium | Potassium | Fibre | Vitamin A | Vitamin C | |
| Banana (1 medium) | 110 | 0 | 0 | 450mg | 3g | 2% RDI | 15% RDI |
Recipe Ideas;
- Banana Breakfast cookies
- Banana Soufflé
- Banana pancakes
- Banana butter
- Banana caramel slice
- Savoury banana fritters
- Banana ketchup (Crazy huh!)
Plus, let’s face it, anything banana goes perfectly with chocolate!
Papaya –
The papaya isn’t always front of mind and often gets overlooked. We’re here to shed some light on this bright orange fragrant fruit. The papaya has a unique musky flavour which
Nutritional Information;
| Calories | Total Fat | Sodium | Potassium | Fibre | Vitamin A | Vitamin C | |
| Papaya (approx 100g) | 51 (213 kj) | 0.2g | 11mg | 210mg | 3.5g | 30% RDI | 225% RDI |
How to use papaya;
- Mexican papaya salad
- Papaya Jam
- Papaya and chilli salsa
- Lime and Papaya slice
- Vegetable and Papaya Pizza
- Ham, Avocado and Papaya salad
We are working with our producers on filling our summer tropical fruit orders now. We are anticipating supply challenges with shipping line availability and container freight costs to continue into early next year. Please allow plenty of lead time for new orders for delivery during Q1 2022.
If you would like to know more about our range of IQF fruits, fruit purees and fruit juices please contact us on 02 4573 2555 or by email at [email protected].
We find our information from a variety of sources, here they are;