Ripe passion fruit are a green-brown-purple colour while maracuja are far larger and are yellow once they are ripe. — CHRISTIN KLOSE/dpa
People often confuse passion fruit with maracuja. But they taste different, even though they both belong to the passion flower genus.
Here's how to spot the difference, thanks to tips from some nutritionists:
Maracujas contain a lot of acid, which is why they are mainly used to make juice. The fruit is round to egg-shaped, and significantly larger than passion fruit. They are also yellow when ripe, says Germany's Federal Centre for Nutrition.
Ripe passion fruit are green-brown to purple and are also called purple granadillas. They taste sweet and sour, and to eat them you can just cut them in half and spoon out the fruit.
To make juice, squeeze the halves with a lemon squeezer or pass the pulp through a sieve, say specialists. Passion fruit tastes good in fruit salads, muffins, pancakes and fruity punch.
When you shop, don't be tempted to reach for smooth passion fruits. If they have wrinkled skin, it's a sign of ripeness and sweetness says Arne Betzold from Germany's Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (BLE).
"When they arrive from abroad as smooth fruits, they are usually still very sour."
Passion fruits only shrivel when they ripen. "The evaporation of moisture concentrates the sugar content in the fruit and makes it much tastier," says Betzold.
If you buy smooth fruit or find the taste too sour, Betzold recommends "simply leaving it at home for another two or three days". Once your passion fruit is ripe, it will keep in the crisper drawer of the refrigerator for one to two weeks. – dpa
