Mango, the world’s favorite fruit, casts a shadow on other fruit that ripen at the same time.  Since our fruit baskets are overflowing, I made a tropical punch to showcase some of the others.

The dragon fruit (or pitaya) is almost too pretty to eat.  It’s the fruit of a cactus.  Most of the time the flesh inside is white, but sometimes you peel back the skin and find shocking neon fuchsia (the photo below was not enhanced).  The taste and texture is that of a mild melon.  The little black seeds are like kiwi seeds; they add a nice light crunch.

Passion fruit, on the other hand, is not the most beautiful fruit.  They have wrinkly, papery skin when they’re ripe.   There isn’t much fruit inside either, just a little pulp surrounding very crunchy seeds.  But they redeem themselves with big flavor.  That little bit of pulp is very tart, a little sweet, and so intensely tropical.For this recipe, slice them in half, scoop out the pulp and strain it through a sieve to remove the seeds (I save them to eat on yogurt).  For the mango and pineapple, cut the fruit in chunks, blend, and strain through a sieve to remove fiber.

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Dragon’s Punch

Serves 6

Ingredients:

• 2 dragon fruit
• 2 cups seltzer water or club soda
• 2/3 cup light rum (I used Cruzan)
• 1/2 cup strained pineapple puree
• 1/2 cup strained mango puree
• 1/4 cup agave or simple syrup
• 2 tablespoons fresh passion fruit pulp, 4-5 passion fruit
• 2 tablespoons lime juice

Directions:

Scoop the dragon fruit with a melon baller or cut it into cubes.  Refrigerate until it’s time to serve.

Blend the mango and pineapple purees, rum, passion fruit, agave and lime juice in a blender.  Pour 1 cup of ice in a pitcher, top with the fruit juice blend and seltzer.  Stir.

Thread half of the dragon fruit on straws or swizzle sticks for garnish.  Put the rest in the pitcher and stir gently.  To serve, pour punch over ice and pop in the dragon fruit stick.