Passion fruit juice (maracuyá)

One of my favorite juices here in Ecuador is passion fruit juice.

As a fruit the passion fruit is too tart and sour.

It just is not enjoyable to eat.

But when you make a juice from it, it's just perfect.

Yellow maracuyá or passion fruits in the front and behind them granadillas.

The Ecuadorian passion fruit is usually yellow, not brownish purple like the Brazilian variety.

You can sometimes find the darker ones that are a bit sweeter but generally it is as yellow and tart as they come.

Inside the fruit the flesh is a bit like frog spawn where each seed is inside a small gelatinous pouch.

Passiflora edulis or passion fruit is a vine species of passion flower.

There are many different passion flower fruits here in Ecuador.

Different kind of fruit and vegetables at the farmer's market.

Passion flower of maracuyá, as it’s called here is just one of them.

Besides it there are granadilla and taxo both that I enjoy very much.

Granadilla is an orange, sweet passion fruit, very delicious eaten ripe.

Taxo is yellow, elongated passion fruit that also has a tart and sour taste and is better in juices.

Different kind of fruit at the farmer's market.

Fresh passion fruits are very healthy and contain provitamin A beta carotene, vitamin C, dietary fiber and iron in significant quantities as percent of the Daily Value.

The vitamin A content alone converted from provitamin A sources is 25%.

Passion fruit juice is also a good source of potassium, and it also helps to lover the risk of high blood pressure.

There are also preliminary research results that indicate that consuming passion fruit peel may relieve asthma symptoms.

Three yellow passion fruit fruits.

Passiflora ligularis, or sweet granadilla, or just granadilla as it’s known in Ecuador is another fruit of Passiflora family.

The fruit is a lot sweeter than the passion fruit and can be eaten fresh.

It contains vitamins A, C, and K, phosphorus, iron, and calcium.

To make the juice you need three passion fruit fruits.

Granadilla fruit and seeds.

According to Ecuadorians using more than three will make the juice too strong and you will get drunk on it.

Open the fruit in the middle and pour the flesh in the blender with seeds and all.

Mix them in the blender with a cup of water.

After liquefying the fruit you need to pass it through a sieve so no trace of the seeds is left in the juice.

Mix the concentrated juice with as much water as you want to and the sweetener of your choice.

Enjoy fresh and cold!

* A tip, more wrinkled and shriveled the fruit, the more mature it is and better the juice!