What to Do With the Tsunami of Passionfruit That’s Going to Hit Aussie Stores Soon

What to Do With the Tsunami of Passionfruit That’s Going to Hit Aussie Stores Soon

It’s always such a rush when seasonal fruits hit store shelves — the possibilities of using them for both sweet and savoury dishes are endless. So when we heard passionfruit growers across northern NSW and Queensland said supermarkets needed to prepare for a ‘tsunami’ of passionfruit, we started frantically searching for some fun recipes for you to try out.

But just to tell you the enormity of the amount, here’s a little tidbit: The ABC reported Passionfruit Australia vice president Jane Richter’s comments on an “unusually large quantity of the fruit available for supply. Unfortunately, this comes just when cold winter weather’s impacted demand.

“We’ve got a tsunami of passionfruit,” she said. “I had a message from our president this morning [16 June], who’s based in northern New South Wales, to say that their local transport company was literally so backed up that they ran out of pallets.”

Yikes.

But like the good Samaritans we are, we’re going to do our part and eat all the passionfruit we can. Here are some interesting recipes for you to try out, including a bonus savoury option if god forbid you don’t have a sweet tooth.

Simple passionfruit coconut tart

Any dessert with coconut tastes absolutely delish in our humble opinion. And a passionfruit, coconut combo sounds perfect enough to compensate for chilly winter nights. Because tarts are so comforting, this recipe from 9Honey just had to be on the list.

It’s easy to make, takes just over an hour to cook and serves eight. We know what you’re making for your next dinner party.

Ingredients you’ll need: 

  • 1 cup (90g) desiccated coconut
  • ¾cup (165g) caster sugar
  • ½ cup (75g) plain flour
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 1/3 cups (330ml) milk
  • 125g butter
  • ½ cup passionfruit pulp
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • icing sugar for dusting

Method:

  1. Preheat your oven to (180°C).
  2. Take a bowl and mix together the desiccated coconut, caster sugar and sifted flour.
  3. Mix in the lightly beaten eggs, milk, melted butter, passionfruit pulp and lemon juice.
  4. Grease a 24cm pie dish and pour in your mixture.
  5. Bake for about 45 minutes or until you can see the tart’s lightly browned and set.
  6. Once out, dust it with sifted icing sugar and top it with fresh strawberries (optional). You can serve it either hot or cold.

Go healthy with this banana, passionfruit and coconut loaf recipe

Clearly we couldn’t get enough of the passionfruit and coconut combo but this one was a must since lockdown really showed how much people love baking banana bread. Plus, anything healthy that tastes good is a winner in our eyes. This recipe from The Brick Kitchen is free of gluten, dairy and refined sugar and only takes 20 minutes to prep and 40 minutes to cook.

Ingredients you’ll need:

  • 1/3 cup coconut oil , melted
  • 1/2 cup honey or maple syrup
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup mashed very ripe bananas (2 large) + 1 extra banana to decorate
  • 1/4 cup passionfruit pulp
  • 1 tspn baking soda
  • 1 tspn vanilla essence
  • 1/2 tspn salt
  • 3/4 cup plain flour (or buckwheat flour to make gluten-free)
  • 3/4 cup almond meal
  • 3/4 cup dessicated coconut
  • 2 tspn coconut sugar for sprinkling

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 160°C.
  2. Beat together the coconut oil and honey until they’re nicely combined.
  3. Add in the two eggs and continue whisking.
  4. Add mashed bananas and passionfruit pulp. Whisk gently and let the clumps of banana remain. Your mixture doesn’t need to be smooth.
  5. Next, add in the baking soda, vanilla and salt and whisk a little more.
  6. Fold in the flour, almond meal and desiccated coconut until just combined.
  7. Grease and line a loaf tin with baking paper.
  8. Pour your mixture into the tin. Top it with the extra halved banana and sprinkle it with coconut sugar.
  9. Bake for about 45-55 minutes or until any point thing (skewer, inserted comes out just clean.

Passionfruit and vanilla bean marshmallows

Not all your desserts have to be works of art. A simple soft cube-shaped marshmallow will satisfy just as well. This recipe from The Sugar Hit serves 16 but we’re thinking eight given how it goes with ‘mallows — you can’t eat just one.

Ingredients you’ll need:

  • Flavourless oil, such as grapeseed
  • 180ml strained passionfruit juice (anything from 5-10 passionfruit, depending on their size)
  • 20g powdered gelatine
  • 2 cups (450g) caster sugar
  • 1 vanilla bean
  • 2 egg whites
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 cup (100g) cornstarch (that’s cornflour if you’re in Aus/NZ)
  • 1 cup (100g) icing sugar

Method:

  1. Grab an 8×8 inch baking pan. Lightly grease it and line it with non-stick baking paper.
  2. In a small bowl, stir together the passionfruit juice and gelatine, set it aside and let it bloom.
  3. Take out a deep, heavy-based saucepan. Add in 250ml of water, caster sugar, and scraped out seeds from a vanilla bean.
  4. Next, you’ll need to take out a standing mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Whisk your egg whites in here for about a minute or until they’re light and frothy. Set aside.
  5. Place the vanilla-sugar-water mixture from step three over a low heat, and stir gently, just until the sugar dissolves. Turn up the heat to medium-high, stop stirring and let it cook until it reaches 125 degree Celsius.
  6. Remove the pan from the heat, and stir through the bloomed passionfruit-gelatine mixture.
  7. You’ll need to whisk your egg whites from step four again on medium speed. Now slowly mix in your passionfruit syrup and keep whisking until all of the syrup’s been added. The mixture will be opaque, and seem quite runny.
  8. Continue whisking the mixture until it is almost at room temperature, but not quite. It should almost triple in size, and become moussey and cloud-like.
  9. Once your mixture is to the consistency mentioned above, scrape it into the lined pan and leave to set at room temperature for a few hours. You’ll know it’s set when you jiggle the pan (or give it a poke) and it seems soft but elastic.
  10. Sift together the cornstarch and icing sugar a few times, and spread about half of it out on a clean kitchen surface.
  11. Turn out the marshmallow onto the surface. Using a well-oiled knife, cut into 16 squares – you will need to clean and re-oil between cuts.
  12. Dust over the remaining sugar mix, and then toss and coat each square. Store at cool room temperature for up to two weeks.

Bonus savoury recipe: Vietnamese spring roll sauce with peanut and passionfruit

We love Asian food here in Australia and even though we’re not talking about a strictly traditional Vietnamese sauce, the balance of flavour in it is just as good. This recipe from Belly Rumbles will take you just 20 minutes to make.

Ingredients you’ll need: 

  • 1 tbspn palm sugar
  • 125 ml (½ cup) passionfruit pulp strained of all seeds
  • 2 small red chillies finely chopped
  • Juice of ½ a lime
  • 2 tbspn soy sauce
  • 1/3 cup roasted peanuts chopped

Method:

  1. Heat your passionfruit pulp and palm sugar in a small saucepan until the sugar fully dissolves.
  2. Remove from heat and add chilli, lime juice, soy sauce and peanuts.
  3. Chill until ready to serve with you spring rolls. With a good dipping sauce you might be excused using store-bought ones.

We’d love to hear from you in the comments if you’ve got some great recipes of your own to share. 


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