PAPAYA: HOW IS IT EATEN? HOW TO USE THIS FRUIT IN COOKING

How do you eat papaya? In what recipes can it be used, so as not to simply eat the fresh fruit? These are questions you might ask yourself, given that this tropical fruit is rich in properties and benefits, even and above all in the freeze-dried version of fermented papaya. Here, however, we are talking about the fresh fruit, and not the food supplement with a thousand advantages. Find out how you could use this fruit rich in vitamins and minerals, but also with many possibilities of use.

Let us immediately remember that papaya, in addition to being very good, is also an antioxidant. Here are some more to add to your diet!

Pulp, leaves, seeds ... Find out how to eat a papaya

3 parts of fresh papaya are edible:

the pulp
the seeds
the leaves of the plant

As you can see, how to eat a papaya does not have the obvious and simple answer: "it is peeled and eaten fresh", because you could also use seeds and leaves, especially inspired by the cuisine of countries where papaya is abundant. This tropical fruit is native to Central America, but is also widespread in Asia and Africa. In fact, in these countries, seeds and leaves are also consumed, and you could take inspiration from these old culinary traditions to follow them too. As for the leaves of the plant, they can be cooked like any green leafy vegetable, boiling them in salted water and consuming them as if they were spinach or chard.

Recipes with papaya

The most used and eaten part of papaya is obviously the pulp, which you can eat fresh by peeling the fruit and freeing it from seeds. Yet with the pulp you can make different recipes, such as exotic first courses or salads. Here we focus on 2 sweet recipes, easy and quick to prepare, and a slimming juice. Why not try them?

Papaya with blueberries, perfect for breakfast!

Ingrediants:

1 ripe papaya
100 gr of blueberries
mint leaves
half a lemon

Preparation:
Clean the papaya by cutting off the peel and freeing it from the seeds. Dice the pulp. Wash 100 grams of blueberries and mix them with the papaya cubes, seasoning them with the juice of half a lemon. Keep in the fridge for 15 minutes. Take the fruit salad out of the fridge and add a few mint leaves. The fruit salad is ready to serve, also excellent for breakfast.

Papaya crumble, a dessert for all seasons

Ingrediants:

8 tablespoons of coconut milk
1 papaya
30 gr of grated coconut
100 gr of flour
90 gr of butter
30 grams of sugar
1 drop of vanilla essence
1 pinch of salt

Preparation:
Inside a bowl, put the flour, coconut, sugar, salt, softened butter and vanilla. Work everything until you get a homogeneous cream to put in a cool place. Open the papaya in half and remove the seeds. Peel the fruit and cut the pulp into slices. Spread the slices evenly into a pan. Heat the coconut milk and add the cream by taking it out of the fridge. Pour the heated cream and coconut milk mixture into the pan, along with the papaya slices. Put the pan in the oven at 210 ° and brown for about 20 minutes. Take the pan out of the oven and let it cool before consuming.

Papaya and mango slimming juice

Papaya, in addition to great antioxidant properties, also brings many benefits to digestion, thanks to papain, a substance contained mainly in the pulp. That's why, to get the best out of the pulp of this fruit, we recommend that you prepare a centrifuged. Among the many slimming juices you could try, one of the best is perhaps that of papaya and mango. Both one fruit and the other have digestive properties, plus the richness of mineral salts and vitamins will do the rest, giving you the necessary energy and replenishing the minerals that are lost more easily in the summer with sweating. Try this recipe

Ingrediants:

1 ripe papaya
1 ripe mango
mint leaves

Preparation:
Blend the peeled mango and papaya together cold with the juicer machine. Pour into a large glass and garnish with a few mint leaves. If you like, you can add a little honey or a few drops of lemon. To diversify the flavor, you can also add a few strawberries, or use strawberries instead of mangoes.

How are papaya seeds eaten?

The seeds are the hardest part of papaya to manage, yet after our advice you might start trying. The seeds are also a very rich part of properties, and the people of Central America have been consuming them for a long time. You can also eat them whole, as if they were a food supplement, or you can use them as a condiment, to make them easier to consume. They have a bitter taste, especially when they are larger, so eating them directly may be difficult. That's why our advice is to wash them well, dry them and grind them with a mortar. You can then use the coarsely ground seeds to flavor your salads, meat or fish, using them as a substitute for black pepper (the spice that comes closest to it in flavor).

Did you know that papaya is perfect for a flat stomach? Discover the other slimming foods!

As we said, papaya is an excellent fruit to lose weight and thus obtain the coveted flat stomach. Find out what are the other foods rich in fiber, ideal for digesting and slimming your figure.

See also: Foods for a flat stomach: 30 valuable foods