Thursday, June 23, 2011

Feijoa, what are you?

While I was scurrying down the aisles of Whole Foods looking for items for my second sponsored post, I spied these odd little fruits. About the size and shape of a kiwi, but with a green skin that looked something like the outside of an unripe and very green avocado.

I flagged down someone who worked in the produce section and asked what it was. He said it was a little like a kiwi, and asked if I would like a taste. He pulled a little knife out of somewhere, cut the fruit in half, cut out the center section, and handed it to me.

It had a citrusy flavor, but not that tart. A pleasant taste overall. I grabbed three of them and decided that I'd figure out what to do with them later.

The first little feijoa got sliced in half and served as a (very) light dessert. You eat the center part of it and leave the rind, like a little teeny watermelon.

Now that I think of it, this would make an awesome palate cleanser between courses, if you're into that sort of thing. Or, hmmm.... maybe freeze it in a sorbet-like thing. But I only had three of them to work with, and we already sampled one away.

What I tried was incorporating them into a salad dressing. I figured that it would add a nice citrus note and also some body to the dressing. It's not like adding lemon to a dressing were lemon is the acid that mixes with the oil, since it's not that acidic or that juicy. It was more like adding ... strawberries, maybe.

So I made a basic vinegar and oil dressing using rice vinegar and a light olive oil, then added the fruity part of the feijoa and blended it with my stick blender.

It was just a tad too thick to be salad dressing. In fact could have used it as a spread on something. So I thinned it out with some water, whizzed it again with the stick blender.

And there is was - a light tasting but creamy-thick, sort of citrusy dressing. And if you think about it, it's got to be lighter in calories than the typical vinegar and oil dressing since it had the fruit that made it thick and the added water that thinned it out again.

The interesting thing, too was that the leftovers stayed emulsified really well. I'm not sure if there's something in the fruit that kept the dressing from separating, but it held up better than a lot of dressings I've made.

Next time I see them, I'll have to give them another try.
Yum

1 comment:

Leaper said...

It looks like the pineapple guava form the trees (bushes?) in my backyard!

And wikipedia confirms: feijoa is a name for pineapple guava!

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