Pepino - Healthy power of the melon pear

Pepino: The juicy-sweet melon pear

In winter, exotic fruits bring variety to the fruit plate. Have you tasted the Pepino? The juicy-sweet pulp is reminiscent of a blend of melon and pear and has a sugar content of four to eight percent. Other ingredients include vitamin C (35 to 70 mg per 100 g) and provitamin A..

The exotine tastes in a colorful fruit salad, with yogurt and in a quark cream. For a simple dessert, the fruit pieces are refined with a little lemon or lime juice and a spoonful of honey. Also for compote and jam the Pepino is suitable. However, the fruit loses much aroma during cooking.

Spicy foods give an interesting contrast. A delicious appetizer are Pepinocolalten with Parma ham. The fruit halves can also be hollowed out and filled with matjes, seafood, cheese, tomatoes or ham cubes. Even briefly swung in butter, the Pepino is a pleasure.

The Pepino, also called melon pear, is at home in the warm mountain valleys of Peru and Colombia. Today, however, it is also grown in many other countries in South America, the US and New Zealand. The fruit belongs to the family Solanaceae and thrives on low shrubs.

Pepinos can grow 10 to 20 centimeters long. The shape and color of the fruit are very variable, from pointed-ovate to oblong like a banana or ribbed like a meaty tomato. The shell may be cream-colored to lemon yellow, purple to violet striped.

Mature fruits are especially tasty, but also delicate. Therefore imported goods from overseas are usually harvested green. Do not eat pepino until the fruit color changes from greenish to creamy and the fruit gently gives way to gentle pressure. The exotine can be eaten with or without a shell, but it tastes slightly bitter. Alternatively, the pepino is spooned out like a kiwi. The cores are easy to remove. Since the cut fruit quickly discolored, the Pepino should be prepared shortly before consumption. Heike Kreutz, bzfe