No fruit in the produce section oversells itself quite like dragon fruit. It sits there looking like something a designer invented—hot pink, leathery with flame—like green bracts, the kind of thing you pick up purely because you were intrigued by its looks. I remember doing exactly that the first time, turning it over in my hand, imagining that it would taste as dramatic as it looked. I cut it open with the excitement of tasting something like I’d never tasted before.
But it tasted like nothing. Or almost nothing. The flesh is either a pale white or a bold pink, faintly sweet in the way a cucumber might be sweet, way more demure than a kiwi, and rather disappointing for something that comes wrapped in that much attitude. It is, without question, the most deceptive fruit, all show on the outside and barely a personality on the inside. The phrase “looks are deceptive” was written for the dragon fruit.
It has got another characteristic—the seeds. Scattered through that flesh, hundreds of tiny polka dots to add to its glam appearance, unbothered by the fact that they don’t add flavour either, only texture. It photographs beautifully and then sits there quite unremarkably.
What’s interesting that this fruit comes from the cactus family and not a tropical fruit the way mango or papaya are. Native to Central America, it’s now grown widely enough across Gujarat, Karnataka and Maharashtra. It even earned an official name from the Gujarat government in 2020, kamalam. Its flower, called Queen of the Night, blooms only after dark and is gone by morning, which reminds me of the bramhakamalam plant, which sends out blooms for exactly one night a month for the three months it is in season. That one-night bloom makes its pollination process a scramble.
In its native regions, dragon fruit relies on hawk moths and bats to do the job after dark, but most Indian orchards do not get this specific nocturnal visitors, so farmers do it themselves, dabbing pollen from flower to flower with a soft brush during the few hours each bloom stays open at night. And yet this fiddly work has not slowed the crop down here. Dragon fruit needs a fraction of the water most fruit trees do, tolerates the kind of dry, marginal land that defeats sugarcane or wheat, and keeps bearing fruit for over two decades once established, which is why it has become one of the more profitable things a farmer can plant on land that used to earn very little at all.
I wouldn’t go as far as to call it a superfood, but its nutritionally solid. Low in calories, decent fibre, a low glycaemic index that makes it a reasonable choice if you’re watching blood sugar, and mostly water, so it works better as a textural addition to a dish. The pink varieties get their colour from betalains, the same pigment family that makes beetroot bleed into everything it touches, which is why dragon fruit juice can turn a bowl of yogurt or smoothie to an Instagram-friendly pink colour.
This is exactly the quality that made pitaya (dragon fruit) bowls a trend in the first place. Acai bowls got there first, riding the wellness-travel, Instagram wave out of Hawaii and California, and later pitaya offered the same thick, spoonable format, same saturated colour required to carry forward the trend. Bali, already overrun with backpackers hunting the next photogenic breakfast, had cheap fresh pitaya on hand and beach cafes were happy to blend it. Bloggers from the world took the inspiration home swapped in frozen pitaya chunks from their local supermarkets and by the mid-2010s, the pitaya bowl had become its own genre, built almost entirely on the fact that this fruit photographs far better than it tastes.
Which is not a bad way to use it. Dragon fruit doesn’t need a marinade or a stove, and it definitely doesn’t need to be the star for flavour. It needs a plate, a knife, and something with more flavour standing next to it, chilli, lemon, mint, coconut, pomegranate, rocket and other things that already know how to carry flavour while the dragon fruit shines through with its looks.
DRAGON FRUIT AND POMEGRANATE CHAAT
Serves 4
Ingredients
1 medium dragon fruit, peeled and cubed (mix of red and white)
Seeds of 1 pomegranate
1 small cucumber, deseeded and cubed
1 green chilli, finely chopped
2 tbsp chopped mint leaves
Juice of 1 lemon
Half tsp roasted cumin powder
Half tsp chaat masala
Quarter tsp black salt
Quarter tsp regular salt
1 tbsp roasted peanuts, crushed
Method
In a large bowl, combine the dragon fruit, pomegranate seeds and cucumber. Add the green chilli and mint. Squeeze over the lemon juice and sprinkle in the cumin powder, chaat masala, black salt and regular salt. Toss gently, taking care not to crush the fruit. Finish with crushed peanuts and serve immediately, before the fruit releases too much juice and turns the bowl pink.
DRAGON FRUIT COCONUT SMOOTHIE BOWL
Serves 2
Ingredients
1 medium red dragon fruit, peeled and frozen in chunks
1 frozen banana
100ml coconut milk
1 tbsp honey
Toppings: sliced fresh fruit, granola, shredded coconut, chia seeds
Method
Blend the frozen dragon fruit and banana with the coconut milk and honey until thick and smooth, scraping down the sides once or twice. It should hold its shape on a spoon rather than pour. Divide between two bowls and top with sliced fruit, a sprinkle of granola, shredded coconut and chia seeds. Eat right away.
Double Tested is a column on vegetarian cooking, highlighting a single ingredient prepared two ways. Nandita Iyer (@saffrontrail) is a doctor, wellness advocate and author.