How to Store Dragon Fruit

We welcome you to the alluring world of dragon fruit storage! We bet you are a fan of this exotic and fascinating fruit, you know that proper storage strategy is key to preserving its amazing flavor and textures. Let’s explore "how to store dragon fruit."

In this article, we will explore the ins and outs of preserving and storing dragon fruit, ripening process from selecting the perfect and tasty fruit to extending its shelf life.

Whether you are a dragon fruit lover or a newbie, get yourself ready to unlock the secrets to keep it fresh and delicious. Without any further ado, let`s discover the art of storing dragon fruit.

What is Dragon Fruit?

Dragon fruit, also termed as pitaya, is a tropical fruit which upon seeing seems to be from another planet. But it is actually earthly and quite delicious as well. This unique fruit comes from species of cactus while its fascinating color and appearance make it a standout among other fruits.

With its bright pink or white flesh covered with tiny black seeds like ripe avocado, dragon fruit offers uniquely sweet taste that is often compared to other fruits like kiwi and pear.

It is not only visually attracting but it is a good source of nutrients which makes it fantastic than other fruits. With that being said, let’s dive immediately into the world of dragon fruit and discover all its wonders.

Similar Reading: How to Peel a Dragon Fruit

What else a Dragon Fruit is called?

The dragon fruit also known as strawberry peer, is one of the prettiest of the produce. Their bright pink skins with shades of green and white interiors filled with soft seeds are a stunning gift to the world.

It is a tropical fruit and can be found usually in southern Mexico and Central America. The French bought it and installed it in the subcontinent which is why these days it can be found in South Asian markets.

Types of Dragon Fruit

Before moving on to the process of preserving and storing dragon fruit, let`s dig deep into the types of dragon fruit.

Red Dragon Fruit

Red dragon fruit also known as Pitaya, is a vibrant having many perks, fascinating and exotic variety of dragon fruit that will add a striking color to your fruit bowl.

It`s striking red or magenta skin with its green scales makes it fascinating for the buyers. But it’s not just the appearance that set apart red dragon fruit. It’s the inside juicy flesh that range from deep red to white filled with tiny black seeds.

This tropical fruit is filled with anti-oxidants and vitamin C therefore it’s not only visually stunning but also a healthy addition to your diet. Once you get it, it will become a regular fruit in your fruit basket.

White Dragon Fruit

White dragon fruit, also known as Pitaya Blanca, is a captivating variety of dragon fruit that stands out with its attractive white flesh and striking appearance.

This tropical fruit is slightly sweeter and milder in flavor as compared to the red dragon fruit. Its stunning flesh is patterned with tiny black seeds, adding a delightful crunch to each bite.

It is not only visually appealing but also packed with essential nutrients such as iron, magnesium and vitamin C. incorporating this tasty white dragon fruit into your diet will enhance your taste buds and improve your health as well.

Yellow Dragon Fruit

Yellow dragon fruit is also known as Pitaya Amarilla. It is a vibrant and exotic variety of dragon fruit. It has bright yellow skin with green scales giving it a pleasing appearance for the eyes.

This variety of dragon fruit is known for its sweet and tangy taste. It has a smooth texture with juicy flesh and would make a stunning addition to your diet.

Nutritional Value of Dragon Fruits

Dragon fruit is not only visually fascinating but hosts lots of nutrition value. This exotic fruit is low in calorie and high in essential nutrients. Dragon fruit is a great source of vitamin C which helps in improving your immune system and promotes a healthy skin.

It is also rich in anti-oxidants thus “preventing cells from damage by free radicals”. Furthermore, it is also rich in fibers which mean it can keep you full for a long time.

Fibers in the dragon fruits help in digestion and keep you fuller for a long time. Therefore, it is important to note that whether you are looking to add colorful fruits into your fruit salad or fruit bowl or boost your overall health, dragon fruit is a delicious and nutritious choice.

Health Benefits of Dragon Fruit

There are many benefits of using dragon fruits in daily life adding extras to the health issues of the people. One who is in habit of taking this article is supposed to benefit himself from the following: -

Rich in anti-oxidants

Dragon is not just attractive visually but it is filled with beneficial nutrients that are required by our body. One of its prominent qualities is that it contains high anti-oxidant contents.

Anti-oxidants are compounds that are required by the body in order to protect the cells from damaging by harmful free radicals. Dragon fruit is one such beatifical tropical fruit fruit that contains various antioxidants including betalains, vitamin c, and flavonoids.

It helps in neutralization of free radicals and reduces oxidative stress in the body. If you want to boost your immunity and reduce the potential risks of chronic diseases, we suggest you incorporate dragon fruit into your diet.

Boosting immune system

Dragon fruit might look attractive but it’s not the sole feature of this fruit. It is a powerhouse when it comes to boosting your immunity. It is filled with vitamin c therefore this exotic fruit helps in strengthening your defence mechanisms by keeping troublesome flu and colds at bay.

Vitamin C is known for stimulating the white blood cells which are essential for fighting off infections. Having dragon fruit in your diet is like having a superhero on your side which helps in fighting off germs and keeping you healthy and vibrant.

Dragon Fruits aid Digestive Health

Eating dragon fruit is not only delicious but it is also beneficial for your digestive health. It is packed with dietary fiber which helps in maintaining a healthy digestive system.

The fiber content in the dragon fruits helps in regulating bowel movement, preventing constipation and promoting regularity. Furthermore, dragon fruit contains natural enzymes that help in breaking down food, making it easier for the body to absorb nutrients into the blood stream.

Thus, if you are looking for a delicious fruits, eating dragon fruit for longer period, will also increase your digestive health, indulge in some juicy dragon fruit.

Promote Heart Health

Dragon fruit with its attractive colors and unique appearance not only adds vibrant beauty to bowl but also improve heart health. This exotic fruit is packed with heart-friendly nutrients thus keeping the heart at good pace.

Maintaining Blood Pressure Levels

Dragon fruit contains less cholesterol and unhealthy fats which makes it an excellent choice for maintaining health and blood pressure levels. Furthermore, it has fiber content which aids in reducing cholesterol level in blood stream.

This exotic fruit has high antioxidants content thus helps fight inflammation and oxidative stress, reducing the risk of heart diseases. Therefore, these contents make it a good choice for heart patients. Indulge yourself in this delicious and tasty food and give your heart some love.

How to Select Ripe Dragon Fruit

If you are curious when and where to find dragon fruit, we will guide you through the whole process of selecting a fresh and dragon fruit is ripe. Generally, you can find dragon fruit the whole year but their peak season is summertime.

It is sown and harvested in southern Mexico, central America and in the warm climates of south Asia. Now here you might be confused on how to select the dragon fruit. Just keep reading and you will find out in a moment.

What does dragon fruit taste like?

We hope that you have tasted pears and kiwis in your life. Some describe dragon fruit as having a taste slightly similar to a combination of these two fruits taste of citrus. Its taste stays fresh with freezing.

Furthermore, if the flesh of dragon fruit is ripe, slightly sweet and refreshing having a texture that is similar to a ripe kiwi. However, if the dragon fruit is not ripe properly, the flesh will have a harder and little to no taste.

You can enjoy it in lemon juice, coconut water, lime juice and other fruit juices, people mix dragon fruit sorbet in ice cream then it stays fresh.

How to Store Dragon Fruit – Key Methods

Having this fresher fruit, dragon fruit in a bowl and diet is very beneficial for our health. Therefore, some people buy a lot of dragon fruit at once for future use.

But they have this fear that this deteriorate after some time. In this section we are highlighting some important ideas regarding the storage spot to ensure making it fresher fruit so that you can eat dragon fruit later.

Store Dragon Fruit in Room Temperature

Dragon fruit Storage at room temperature is easy, to prevent browning find a cool spot and avoid storing in direct sunlight to ensure fresher fruit. You can store dragon fruit at room temperature and dry place but keep in mind the ripening process.

At room temperature and absence of direct sunlight, uncut dragon fruit can be stored for a day or two. It is important to ensure fresher fruit, do not hide your it with other fruit in the back of your pantry.

Let it rest in its vibrant glory on your kitchen counter. For your kind information, please make sure the ripening process and keep an eye on the fruit and taste it when necessary or else it will become bad.

Store Dragon Fruit in Refrigerator

If you wish to storing dragon fruit a whole in the refrigerator, then you will be ecstatic to know that you can store it by following the following steps: firstly, remove any unwanted dirt and excess moisture from the fruit by wiping a cloth over it.

Secondly, do not look for a plastic bag, use airtight container to remove as much air as possible. Then freeze the uncut dragon fruit wrapped in freezer bag, remove excess moisture and as much air to prevent mold growth.

Do not store dragon fruit in a sealed plastic bag

Keep in mind that do not store dragon fruit in sealed plastic bags and grocery bag in order to get rid of much air. Put the wiped fruit in a freezer bag and finally, place the sealed bag in the desired portions refrigerator.

Enjoy clean and fresh dragon fruit for up to 2 3 days in the refrigerator. Keep it fresh in refrigerator, it helps in maintaining the vibrant color and texture of the fruit. So, it stays fresh in low temperature.

Freeze a Dragon Fruit to Store it

If you have large quantity of dragon fruit in your grocery bag and want preventing spoilage. You can freeze it for a very long time, if you want to make it, on cutting board cut the dragon fruit into slices and wrap it in percent paper.

Put them on a baking sheet but make sure the baking sheet lined. Put the tray into the freezer for three to four hours so that the slices get frozen. Once they are frozen, transfer the frozen dragon fruit into airtight bag, other than plastic bag.

It is necessary to mention that label the container with the date so that you know the time period of the fruits. Frozen dragon fruit can be stored from 2 3 days up to six months allowing you to taste and enjoy this delicious fruit when it is out of season.

How to Store Cut Dragon Fruit

Any of the following two methods can safely be adopted for preserving dragon fruit uncut as well as cut dragon fruit that last a couple of weeks. For the quick reference, some of the detail has been given as under: -

Refrigerator Storage

If want best storage strategy, cut the dragon fruit and follow these simple steps for fruit to stay fresh and delicious. Firstly, peel or cut it into dragon fruit cubes and gently press to get the dragon fruit cubes dry with a paper towel.

Once dried, put the frozen dragon fruit chunks in an airtight container or sealed container, do not use plastic wrap. In a way this will help in staying longer fresh thus keeping the fruit from absorbing any odors in the refrigerator.

While preserving dragon fruit, do not forget to mention date on the sealed container to keep track of freshness. By doing so, you can enjoy the frozen dragon fruit chunks for up to next few days or 2 3 days.

Freezing Cut Dragon Fruit

To freeze, start the process by slicing the fruit into your desired shapes, cut dragon fruit into small pieces. Put the dragon fruit slices on a baking sheet and place them in a way so that the baking sheet lined and the small pieces do not touch each other.

Place the baking sheet in the freezer for about 2-3 hours until the small pieces become completely frozen. Once frozen, transfer the frozen pieces into an airtight container. Make sure to remove as much air as possible before sealing.

You can label the container with date and put sealed container in the freezer. Frozen dragon fruit has a perfect taste and you will love it once you taste it in the future, but baking sheet is must for preservation.

Extend the Shelf Life of Dragon Fruit

If you are worrying about the low life of dragon fruit then worry not because in this section we are giving your ideas on how you can extend the shelf life of your dragon fruit by a variety of methods.

Use of Citric Acid

We all know how important role citric acid can play in maintaining our lives. It is very handy when it comes to extending the shelf life of dragon fruit.

Citric is a natural preservative and helps prevent fruit spoilage and enhances the fruit`s flavor. If you plan to extend the shelf life of dragon fruit using the natural preservatives, then follow this simple step.

Firstly, create a solution by dissolving single teaspoon of citric acid in one cup of water. Secondly, dip the dragon small cubes or typically smaller slices into the solution and slow down the ripening.

The solution of citric acid will help in inhibiting the growth of bacteria and fungi for longer periods hence keeping the dragon longer fresh and suitable to be tasted. It also makes the fruit tastier, thus try this method and enjoy your fruit.

Dehydrating Dragon Fruit

This is the best method to extend the shelf life of your dragon fruit. In this process, cut the dragon fruit into thin equal slices. Put all the dragon fruit pieces on a dehydrator tray and make sure they do not overlap with each other.

Now set the dehydrator to a low temperature like 57 degrees Celsius. Do not disturb this process for about 8-12 hours. You will get chewy dragon fruit pieces filled with delicious taste. These dehydrated dragon fruit pieces can be stored in an airtight container for months.

Recognizing Expired Dragon Fruit

Storing dragon fruit for either for short term generally and long term generally is not a big deal, you can do that with several ways and then can use it without fear of expiry. The problem arises with storing dragon fruit for months, means for long term, and then want to make its use.

Though the fruit is healthy having numerous nutrition like anti-oxidants, vitamin C, fibers, unhealthy fats and many more but eat dragon fruit that is expired, may cause chronic health diseases.

Not only expired dragon fruit but consumption of almost all the expired fruit causes food poisoning that results in vomiting, nausea, stomach ache, headache, diarrhea, weakness, dehydration, and countless more.

The following are the ways of determining dragon fruit condition that whether it is expired dragon fruit or not: -

Examine the dull color and smell

The first and foremost method to spot expired fruit is the health of the dragon, its color. With the help of color. you can determine all the fruits whether they have turned their original color or not.

The color of fresh dragon fruit will be clean and plump, the leaves will be bright and fresh. You can very easily feel the touch and its pleasant tangy smell.

If the dragon fruit overnight becomes dull and stinks as well, it means that either you have not properly stored the dragon fruit or have stored it for a long term. For your satisfaction, cut the fruit and observe well the inner side.

Look out for cracks

The second method of checking, whether the fruit is fresh or not, is the physical appearance. The prima facie of the dragon fruit is, it will have scaly but fresh skin, recall a cactus.

If the fruit is in fresh conditions, it will have pleasant smell like pear or kiwi and will have no split open cracks. Storing dragon fruit for long term causes split open cracks that indicate its expiry.

Check whether the stored dragon fruit is frostbitten

Another way of checking the condition of the dragon fruit is its outer single layer but this not time not for cut open or cracks. Storing dragon fruits in a freezer last a couple of weeks then there will be ice on the freezing dragon fruit.

The excess of freezing dragon fruit causes dehydration, oxidation process, etc. on account of which the fruits get burned in the freezer, such process is termed is freezer-burning and the fruits are called frostbitten.

You can easily know the frostbitten and freezer burn fruit from its very texture, taste and smell. The color would turn white and the taste bad, and the foul smell unpleasant enough.

Cut the stored dragon fruit

Last but not the least, if you have tried all the three mentioned methods of checking the fruit’s expiry and could not get a satisfactory one then before throwing away the dragon fruit, cut it and see the inner side.

Cut open the soft spots of dragon fruit, you will get to know if there is any mold growth, foul smell or not. If the color of the flesh is brown and not soft enough, then it is of no use.

Conclusion

Getting dragon fruit and tasting the delicious nature of it make one curious to store it for a long time. The reason for this is the unique appearance and sweet taste.

It is so stunning in appearance that one cannot turn their eyes from it. Dragon fruit has so many health benefits ranging from short term improving immune system, digestive system, to long term improving health of your heart.

It is filled with fiber, vitamin c and other necessary nutrients and even the doctors recommend it to be included in your diet with other foods. Adding it to the diet will result in improving your health.

The dilemma many face is that not every time around the year this fruit is available therefore in this article we have highlighted various easy methods on how to store dragon fruit.

There are different methods which highlight how you can enhance the shelf life of the dragon fruit. To cut the long story short, it will be beneficial if you add this delicious fruit into your diet with other foods.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should dragon fruit be refrigerated?

Yes, dragon fruit can be refrigerated subjected to some basic steps to follow. Cut the dragon fruit into slices and put them in a perforated container. Now put the slices in the refrigerator. It can be stored properly for several days.

Is dragon fruit better cold or room temperature?

It depends on personal choices. But we recommend cold dragon fruit. You can freeze it by following the above methods. Frozen fruit tastes much better than ordinary fruit.

What is the storage life of dragon fruit?

It depends on how you store it. If you store it in a refrigerator, then it may be stored for 2 to 3 days while a frozen fruits last a couple of months ranging from 2-6.

How do you keep dragon fruit alive?

You can keep the dragon fruit alive in many ways. You can do it by using citric acid and its shelf life will be enhanced to 6 months.

Can I store cut dragon fruit?

Yes, you can store cut dragon fruit. Cut the fruit into slices and put them on a dehydrated plate. Put this cut fruit in the freezer to get frozen pieces. It can be stored for about 3 months.