How to Peel Dragon Fruit in 3 Easy Steps

Dragon fruit is a tropical fruit with skin that ranges in color from yellow to bright pink or red with overlapping outer “scales” that suggest the skin of a dragon. Some varieties of dragon fruit have white, purple, or red flesh with a sweet taste like a kiwi or a pear. All dragon fruits contain tiny black seeds, similar in size to kiwi seeds. Other names for dragon fruit include pitaya, pitahaya, or strawberry pear. Dragon fruit is one of many fruits that originated in Southeast Asia and Central America before becoming popular in the United States and Europe.

You can find pink or red dragon fruit at grocery stores or Asian markets year-round since they grow in warm climates, such as Florida and South America. A ripe dragon fruit has a bright and smooth outer skin with the firmness of a ripe avocado. If there are several blotches on the scales or blemishes on the skin and the fruit feels squishy, it might be overripe.

You can use various methods to prepare and eat dragon fruit, all of which will require you to remove the tropical fruit’s leathery outer skin. One easy option is to cut the fruit in half lengthwise (similar to how you might prepare a papaya) and scoop out the white flesh with a spoon or melon baller. As an alternative, it’s possible to peel the dragon fruit, keeping the white center intact, by following these steps:

• Remove the ends of the dragon fruit. Use a cutting board and a sharp knife. Cut a half-inch to an inch from each end of the dragon fruit, removing just enough of the pink or red skin so that you can see the white flesh of the fruit.
• Score the dragon fruit lengthwise. Holding the dragon fruit with one hand and your knife with the other, carefully score the dragon fruit vertically from cut end to cut end with a single long slice. Take care to insert the knife only as deep as you must to reach the white interior of the fruit and no further. You are making an opening in the fruit’s skin rather than trying to cut the fruit in half.
• Pull the dragon fruit skin away. Hold the dragon fruit with both of your hands and the scored side facing up. Insert your thumbs into the score mark and peel the two sides of the dragon fruit skin back and away from each other. Continue working the skin with your hands all the way around the fruit. If the dragon fruit is ripe, it’s possible for you to remove the skin in a single piece this way.

Once you’ve freed the flesh from the skin, you can enjoy the dragon fruit. Chop the white interior into smaller pieces and add the chunks to smoothies or a fruit salad. Or enjoy the fruit plain—simply slice the fruit into cubes or eighths and eat it like you might a watermelon. Dragon fruit will keep for only a couple days after you peel and cut it, but you can extend its peak ripeness by keeping it refrigerated in a plastic bag or airtight container.

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