The bulk of tropical fruits are wild, but papaya in Thailand is grown purposefully, as it is considered a traditional agricultural crop. Papaya fruits are used as the main ingredients for many of the country's national dishes. Papaya grows wild not only in Southeast Asia, but also in Latin and Central America. The advantage of papaya is its rapid ripening throughout the year.

Papaya grows on tropical trees with large branches of leaves; the height of the trunks can reach about 10 meters. Many tourists often confuse papaya trees with bunches of coconuts, as the green fruits are very similar to this exotic fruit. The diameter of the green leaves of the papaya tree can reach 70 centimeters.

Ripe fruits change their color to amber or yellow and also become soft to the touch. Most papaya sold in Thailand is a bright orange-yellow hue. The papaya fruits themselves have an elongated oval shape, which is more similar to the outline of a melon. Papaya fruits can reach 50 centimeters in length.

Papaya - fruit or vegetable?

Until now, the Thais themselves have not come to a common opinion on the question of which category papaya belongs to - a fruit or a vegetable. The scientific classifier of plants makes it clear that papaya belongs to a large genus of cruciferous plants. The largest population of this kind is the famous white cabbage, which, as is known, belongs to the vegetable crops.

In Thailand, papaya has been used as a fruit and vegetable crop. Papaya is considered a vegetable when it is firm, unripe and still has green skin. In this case, its use is advisable only in preparing dishes, for example, salads.

Almost all restaurants in Thailand offer their guests a variety of dishes that include fresh, stewed or fried papaya. The most popular dishes among papaya tourists are:

1. In first place is a salad called Tam Som, which is offered in almost all national restaurants. It has a fiery, pungent taste that is achieved with the help of chili peppers and garlic. For piquancy, pieces of green papaya and a lot of dried shrimp are added to the salad.
2. For a hearty and complete breakfast, locals use ripe papaya, which is sprinkled with lime or green lemon juice.
3. In restaurants on the coast of Thailand, they like to add green papaya when preparing fish and meat dishes, including soups, stir-fries and other main dishes. Papaya goes well with seafood dishes.
4. Green papaya fruits are often used when stuffing meat to give the dish some sophistication and sophistication. A traditional dish in Thailand using papaya is stuffed meat with stewed rice and spices.

If papaya has juicy and ripe pulp, then it is considered a fruit. In this form, it is usually consumed on its own, added to ice cream or other sweets. Syrups are often made from the fruit, which are subsequently added to alcoholic and non-alcoholic cocktails.

When is papaya season in Thailand?

Papaya grows all year round from January to December. Consequently, you can constantly see it at the stalls of shops or markets, and also taste local Thai dishes with the addition of papaya.

For tourists, local residents in street stalls and tents sell papaya already peeled and cut into small trays. The price for a small tray is approximately 15-25 baht.

Since the 16th century in Thailand, papaya has come to the taste of the local population and since then the number of plantations has only increased. The papaya tree grows very quickly, after the first 6 months you can harvest the first fruits.

Papaya flavor

Russian tourists often do not like the taste of papaya, so it is best not to purchase the exotic fruit yourself, but to try it at the hotel buffet. Almost all accommodation establishments offer paid breakfasts, where papaya is a must.

Based on taste impressions, tourists are divided into two camps. The first think papaya is very similar to sweet and boiled carrots, the second prefer the similarity of the taste of papaya with ripe melon.

The taste of papaya varies significantly depending on the degree of ripeness of the fruit. The still green and unripe fruits are not at all sweet and are suitable only for preparing traditional Thai dishes. Ripe papaya fruits have a juicy and sweet taste.

Useful properties of papaya

Papaya is a very low-calorie dish; eight medium-sized pieces of fruit contain no more than 45 calories, which makes papaya a truly dietary product. Papaya has a high value for the health of the body, as it contains a lot of useful vitamins and microelements:

• vitamins A and C;
• phosphorus and iron;
• beta carotene.

Eating a few pieces of papaya before the main meal helps improve intestinal function by normalizing digestion. The ripe fruit contains a large amount of the substance papain, which can help the body extract the maximum of beneficial microelements from the food it eats.

In world medicine, not only the papaya fruits themselves are used, but also the leaves and roots of the tree. They also contain a large number of useful substances, on the basis of which anthelmintic drugs are made, as well as contraceptives.

Harm of papaya

As with other exotic fruits, you need to try papaya a little at a time so that the body gets used to the new food and allergic reactions do not appear. Papaya fruits, especially those freshly picked from the tree, contain large amounts of latex juice, which is considered an allergen. Excessive use of the fruit can lead to internal and external burns.

How to choose the right papaya?

If you decide to buy this controversial fruit, then you should carefully consider its choice. An unripe or stale fruit can easily be classified as a vegetable. Arriving at the store, the first thing you need to pay attention to is the color of the fruit; it should be even, yellow in color and without any spots or black inclusions.

The papaya should be slightly soft to the touch, which will indicate the final ripeness of the fruit, its sweetness and freshness. A fruit that is not soft enough will not bring you any pleasure, since it has a bland taste, and sometimes even lack thereof.

How to clean and eat papaya?

You can eat papaya as an independent dish. To do this, you just need to cut it in half, clean it of excess seeds, which are similar in number and shape to melon seeds, and then you can either cut out the pulp or cut off the layers of the fruit, as when cutting a melon. Most often, papaya is cut into small slices and eaten with a fork.

You can try papaya in Thailand absolutely any month of the year and even bring it with you, since it is unpretentious in storage. You should definitely try national dishes using papaya, which are distinguished by their refined notes of taste.

Green papaya is very popular in Asian countries due to its mild and fresh taste. This plant is unique because in its green state it is used in cooking as a vegetable, and when the fruit ripens, it is used as a fruit. Green papaya is used to make salads, main courses and even soups, and ripe papaya is used to make fruit salads, desserts, jams and baking fillings. Today we will take a closer look at the highlight of Cambodian cuisine - papaya salad with lime dressing. You will like this exotic recipe, it will not take much time and you will be able to surprise your loved ones.

For Green Papaya Salad you will need:

• Green papaya - 1 pc.
• Carrots - 1 pc.
• Lime - 1 pc.
• Spicy herbs - 2 tbsp. spoons.
• Ginger.
• Salt, pepper, spices to taste.

Green Papaya Salad Recipe:

1) When choosing papaya, it is very important not to make a mistake. After all, the variety of varieties and colors of this fruit will confuse even a sophisticated gourmet. The recipe requires not ripe papaya with yellow-green skin and seeds, which Cambodians use as a fruit, but green (vegetable) papaya, which has a hard skin and no seeds.

2) Peel the papaya and grate it into long strips on a coarse grater.

3) Peel and grate the carrots.

4) Finely chop the ginger into slices.

5) Squeeze all the juice out of the lime, mix it with salt and pepper. Asian dishes are very spicy, and if you decide to make a real Asian salad, you should add one finely chopped chili pepper to the lime juice.

6) Pour this dressing over the papaya, mix with ginger and press with a press for a couple of minutes.

7) Mix all the vegetables with herbs. You can use any herbs you like. Cilantro or parsley will give the dish the necessary taste and aroma, but you can add fresh mint, which is highly valued in Asia.

2 servings Already have

• Green papaya - 2 cups
• Lime - 1 pc.
• Garlic - 1 clove
• Green beans- 6 pods
• Thai chili pepper- 1 pc.
• Brown sugar- 1 tbsp.
• Cherry tomatoes - 6 pcs.
• Dry shrimp - 1 tbsp.
• Fish sauce - 1 tbsp.
• Peanuts - 2 tbsp.

1.

In Asian stores in the states, green papaya is often sold already grated. Then you can immediately move on to the second step. But then you will miss the chance to admire it in cross-section!

Peel the papaya. Thai housewives advise grating it uncut, almost reaching the core. This seemed inconvenient to me - the papaya fruit is quite large even for my not at all tiny and graceful hands. Well, it was very interesting to look inside! And there are these snow-white pimples. If you like to play with pimply packaging materials, you will truly enjoy scooping out unripe papaya seeds with your fingers! :)

2.

I tried two ways to approach chopping the papaya: grating it on my favorite julienne grater and shredding it on a hand-held mandoline, then slicing it. Both methods are suitable, but the first allows you to do the job much more efficiently.

Simply mix grated papaya with the dressing. Sliced ​​papaya should be easily mashed. Since the dressing contains chili, if you mash it with your hands, it is better to do it with gloves.

3.

Grind the shrimp into powder. The mortar, of course, is not the only way. You can grind them using any other method of grinding spices. Grind the garlic into a paste, again using your favorite method. Mix them into a paste in a bowl or mortar and add sugar and fish sauce. We also send lime and green beans there. In some recipes adapted to European tastes, it is recommended to blanch and even boil the beans. I have never seen this in the original recipes. If the beans are initially frozen, they can simply be thawed, which is the same as blanching. I used thawed green soybeans, Edamame. Simply because that's what I had. We don’t add the tomato yet, it is more tender than the lime and beans, which require more force to crush. We crush it with a pestle, or if you don’t have a pestle, you can crush it with the blunt side of a knife on a cutting board and then put it in a bowl, squeezing out the juices with your hands. It is clear that if you do all this in a mortar, not a drop of taste will be lost. Of course, you can zest the lime, squeeze out the juice, chop the citrus itself and add it to the bowl as is. That is, you just need to approach the process without fanaticism and with an understanding of what is being done and why. Now carefully add the chili, chopped or whole, just to crush it just a little and get a human dose of capsaicin. This is a solid one out of five. If the receptors ask for more, this one pepper can be considered a starting point. Finally, the tomato comes into play with its juice, which softens and rounds everything out a little.

Until recently, only bananas, lemons and oranges were familiar. Nowadays, you can buy any exotic delicacy in a supermarket and enjoy the unusual and amazing taste. But each of the fruits has its own characteristics of processing, serving and combination with other products. Consider, for example, how to eat papaya. It turns out that this fruit can be consumed both ripe and slightly unripe. This article provides recipes for dishes made from tropical fruit and data on the calorie content of “amber” raw materials.

Main characteristics of the fruit

The amazing, bright orange pulp of papaya, oddly enough, has not a melon taste (as it initially seems), but a raspberry taste. There are two types of fruits:

1. Oblong, with dark green skin and dense red flesh.
2. Round, with a thin skin on the outside and a soft orange mass inside.

Preparing fruit salad

A classic Thai breakfast is ripe orange papaya, drizzled with lime juice. But various salads are also very popular. Cut the fruit in half lengthwise, remove all the internal contents and peel the parts. Then chop into small cubes (about 1x1 cm) and mix with other fruits: bananas, sweet apples, melon, strawberries. The assortment, decorated with whipped cream, looks very appetizing and tastes just perfect. In addition to the described recipe, there are other options. The peoples of Southeast Asia surprise with their unusual taste preferences, which will be discussed later in this article.

How to eat green papaya?

According to recent sociological studies conducted among Thai women, the most popular dish is an unusual salad made from a greenish fruit - som tam. What are the amazing characteristics of this dish? Firstly, the speed of preparation. Just five minutes and the salad is ready. Secondly, a combination of various components: dried, salted, and sometimes even raw seafood - crabs and shrimp. The last of these (for small sizes) are added to the salad and sauce mass without heat treatment. So how do you make a savory appetizer? It is important to comply with all technological stages. First, prepare special equipment:

A grater that resembles a potato peeler. It is used to cut papaya into long thin strips of medium or minimum width.

Mortar for mixing salad dressing ingredients. The container should be high enough to accommodate all the other ingredients after kneading the spices. A regular saucepan will do.

After this, proceed directly to preparing the salad.

Papaya catfish

If the fruit is a little unripe, is it possible and how to eat papaya? The photo clearly shows what one of the options for a ready-made green fruit salad might look like. But more typical, along with green vegetable mass, is the presence of seafood in the dish.

1 green papaya;

6 small (can be cherry) tomatoes;

2 hot peppers;

2 cloves (medium) garlic;

6 bean pods;

1 table. a full spoon of shrimp;

1 full table. spoon of sugar;

1 full table. a spoonful of ready-made fish sauce;

2 table. spoon of crushed peanuts;

1 medium lime.

Preparation:

1. Peel and core the papaya, cut it into slices, then grate it on a special grater or using a potato peeler, turning it into “noodles.”
2. Grind the chili pepper and garlic in a mortar.
3. Add tomatoes (cut into halves) and beans (divide pods that are too long into 2-3 parts) into the mixture. Hit with a masher a couple of times to release the juice.
4. Add shrimp, grated papaya, peanuts and all the seasonings.
5. Sprinkle with freshly squeezed lime juice. A wonderful salad is ready!

So, you have learned how to eat papaya in combination with other foods. How nutritious is it?

Papaya: composition and calorie content

This fruit is not only amazingly tasty, but also healthy. Its calorie content is 48 kcal per 100 grams. It has laxative properties and promotes fat burning. Due to its nutritional value, papaya can be used as a light breakfast or afternoon snack in combination with any fruit juice and herbs.

Enjoy your health!

Everyone knows that vegetables and fruits are very beneficial for the human body. True, not for everyone. After all, for people with certain diseases and individual intolerances, there are a number of prohibitions. In this article we will tell you about such a fruit as papaya. Let's learn about its beneficial qualities and don't forget to mention contraindications. In addition, we will explain how to choose and eat such an exotic product correctly.

Description of the fruit

This sweet fruit grows on low palm-shaped trees. The fruits may vary slightly from each other: they are 10-30 cm in diameter and 15-45 cm in length. The ripe fruit is elastic. Its color generally varies from amber to yellow. True, you don’t always need to wait for the moment of ripeness, because there are many recipes where the unripe fruit is needed, but in this form it is used as a vegetable. The ripe fruit tastes like melon, and the smell is more like raspberries, but there are varieties that smell like chocolate or apricot, for example.

Did you know? Papaya is also called breadfruit. And all because when the fruit is baked on the fire, it emits the smell of... fresh bread.

• Hawaiian - its fruits are not very large, they are eaten fresh;
• Mexican - larger, it is usually included in various recipes.

How to choose the right one

How to choose the right fruit:

1. It was already mentioned above that a ripe fruit will have a yellow or yellow-orange skin color. But reddish spots on it are also acceptable, and in some varieties the peel is generally green.
2. The peel should be solid, without dents, irregularities, or gray coating. There should also be no black dots on it (only reddish stains).
3. Press your finger on the surface of the fruit: it should not be pressed or deformed without resistance.
4. The peel should not be sticky, wet or unnaturally shiny. Otherwise, there is a risk of buying fruit that has been treated with chemicals so that it retains its beautiful appearance longer. Clearly visible veins on the peel indicate the same thing.

Important! It is not recommended to take very hard or unripe papaya. Even if you plan for it to ripen at your home. Under such conditions, it usually loses its aroma and becomes completely tasteless.

Nutritional and vitamin value

Nutritional value of 100 g papaya:

• 0.62 g;
• 0.13 g fat;
• 8.02 g carbohydrates;
• 1.83 g dietary fiber;
• 88.84 g water;
• 0.042 g saturated;
• 6.01 g monosaccharides and disaccharides;
• 0.63 g ash.

• 0.281 mg beta-carotene (pro-vitamin A);
• 55.2 mcg retinol equivalent (A);
• 61.85 mg (C);
• 0.028 mg ();
• 0.034 mg ();
• 0.221 mg pantothenic acid ();
• 0.023 mg pyridoxine ();
• 38.2 mcg (B9);
• 0.337 mg niacin equivalent (PP);
• 0.74 mg tocopherol (E);
• 2.59 mcg phylloquinone ();
• 6.13 mg.

Did you know? The Indians used the pulp of this fruit as a marinade for tough meat.

Mineral elements in papaya

In terms of mineral saturation, papaya is in no way inferior to melon, with which it also has an external resemblance. It is full of potassium, calcium, phosphorus and important trace elements - iron, zinc, copper, etc.

• 24.04 mg (Ca);
• 258.02 mg (K);
• 10.03 mg (Mg);
• 5.02 mg (P);
• 3.01 mg (Na).

• 0.14 mg iron (Fe);
• 0.069 mg (Zn);
• 16.03 µg copper (Cu);
• 0.012 mg (Mn);
• 0.62 µg (Se).

Composition and calorie content

The “inside” of papaya has a truly unique composition, because it contains plant enzymes that cannot be found anywhere else. For example, papain. It acts like gastric juice, softening the food we eat.
In addition, papaya is a real dietary fruit. Its energy value is low, so it definitely won’t harm your figure. In addition, it promotes digestion, speeding it up.

• Calorie content of 100 g of papaya = 39 kcal.
• Calorie content of 1 fruit (about 2 kg) = 780 kcal.

Important! But, despite all the dietary benefits of papaya, you don’t need to lean too much on it. Otherwise, yellowing of the skin may occur.

Useful properties

We have already remembered the beneficial effects of papain on the stomach, but now we will tell you about other benefits of the sweet fruit. Papaya is recommended for people suffering from duodenal ulcers, colitis, and bronchial asthma. Helps liver function, regulates blood sugar levels. In addition, its pulp is used to cleanse the intestines of “bad” toxins and saturate the whole body with energy. This fruit reduces stomach acidity. It is good for gastritis, heartburn, hernia. This fruit is often recommended to pregnant women, as it has a wonderful effect on the baby in the womb.
Mashed papaya is also fed to infants, because it is perfectly digestible and helps the child’s body to be in good shape. Papaya juice is good against stomach ailments, eczema, and spinal diseases. It also helps remove worms. Papain also helps treat burns, insect bites, and reduces pain. Cosmetics and medicines for skin diseases are made from its juice. Papain also helps to destroy unnecessary hairs or hide freckles.

Dangerous properties and contraindications

You have already learned that excessive consumption of papaya often causes yellowing of the skin. In addition, it is fraught with other dangers. The juice of the pulp contains the alkaloid caripaine, called latex juice. In large quantities, it is a poison that contributes to allergies, skin irritation, digestive problems, poisoning, and abdominal pain.

If the papaya has colorless, watery juice inside, this is a clear sign that you should not eat it, as you may get poisoned (good juice should have a uniform white color). Also, those who have an individual intolerance or are allergic to some of its components should not eat the fruit.

Important! Unripe papaya and its grains also have contraceptive properties and can even lead to an abortifacient effect. So be careful if you are planning to conceive!

How to use it correctly

First, wash the fruit. Then cut it into two parts, clean out the grains and cut the pulp into slices, as you usually do with melon. By the way, papaya seeds are edible. Those who like them add them to a green salad dressing. The pulp is also used in desserts, fruit salads, and ice cream. In addition, jams are made from it. Green fruit is more classified as a vegetable - for example, it is cooked in the same way as zucchini. Papaya that has not yet ripened can be peeled, grated like a carrot and added to various salads. But before that, do not forget to let the white juice drain from the fruit.

Did you know? The famous American actor Harrison Ford, during the filming of the film Indiana Jones, treated his intervertebral hernia... with papain injections.