When it's almost fully yellow and a little soft to the touch, your papaya is ready to eat. If you wait too long, the fruit will begin to get overripe and mushy, and the flesh will be bland-tasting and mealy. You can, of course, just let your papaya ripen naturally on the counter at room temperature. But if you're in a rush to use the fruit for a specific recipe, or just can't wait to dive in to the creamy, orange flesh, you have options.
The best method is similar to ripening other fruit and requires only one piece of equipment: a paper bag. Simply placing your papaya into a paper bag and folding or rolling closed will ripen the fruit within two to three days, depending on how green it was to begin with.
If you want to take it up a notch, add an ethylene-producing fruit like an apple or ripe banana to the bag to speed up the ripening process by a day. In a super hurry? Here's where the papaya-specific instructions come in handy. If you have green papayas on hand that you need to use ASAP, get out your paring knife in addition to the paper bag. Carefully score the skin of the papaya with the knife vertically along the fruit. Eaten both green and at peak perfection, a papaya's ripeness helps you decide the best way to help it reach its full, tasty potential.
Here's how to know if a papaya is ripe and ready to eat as-is or green and in need of a little extra love. Although they don't have a lot of flavor on their own, green papaya is the perfect pairing for bold flavors, particularly in popular, Thai-inspired green papaya som tam salad recipes. Shredded, pounded into peppery perfection, and married with chilies, garlic, lime and other ingredients, humble unripened green papaya becomes something special, well worth the extra preparation effort.
Cookbook author and Asian cooking expert Andrea Nguyen recommends looking for green papayas in Asian market produce sections. A good green papaya should be firm , with no bad spots, according to Nguyen. According to Cook's Illustrated, the taste of green papaya is comparable to jicama and cucumber, which both make good substitutes when unripe papayas aren't available.
Once a papaya's outside flesh has started to turn from green to golden in some spots, it's on the way to ripeness. Most papayas in the market are slightly underripe and need a bit more time before they're ready to eat. Place your papaya in a brown paper bag, and it will fully ripen in a day or two.
Add a banana, which also produces the ripening booster ethylene , and speed up the ripening process even more. See how… Enjoy: Spoonful, slice or chunks, Caribbean Red papayas are a great snack and perfect addition to any salad — fruit or leaf. Tips and ideas for enjoying these papayas. Is it ripe? How this papaya ripens Nutrition Three things set papayas apart from other fruits and veggies.
Read more. Big fruit, big Taste Caribbean Red papayas can weigh up to 6 lbs. See our fields. EZ slicing. Other ways to open Slices and cubes of papaya are nice, but you may want to enjoy the fruit in as many ways as possible.
Ideas… If you slice across the middle and get a star, it may bring you luck. Other slicing ideas. Know ur papaya Different kinds of papaya out there.
Know ur papayas. Papaya's nutritional benefits. Papaya seedling. Watch a field grow.
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