Dragon Fruit "Ice Cream" with Pomegranate Glaze is a trick AND a treat! This exotic Dragon Fruit dessert is the most delicious way to elevate your Halloween meal -- or any meal.
First, what is Dragon Fruit? 
- This delicately sweet fruit is an exotic cactus that was originally grown in Central America. Now Dragon fruit grows mostly in southern California and Florida.
- The exterior color ranges from yellow to hot pink to red, with touches or yellow and green. The interior color of Dragon Fruit can be white or magenta — and sometimes somewhere in-between. Those that are magenta are the sweetest.
What does Dragon Fruit Taste Like?
- Dragon Fruit tastes like a blend of a soft pear and kiwi, with a wonderful and subtle crunch from the tiny black seeds.
Photo Credit for above magenta Dragon Fruit: melissas.com
Dragon Fruit for Halloween
I’ve never really been into scary or gory stuff. For Halloween or otherwise.
I do however love cute and/or pretty. For just about everything, including food.
So when Melissa’s Produce challenged a handful of food bloggers to use some of their freaky fruits to make something for Halloween, I had a pretty idea for a Dragon Fruit dessert that in is both and a trick and a treat.
Photo credit for Freaky Fruits image: Melissas.com
I decided to use Dragon Fruit, pomegranate and finger limes to make Dragon Fruit "Ice Cream" with Pomegranate Glaze.
There’s really not too much to it, as it’s essentially only three ingredients and is all about the presentation.
A Trick and a Treat!
- The treat. The treat is the super tasty, naturally sweet dragon fruit.
- The trick. The trick is that it’s presented to look like ice cream, but of course it’s not.
I know, it’s not a huge trick — but, at first glance you might not know what you’re looking at.
To my point, my son took one look at it, and thought it might be sushi rice with black sesame seeds. Not a bad guess.
I treated the Dragon Fruit like a pint of ice cream.
I liken cutting off the top of the fruit to removing the lid from the carton. Then the fruit is scooped out, just as ice cream would be.
Pomegranate Glaze
First the pomegranate is blended into a juice and then strained.
It's then cooked into a syrup which is drizzled over the Dragon Fruit scoops, adding to the allure of this dessert.
Never seeded a pomegranate? Here's how.
And a delicate touch of finger lime, gives it just a hint of tart crunch that brings the whole thing together.
You can learn more about finger limes here.
My Dragon Fruit "Ice Cream" with Pomegranate Glaze is elegant enough for a fancy dinner party, and fun enough for an after school snack for the kids.
And pretty enough for any occasion!
This Dragon Fruit dessert is light, health and fun.
Other Ways to Eat Dragon Fruit
There are some foods that I think are better left untouched. Meaning, they’re not used in a recipe, but are simply eaten and admired just as they are -- like the "Ice Cream."
You can also easily be scoop the flesh into tiny balls like this . . . 
You can also use a knife to peel it, keeping it whole, and then you can slice or dice it any way you like.
Even the emptied skin is beautiful. 
Dragon fruit is also lovely in sorbet, ice cream and cocktails.
A couple more Halloween treats . . .
Oh, and these Witch Finger Grapes are another fun fruit for Halloween, too.
This is not a sponsored post. Melissa's Produce invited me to participate in a contest using some of their Freaky Fruits, and provided me with those I used in this recipe.
Dragon Fruit "Ice Cream" with Pomegranate Glaze
Ingredients
- 2 seeded pomegranates (here's how to seed them)
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 2 dragon fruit (white interior)
- 2 finger limes
Instructions
- Make the glaze. Add the pomegranate seeds to a blender and and blend until it looks like juice, about 10 seconds. Strain, and then pour the juice into a small saucepan and add the sugar to it. (You should have about ½ cup of the juice after straining.) Place the pan over high heat and bring to a boil. Immediately turn the heat to low and simmer until it thickens to a syrup consistency, and is reduced by about half.
- Prepare the Dragon Fruit. Cut the tops off the dragon fruits (see above images). Use an ice cream scoop to scoop out as many scoops as possible from each one. Treat the tops as the lids to a pint-sized container of ice cream.
- Assemble. When you serve the dragon fruit scoops, drizzle the desired amount of pomegranate syrup over it, and add about ½ teaspoon of finger lime “caviar” to each one.
Cathy
What a clever idea!
valentina
Thank you, Cathy! 🙂 xo
David
I have seen dragon fruit in our Asian market from time to time, but I have yet to access finger limes - and I am dying to try them. I think next time work brings me to LA, I need to visit Melissa!
Your “ice cream” looks wonderful and not too creepy! I used to run a summer camp for kids and we always did a Halloween reunion... and we had a “gross out” Halloween party. Think peeled grapes as eyeballs floating in punch, or cottage cheese brains in jello... you get the idea. The dragon fruit would have been a great addition!
valentina
We did a similar party for my son's 5th grade class a couple of years ago. The other "party mom" was super into the gory stuff and we even got chicken feet form the butcher at our local market. Kids were blind folded and guessed what various things were by touching them. Gross! In any case, I hope you find finger limes one day! They are so cool, and SO tasty! You can get a small package of them here for $3, if you feel like ordering online. 🙂 Cheers! 🙂
Adrianne
Hey Valentina,
What a very cool idea!
I had never heard of finger limes before reading this post, but I love the photo of it cut open. The recipe looks fabulous with the dragon-fruit balls and I see some happy Halloweeners with this one!
valentina
Thanks so much Adrianne! Yes, hoping for happy kids on Halloween.:-)
Cliona Keane
How exotic! I would never have thought of using dragon fruit this way, but I'll definitely have to give it a go!
valentina
Exotic indeed. Enjoy and thanks!
Danielle Wolter
SO I have never cooked with dragon fruit before so I love these tips here. These flavors all sound so delicious!!
valentina
Thanks! 🙂
Lisa | Garlic & Zest
You've blown me away with this. I've only bought dragon fruit a few times. Now I have another excuse to pick it up at the market.
valentina
Thanks, Lisa. Enjoy!
Lauren Vavala
This is so unique! Dragon fruit is so fun to work with, but I've never seen those finger limes! Definitely going to keep an eye out for those so I can try this!
valentina
Thanks Lauren, you can also use a bit of lime juice if you can't get your hands on the finger limes. 🙂
Kelly Anthony
Dragon fruit is so fun! I've never bought dragon fruit but this would be fun to make with this kids this Halloween.
valentina
Hope you have fun with it!
David @ Spiced
What a fun and unique idea! To be honest, I'm not sure I've used cooked with dragon fruit. I've tasted it (usually in fruit salads), and I've seen it in the stores...but I've never actually cooked with it. That was a surprisingly good guess on the sushi, too. It does look like that! I love the flavors you've got going on here, and I would love a bowl of this after dinner. Sounds delicious, Valentina!
valentina
Thanks so much David! I've mostly had dragon fruit in salads too. Fun to mix it up. Hope you try it! 🙂
Ron
Fantastic presentation, images and idea. From looking at the first image, I had it in my head that you had made ice cream. Then you showed scooping out the dragon fruit, brilliant. What fun you must of had making this.
valentina
Thank you so much, Ron! Not too much to it, but it was indeed fun. 🙂