Les p’tits gastronomes in… Peru

During our stay in Peru not only we were spoiled with magnificent meals, but we also discovered many new fruits (and veggies!). Turns out that Peru has the amazing advantage of calling 70 of the world’s 120 microclimates their own, and between the 3 key climates – the coast, the Sierra and the Selva (or Amazon) – they have probably the single richest collection of different fruits and vegetables to pick from. How lucky!

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Tumbo

We tried this for the first time in the Peruvian Amazon, thanks to Otoniel, our Northern Peru guide. Tumbo is part of the passion fruit family, the largest one. It can weigh up to nearly 3kg. Ours was pretty huge.

How to taste it: cut the tumbo as you would a passion fruit and scoop out the pips . They are somewhat sweeter, but keep a nice tartness (vs. the granadilla which is just sweet). The large tumbo like the one we had first also has watery flesh inside which you can eat as you would a watermelon, very refreshing. The verdict of the p’tits gastronomes: Peanut 😋, Nitou 😋, Ratatouille 😋

Nutrition facts: Tumbo passionfruit is high in vitamins A and C and potassium. They are a source of calcium, phosphorus and iron and contain B-complex vitamins niacin. Western Amazonians have been using Tumbo passionfruit for medicinal purposes for centuries. They used it to treat scurvy, digestive and urinary tract problems, and for its calming and sedative properties. The leaves were made into poultices and used for liver complaints. Fortunately, we didn’t need it for any of these.

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Granadilla

Rocío, my wonderful Spanish club teacher last trimester who is from Peru, told me about so many wonderful things to try while I’m here. She especially raved about the granadilla, one of her absolute favourite fruits (and soon to become my all-time favorite!) It’s a bit lighter than a passionfruit, doesn’t get so rumply and the seeds are bigger and pinker. You eat it exactly as you would a passionfruit, though Mama developed the habit of just chopping off the tip since we would anyway always finish at least one each. These little bowls turned out a perfect mini-netball basket later on our trip… They are pretty sweet. Mama prefers the passionfruit, granadilla are too sweet for her, but I loooooove them. It’s like eating a bunch of healthy gummibears!

The verdict of the p’tits gastronomes: Peanut 😋❤️😍😋, Nitou 😋😋, Ratatouille 😐

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Nutritional value: Granadillas key strength lies in its fibre content, both soluble and insoluble. This isn’t just great for digestion, but also for balancing cholesterol levels and helping to guide toxins out of the body.

Chirimoya

Now this was a late discovery for me – I only really started liking them after trying them 4-5 times – but Papa, Mama and Vyas were just crazy about them from the onset. Our first encounter was a bit messy – Chrimoya are anyway not the easiest to eat neatly, but when they’ve been lugged around in a heavy backpack in the heat for hours in the Colca Canyon, well, that did not do them any favours. But luckily they’re so yummy that it didn’t matter! They are a funny looking fruit: bright green, with little spiky bumps, kind of round but not really, mostly just randomly shaped balls, resembling the breadfruit a bit from the outside. Inside the flesh is white, smooshy and the seeds are large and black and not edible. The flesh has a very distinct flavour that really can’t be compared to anything else we’ve tasted, maybe a bit like a mix between a pineapple and a banana (basically a smoothie!). In India they call it a custard apple, but there it looks quite different than here. It is a close cousin to the soursop, a bit tarter than Chirimoya and heralded for its extremely high anti-oxidant content including kaurenoic acid, flavonoids, carotenoids and vitamin C. This helps boost your immune system, fights inflammation and is, well, just all-round good for you. A regular sized fruit also contains roughly a third of the recommended daily intake of vitamin B6 which is very important in the creation of neurotransmitters, so it’s also great for your brain!

Verdict of our p’tits gastronomes: Ratatouille 😋😋, Peanut 😋, Nitou 😐

Lucuma

Funny looking fruit. It has a hard, green outer shell and soft, yellow flesh with a dry/floury texture and sweetish flavor that reminds a bit of a mix of sweet potato and maple syrup. Not our favorite in raw form, however quite a different story when it is used in ice cream (which is, by the way, it’s most common use here) where it quickly became a family favourite flavour. In Europe we usually buy it in health or organic shops where it’s sold as a flavour enhancer or sweetener with a low glycemic index.

Cocona

This red, yellow or purple fruit grows on tropical shrubs in the Amazon region. It’s also called a tomato apple. None of us are really fans, we found them a bit bland…

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Camu Camu

famous for containing the highest concentration of vitamin C of any known food source on Earth.

Pitaya (dragon fruit) and Tuna (cactus fruit)

In essence: pretty, but bland. That’s why I grouped them here even they don’t have any botanical link whatsoever. Articles claim they are high in anti-oxidants, which makes sense given their colour, so they have that going for them! And thanks to their edible seeds, they have pretty high fibre levels.

Aguaymanto (Cape Gooseberry)

Vyas just went crazy about these. Which is maybe why he has such eagle eye-sight – cape gooseberries are high in beta carotin and so help our eyesight. Also, did you know that they contain more vitamin C than lemons? AND they’re pretty.

Pacay / Pacaé

Also known as the ice-cream bean, this funny legume native to the Andes valleys contains a sweet edible pulp with a flavour reminiscent of vanilla ice cream. Lots of packaging for not much inside though…

Verdict of the p’tits gastronomes: Peanut 😋, Ratatouille 😋, Nitou 😐

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Pepino Dulce

This looks like a large yellow/orange tomato but is actually related to the melon family. Not a family favorite so we unfortunately cannot rave much about this one.

Sauco

One of the few elderberry species which can be eaten uncooked, saúco is typically eaten as fresh fruit but it wasn’t the season so we only tried it in in jams (and ice cream 🍨 😋)

And then of course the usual suspects resulting in mango, guava and avocado festivals…..

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Sacha Inchi

No fruit, no vegetable, this one would classify as a legume, even though some people call it the “Inca peanut” (it has nothing to do with the peanut family). Sacha Inchi are hazelnut sized seeds that are a real nutritional powerhouse. They are the highest known source of plant-based Omega-3 (some claim 17x that of salmon), but, most importantly, and much more difficult to come by: Omega-9, as well as keeping a healthy balance of -3 to -6s. Besides being a bundle of protein. Few studies exist yet to be able to really compare vs. our local linseed which is probably the closest equivalent nutritional powerhouse. It takes like a very earthy nut with a “dusty” aftertaste. No-one liked them besides Mama and Papa.

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Maca Root

A plant native to the Peruvian Andes, it is usually consumed in powder form and comes in various colours, recommended for different needs. The black version is allegedly the most powerful one and recommended for energy boosting and stamina. You can mix it into smoothies, warm milk or porridge. Mama and Papa like the malty taste, but us kids are not fans. The packaging made us laugh though.

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And then there was, of course, A LOT of guinea pig….