What to do with Starfruit

As I am travelling with a limited budget I cannot dine entirely in restaurants not even in South East Asia where prices are relatively low. Then again my steps took me to the fruit whole sellers, where I came across piles of boxes filled with wonderful aroma of the ripe carambola alias stair fruit. Admittedly, I ignored star fruit in Europe as I associated it more with a garnish than fruit to be eaten on its own — how wrong I was! Here, the star fruit was not only much bigger in size but its orange yellow colour was a true promise of a splendid taste. I ended up buying an entire bag of them already excited thinking of different ways to enjoy them.

Origin

Carambola is native to Malayan Peninsula and cultivated in many parts of Southeast Asia, Australia and South America.

Taste and the looks

Star fruit has a unique flavour that is difficult to define. It is oval in shape with silky, waxy edible skin and is always juicy. There are two main types of the fruit the smaller which is sour in taste and often used for decoration in cooking, and the large fruit which is sweet in taste. The taste has simultaneous hints of pineapple, orange, grapefruit, apple and lemon. In some seed types, 2-5 tiny edible seeds can be found at the centre. It usually has fire ridges running throughout which give it a characteristic shape of a star when sliced. The colours are from light greenish towards orange yellow when the fruit ripens.

How to choose one

Speaking out of my newly acquired experience — it’s best to choose large looking yellow-orange fruits making sure that the flesh is still quite firm to the touch. It is better to avoid green colour, small size fruits as they tend to be acidic. The sweet type of carambola I had in Penang was refreshing but not overwhelming. The fruit usually has no more than 4% of sugar content anyway.

Ways to eat Star Fruit

Have a star fruit as a mono meal just like you would an apple. Except this one is much more eye pleasing
Sliced and combined with other exotic fruits in a fruit salad. Carambola and papaya complements each other extremely well.

A Carambola Smoothie

• 1 star fruit
• 1 cup of coconut water
• 1 banana
• 1/2 mango

Add all ingredients to a blender and process for 30 seconds, or until smooth and enjoy! If you have chia seeds in the house sprinkle them on top or add before blending

Nutritional Benefits

• The fruit along with its waxy peel provides a good amount of dietary fiber
• It provides small amounts of vitamin A and folate
• Carambola is an especially good source of vitamin C (every serving of raw star fruit vitamin C equal to 20 % of the RDA-A
• 1/2-cup serving of raw star fruit supplies 5 % of the RDA of potassium and 3 % of the RDA of magnesium
• Has both antioxidant and antimicrobial activities
• Despite many benefits, for people with kidney disease or kidney stones should be careful with this fruit because it contains a lot of oxalic acid which is harmful to them

Originally posted in 2013 on my blog , here.