The fruit's provocative aroma greets you at the door.
You have to fight the urge to immediately rev up the blender for a smoothie.
Treat the urge as an invite to add red guava to a dish for the evening's dinner. Possibilities abound. You can:
Slice guava to toss with fruit or lettuce. Or whip up a dressing for a sublime taste throughout the greens.
Bring on the heat with a sweet sauce for topping an entree or veggie.
Add to bread, in the batter or as a spread.
Make a standout dessert (Latinos love guava desserts for a reason).
Treat the chef to a pre-meal smoothie. Don't be surprised if your family demands equal fruit.
Don't let your past hold guava back
Pretty in pink, red guava jelly
If your only experience with guava is with mass-produced jelly, erase that overly processed amber gel from your mind.
They got the jelly all wrong. Red guava naturally has pectin in it. A simple stove-top boiling of fruit with some herbs and spices will get that amber gel tossed out.
Cooking the fruit for more in-depth flavor is option one, but there are lots of different options that don't require any heat.
Add naturally sweet and nutritious red guava sliced or blended to salads, veggies and meats that could use some pizzazz.
It makes a fantastic dip for a shrimp cocktail. I attribute guava's affinity to seafood to its growing in Florida so near the sea.
Think of red guava as a dessert that can be legitimately (read nutritiously) added to any part of the meal or enjoyed as a stand-alone snack.
The seeds! Eat or toss
Eat or toss' em
Buried within the guava are lots of tiny edible seeds. When possible, enjoy eating the seeds, which contain many of the nutrients attributed to the fruit.
For guava slices or halves, enjoy with the seeds or scoop them out with a spoon. Cooking the fruit for 20 minutes makes it easy to pull out the seeds. Cooked red guava takes on a new depth of flavor that makes the extra effort worth it.
For smoothies, fillings, toppings or sauces,use a mesh strainer to extract the seeds. Or save time and the nutrients by tossing the peeled fruit into a blender or food processor. Pulse until relatively smooth and ready for your recipe. The seeds nearly disappear. But strain if you like - the seeds are even easier to extract.
Our red guava fields
A beauty ready for picking
Because the fruit's color blends in with the guava tree's leaves, you might not notice a future harvest in your midst. That is unless the farmer bags it.
Guava bruises easily as it rubs against its own leaves and other fruit with the wind. Some farmers choose to enclose each fruit with a paper bag for appearance's sake in the produce aisle.
We hope you won't mind the little imperfections on the outside when the insides look and taste so good.
Red guava smoothie lunch
I have the luxury of going home for lunch. During guava's season, lunch is a guava and yogurt smoothie. I might add another fruit or two, but guava's the reason I'm slurping down the mid-day meal.
So, I speak from experience when describing guava's alluring aroma. The good news is that not many things that allure us are good for us.
