A New Fruit: Chinola

In all honesty, Chinola is not really a new fruit to me. But, I thought it might be a new fruit for some of you, at least in its raw, fruit form. I'm guessing many of you have had chinola in juice.


Chinolas come in different colors and sizes...do you recognize it yet?


Chinola is the Dominican word for passion fruit. I ate passion fruit a lot in Kenya, but I have mostly had chinola juice here in the D.R. I was a little surprised when I cut into the fruit and none of the center fruit was lavender. In Kenya, the passion fruit is lavender grey (not an attractive description, I know) in color.

Passion fruit does have an interesting texture because of the little seeds in their little sacks. When you eat a passion fruit, you eat all of the inner seedy juicy part. The seeds are not hard or crunchy.

I was only able to purchase a sack of chinolas, but it worked out great since Wil wanted to make chinola tea when he came home sick with a cold.

BONUS RECIPE: CHINOLA TEA

Wil prepared this tea when he was sick. Then he refreshed it a few days later when I was illin.

Ingredients:

1 medium to large chinola
1 medium lime
2 cinnamon sticks
pinch of salt
1 quart water
sugar to taste

Cut the chinola into eighths, including the rind. Cut the lime the same way. Place in the water on the stove. Add cinnamon sticks and salt. Bring to a boil. Let boil for 15-20 minutes. Add some sugar just before you serve the tea.

Wil likes to sometimes add other things to the tea, including orange and other leaves if they are available. And, sometimes he squeezes more lime juice into the hot tea after it is boiled as he is serving the tea.


The power went out just as Wil started cutting the fruit into the pan on the stove. A little power outage didn't stop Wil from making the tea or me from taking photos!








I actually took this picture the next day. I loved that it matched the cloth we have on our little phone table.