Homemade Passion Fruit Puree

⭐ Why You’ll Love This Recipe 

If you’re a fan of tropical fruit, chances are you’ve tried something made with passion fruit in the past. It’s tart and sweet, sort of like a mix between pineapple and kiwi. In short, it’s utterly delicious. 

Passionfruit purée can be used in myriad recipes and desserts, from tiki-style cocktails to homemade curd, cakes, smoothies, yogurt, and cheesecakes. It's used in passion fruit tarts, passion fruit ice cream, passion fruit juice, passion fruit mousse, and even boba tea!

Unfortunately, many commercially available passion fruit purées are loaded up with added sugar (and sometimes artificial preservatives, too). Now, as a baker, I’m clearly not anti-sugar! However, I like having control over how much I add in a given situation in regards to flavor.

In this super simple passion fruit purée recipe, I take all the guesswork out of this magical ingredient. It’s made with just one ingredient – passionfruit pulp – so you know exactly what you’re getting every time. Come along with me to learn just how easy it is to make your own fruit purée at home and taste the difference in all your favorite passion fruit recipes!

🍴Ingredients

As promised, this easy passionfruit purée recipe has just one ingredient:

• Passion Fruit - While I love this tropical fruit with all my heart, this recipe will also work with guava pulp, fresh mango, or papaya. 

⏲️ Substitutions & Variations

I find that the utter simplicity of this recipe is what makes it delicious. That said, passionfruit plays nicely with other tropical fruits. Here are a couple of variations worth trying:

• Guava Passionfruit Purée - After completing the recipe as written, add the desired number of washed, trimmed, and quartered guava fruit to the blender or food processor and blend for 30 seconds or more, until it is uniform in color and texture. Take care not to over-process, as we want to remove the seeds. Strain through the mesh sieve and mix with the passionfruit until fully incorporated.
• Mango Passionfruit Purée - After following the instructions for making passion fruit purée, add the flesh of a mango or two to the blender or food processor and blitz until completely creamy. Mix with your passionfruit for a lovely tropical experience.
• Not interested in making your own puree from scratch? No problem! You can buy puree and get it shipped right to your home. You want to make sure that there is no added water or sugar to the puree - just pure passion fruit goodness.

🛠️ Equipment

You don’t need much to make tasty fruit purées at home. Here’s what to grab:

• Blender or Food Processor - We’re only going to blitz it for a few pulses, so either will work marvelously here.
• Mesh Strainer - We want to remove the seeds from the pulp so our purée is creamy and dreamy. Make sure your sieve is made with fine mesh to catch them all. 
• Silicone Spatula - Flexible spatulas are great for getting every last drop of this sunshiney purée.
• Airtight Container - A mason jar, snap-top lid, or deli container will all do the trick. 
• Cutting Board - You'll be cutting each whole fruit in half in order to access the lilikoi puree.

📖 Step by Step Instructions

Making homemade fruit purée is a simple task. Here’s how it’s done:

Step 1: Slice the passion fruits in half using a paring knife on a cutting board.

Step 2: Scoop out the pulp using a spoon and add the pulp into a bowl.

Step 3: Blitz. Add the passion fruit pulp to a blender or food processor and pulse 1-2 times - this helps to loosen the pulp and to separate the seeds.

Step 4: Strain the pulp mixture through a fine sieve to remove the seeds using a spatula to help.

Step 5: Store or Enjoy. Pour your delicious passion fruit puree into an air tight container and store in the fridge or freezer or use the passion fruit flavors immediately as a great addition to the recipe of your choice!

👩🏻‍🍳 Expert Tips

• How to choose a good passionfruit - If you’re new to shopping for fresh passion fruit, you may not know what to look for. First, know that they can come in either yellow or purple varieties. If you are reaching for yellow, they should be deep in color, almost golden. Ripe purple varieties should be super dark, verging on black. As with most fruits, you’ll want to choose ones that are heavy for their size — this means they’ll be nice and juicy! In addition, look for slightly wrinkled skin; this indicates that they are super ripe and will be very sweet. 
• Storage - Homemade passion fruit purée will last for up to 10 days in the fridge, or up to 6 months in the freezer. 
• Freeze the purée in an ice cube tray for long-term storage. After they’ve frozen through, keep them in an airtight container or zip-top bag for perfect puree easy access to use in ice creams, lilikoi cheesecake, and cocktails! Here's a link to 10 passion fruit recipes to get you started.
• Or freeze in zip-top sandwich bags. If you prefer using a larger amount of purée at a time, measure 1-2 cups of purée into each bag, carefully removing as much air as possible. After the top is zipped, lay the bag flat on its side, smoothing the purée out into a flat sheet. Freeze until solid, then stack the bags vertically like books on a shelf to keep your freezer nice and tidy.  

💭 Recipe FAQs

Passionfruit Dessert & Cocktail Recipes