How to Peel a Papaya

Do you love to eat tropical fruits, but have difficulties when it comes to preparing them?  We just love papayas and when we saw them next to the bananas when we were shopping recently at Trader Joe’s we knew we would be taking one home with us. YUMMZ!

Now many years ago, when Kris worked in one of those big resort hotel kitchens, she learned a quick and easy way to peel and cut up papayas. This way may seem a bit strange at first, but once you peel a couple of fruits this way, you will be a pro.

Note: This way will work for other large fruits  such as honeydew and cantaloupes and pineapples.

1. To start, we recommend that you wash the outside of the papaya with some fruit and vegetable wash (or even baby shampoo) with a cloth and rinse well. This step is optional, but it just ensures that you are not making all the fruit dirty (some of the fruits we pick up in the store are a bit dusty- but maybe that is a Tucson thing) as you cut off the outer skin.

2. Cut off both ends, and stand the fruit up on your cutting board. Now cut the outer skin off in long strips, starting from the top and moving to the bottom. Use a “sawing” motion and keep the fruit strips about 1 inch or so wide. (This takes some practice so cut up all the fruit you can so you can get really good.)

Papaya with both ends cut off, and long strips being removed

3. When all the skin is gone, cut the fruit in half and remove all the seeds. Rinse to get all those pesky little seeds out.

Papaya with skin removed and split to show seeds

4. Now your Papaya is ready to cut up and enjoy!

What do you think? This really is such an easy way to clean and cut up fruit. We hope you give it a try soon.