Best Indian Fruit Types
Red banana (lat. Musa acuminata var. 'Red') is a variety of banana with a distinctive red or purple skin, setting it apart from the more common yellow bananas.
This variety is smaller, plumper, and has a creamier texture compared to the more widely known Cavendish banana. When ripe, the flesh of the Red banana is soft and sweet, with a flavor that hints at raspberry in addition to the traditional banana taste.
Water apple is a medium-sized evergreen tree that grows wild from India to Malaysia and Indonesia, and it’s cultivated throughout tropical parts of Asia, as well as in Africa and tropical America, but rarely. The fruits are wide and have a thin and waxy skin.
The flesh is white, crisp or spongy, with a mild aroma. The flavor is sweet in most varieties. The sweeter fruit varieties are usually enjoyed fresh or used in fruit salads. In tropical Asia, the young leaves are often used to wrap food before it’s cooked or steamed.
Wood apple is the tropical fruit of a tree with rough bark and sharp spines that’s native to India and Sri Lanka. The fruits are egg-shaped or round, with a hard and thick rind that must be crushed with a hammer or a stone in order to get to the pulp.
The pulp is mealy, with an astringent, acid, or sweet flavor and numerous white seeds scattered throughout it. Whether sweet-sour or sweet, the pulp is usually enjoyed fresh after it’s been scooped out. It can also be made into jams, jellies, and chutneys.
Elephant apple is the fruit of an evergreen tree that’s native from India and Sri Lanka to Southeast Asia, and then to Vietnam and southwestern China. The fruit is globose in shape and it’s formed as an aggregate of 15 carpels that overlap.
Each carpel contains five seeds that are embedded in a gelatinous pulp. When fully ripe, the fruits have a sour to sweet-sour flavor. The pulp is often used to make beverages, vinegar, and jams. When not fully ripe, the fruits are pickled or used in soups and curries, while the flower’s petals are often used as garnishes for fruit and vegetable salads.
Khasi mandarin (Citrus reticulata) is a unique fruit cultivated in the Indian state of Meghalaya. The trees grow on steep slopes in chalky soil and in very hot climate. The villages, however, are located at the bottom of these steep valleys, so the villagers must carry the baskets filled with Khasi mandarins on foot across 5,000 to 10,000 stone steps, depending on the location of the trees.
The mandarins are somewhat larger than a tennis ball. They are bright orange in color, quite hard to peel, while on the inside, there is a sweet, aromatic juice. The fruits are traditionally harvested between November and February, and the villagers use a woven bamboo tool for collecting the mandarins, allowing them to gently pick the fruit without any damage.
Elephant ear fig is the fruit of an evergreen tree with large leaves that’s native to northern India and cultivated in tropical regions of south Asia and Southeast Asia. When ripe, the fruits are round and flattened in shape, with a reddish brown to copper red color with pale green dots.
The flesh is soft in texture, while the flavor is sweet. The fruits are enjoyed fresh or dried, and they’re often made into beverages or jams. In India, elephant ear figs are often used in savory dishes such as salads and curries. The fruit is named elephant ear fig because the tree on which it grows has disproportionately large leaves that are reminiscent of elephant ears.
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