Soursops, also known as Annona muricata are one hell of an exotic fruit that’s getting a lot of raves lately, but not many people know how to eat or even cut it. So, how should you eat soursop? In this article, we will learn how to cut and eat a soursop, including 9 different ways you could actually eat a soursop.
How to Eat Soursop?
To eat soursop, simply cut up a ripe soursop fruit into 2 lateral halves and use a fork or a spoon to scoop out the fleshy inner white part into a bowl. Eat the fleshy white part whole, while removing the seeds. Make sure to remove the seeds while eating, as it has been reported to be poisonous. 
Several studies have shown that soursop, including the leaves and bark are effective against up to 12 different types of cancer.
Soursop is also found to be beneficial and has a wide range of antioxidant properties, that has earned it its most famous name – the cancer-fighting fruit. It has been shown to be beneficial against inflammation, pain, fever, rheumatism, stomach disorders, high blood pressure as well as parasitic infections and even acne.
How to cut soursop?
Before you eat a soursop, you have to cut it. The technique you use in cutting it may affect how easy you will be able to scoop out the edible flesh from it.
Soursop should be first be washed and cut into lateral halves. A lateral cut is practically better than a horizontal cut as this makes it easier to scoop out with a spoon, fork or knife.
You should cut it into lateral halves as I notice it’s easier to take out the flesh with a fork when it is cut this way. This is especially important if you want to scoop out the flesh and make it appear in lumps or what I call “soursop cloves” rather than making it look mushy. 
While just eating the edible fleshy part is the basic way to eat a soursop, not many people know that there are actually several ways to eat and incorporate soursops into our daily meal menu. Read along as we take you through the best ways to eat and use a soursop. But before we delve into that, you’ll have to prepare your soursop fruit for consumption.
How to Prepare a Soursop Fruit for Eating
Ensure it is ripe enough
Before proceeding to eat a soursop fruit, you’ll have to make sure it is ripe enough for eating. Of you happen to buy an unripe soursop from the grocery store, allow it to sit for a couple of days to ripen before eating it.
To tell a Soursop fruit is ripe and ready for eating, the fruit will appear a little bit yellowish and will feel soft and malleable to touch.
An unripe soursop on the other hand will appear dark green and feel hard. Again, another way to tell is the distance between the spikes on the skin. A mature, ripe soursop has spikes that appear farther from each other on the soursop skin, while an unripe, largely immature fruit has closer distance between spikes. 
However, be careful not to allow the soursop fruit get too ripe, as things can quickly get messy in a matter of hours with a ripe soursop.
Wash the fruit
So, once it is ripe and ready for eating, you’ll need to wash it first. Simply wash in warm water or run over tap water. If the soursop appear rusty with a lot of freckles and dirt, you might want to wash harder and longer. Or you can use a soft brush to take off the dirt off its spiky skin. 
Cut it Up
After washing it, you’ll go ahead to cut it up with a sharp knife. Now, be careful here when cutting the fruit. The technique you use in cutting it may affect how easy you will be able to scoop out the edible flesh from it.
You can cut it into lateral halves as I notice it’s easier to take out the flesh with a fork when cut this way. This is especially important if you want to scoop out the flesh and make it appear in lumps rather than mushy.
The smoothie bowl lumps is one of my favorite ways to eat a soursop, so I always make sure to cut out my soursop carefully in a way that it doesn’t get mushy. 
However, when you cut it the other way, that is, horizontally, I notice it’s easier to de-seed with a fork. So, although cutting this way makes for easier de-seeding, however, your soursop flesh may appear all mushy.
If you don’t want to use a knife, and especially if you have an overripe soursop, it’s best to use your hand. Cutting an over ripe soursop with a knife might be practically a tough thing to do. Although this is not quite the case with cutting an unripe soursop, such as for a mock fish recipe.
So, depending on your goals and how you want to eat your soursop, the cutting method will vary on the one that suits the best purpose.
Scoop out the Inner White Pulp
Gently take out the inner flesh using a fork or spoon or an ice cream scoop. How easy it is to scoop this part depends on how ripe the fruit it.
It is less tedious to scoop out a ripe soursop compared to a less ripe one, but then, it even becomes difficult to scoop as it begins to over ripe.
When too ripe, the outer skin is less firm and it may be difficult separating the flesh from the skin. So, knowing the right balance between when a soursop is ripe and when it is just going overboard is key not only to a great scoop but also a nice, sweet and buttery soursop taste. 
Remove the Seeds
Take out the seeds before eating the flesh. However, if you are eating the fruit whole rather than using as a smoothie or for other dishes, you can eat the flesh and spit out the seeds as you eat.
Soursop seeds have been shown to be poisonous and should not be eaten. They contain annonacin, a neurotoxin that have been shown to be correlated with the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease. 
9 Easy Ways to Eat a Soursop
While it’s okay to eat a soursop whole, there are many other ways to to eat and enjoy a soursop fruit. I know eating a soursop fruit whole is probably the most popular way to eat soursop, but there are other ways I have tried that just adds a little extra reason to incorporate this amazing cancer-fighting fruit into your daily meal plan.
The 9 best Ways to eat a Soursop include:
1. Eat Whole
Probably the most common way to eat a soursop. Scoop out the inner fleshy pulp or white part (make sure to remove the seeds) and eat them with a spoon or fork. Or you can simply eat from the fruit, the way you would probably eat a mango, leaving out the skin and spitting out the seeds.
Eating soursop this way is pretty straightforward, so you can easily incorporate soursop this way into your meal plan as a snack.
2. Use in Smoothies
You can incorporate soursop into your daily Smoothies or just simple make a whole soursop smoothie.
To make a basic soursop smoothie, simply blend up the fleshy pulp or a ripe soursop (removing the seeds) using a high power blender. Add some sweetener such as agave if you like and a zest of key lime.
3. Drink As Juice
Soursop fruits can be made into juices by incorporating with other fruit juices from apples or watermelons.
To make a soursop juice, blend up the fleshy white part (excluding the seeds) using a high power blender. Add a cup of spring water and strain using a strainer. You can add some key lime juice for a little tangy flavor.
4. Add to Bowls and Soups
You can also add chunks or “cloves” of deseeded soursop flesh to smoothie bowls. Its my favorite way to eat Soursop and I’m sure you’ll love it too.
I find that this makes so much sense with smoothie bowls of sliced burro banana, berries and coconut flakes. Hmm…Yummy
5. As Vegan “Nice” Cream
Not many people realize that a soursop ice cream can be a great and healthy replacement for conventional sugar-laden ice creams. I make this occasionally for my kids and they so love it.
Using soursop as an ice cream replacement have saved me a ton of work I would have done making unhealthy regular ice creams. We have a soursop tree, so all it takes me is a handful of ingredients and a waffle cone made from approved flours and voila, there you have it!
To make an ice cream from soursop fruit, simply follow the method to scoop out the flesh and then de-seed it. Blend the inner pulp with a good blender, add some agave and sea moss gel for thickening. Sit in the refrigerator for up to 4 hours or until frozen. Enjoy!
6. As Milk
Surprisingly, soursop can be made into milk by blending the pulp with a little spring water and draining. If you like, you can add a little amount of sea moss gel or burro banana for a thicker consistency.
7. As a Salad dressing (Mayo replacement)
Looking to throw out regular mayo and get a good alkaline vegan alternative? Soursop is your go to!
Together with some other added ingredients, soursop can be pureed into a semi-solid consistency that can serve as a great mayo replacement. Just add some key lime juice for a little tangy flavor and enjoy!
8. Fry or Bake as Mock Fish
I know you may feel surprised seeing that you could actually fry or Bake soursop. Yes, I tried it and it was so cool. Simply cut up an unripe soursop fruit, scoop out the fleshy white part, de-seed and then fry in coconut or olive oil.
Alternatively, you can sprinkle with little coconut oil and bake for 30 minutes. Hmm uhm. So yummy! When fried or baked, soursop takes up the consistency of a fried fish!
9. As Herbal Tea
Soursop leaves (not the fruit) can be prepared as tea and taken as a potent cancer-fighting drink. A little caution here though. It is not recommended to take soursop tea (prepared from the leaves) for a long period of time.
To make Soursop herbal tea, I recommend to take 2 cups of Soursop leaves (dry or fresh) and boil in one gallon spring water for 5 to 10 minutes. This usually makes 4 cups. When cooled, take one cup twice daily.
Other ways to use soursop include as candy, popsicles, toppings for porridge, soups and puddings.
Related Questions
What does soursop fruit taste like?
Soursop tastes like a mixture of pineapple and strawberry. It has a sweet buttery taste, similar to that of pineapple but with a buttery or silky sensation. Note that if you leave your soursop to get over ripe, the sugar in it ferments and you’ll notice a strong tart ethanol taste compared to a buttery sweet taste.
What does soursop tea taste like?
Soursop tea made from dry soursop leaves tastes almost like black tea but with a tart flavor. While soursop tea made from fresh leaves tastes slightly bitter or pungent.
What does soursop juice taste like?
Soursop juice tastes just like the fruit but with a lighter, thinner and more watery consistency. A juice made from the soursop fruit tastes sweet and buttery, like a combination of pineapple and strawberry.
What is soursop good for?
Soursop is most popularly known as a natural anti-cancer agent. Several studies conducted on laboratory animals have shown that the Soursop fruit, including the leaves, have great cancer-fighting properties.
They also have other added benefits including fighting inflammation, pain, fever, rheumatism, stomach disorders, high blood pressure as well as parasitic infections.
What does soursop look like?
From the outside, soursop looks similarly to a mango but slightly bigger and with a spiky outer skin layer. Without the characteristic spiky skin, you may mistake a soursop fruit for a large unripe mango.
How to eat soursop seeds?
Soursop seeds are usually not eaten because they are poisonous. More often than not, soursop seeds are only used as part of concoctions in poisons or pesticides.
Final Notes
Now that you know how to eat soursop, you can begin to try eating soursop these ways right away. And oh, did I mention that I love the faux/mock fish recipe 🙂
These are basically the ways I have tried out eating soursop…and I’m sure there might be more. Have you tried any of them or do you have other ideas apart from these listed in this article? Let me know in the comments 🙂
References
- https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/1341/3/032027/meta
- https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/fsn3.498
- https://www.phytojournal.com/archives/2015/vol4issue2/PartC/4-2-22.1.pdf
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0304423894900302
- http://jurnal.globalhealthsciencegroup.com/index.php/JPPP/article/view/218
- https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/soursop#does-it-help
Real Vs Fake Sea Moss: 14 Ways To Tell Your Sea Moss Is fake
Leave a Reply