Green and ripe papaya: how to eat it, cook with it and find it in Poland

Papaya (papaja in Polish) is a tropical fruit with yellow or orange skin, orange flesh and black seeds in the middle. Ripe papaya is eaten raw, like melon. Green papaya is the same fruit picked unripe: it has firm white flesh and Asian kitchens use it as a vegetable, for example in the Thai salad som tam.

Papaya in a Polish shop

Polish supermarkets sell ripe papaya in the fruit section, labelled papaja. Green papaya is harder to find. Look for papaja zielona (green papaya) in Asian and Indian grocery shops. Ripe fruit may be labelled papaja dojrzała. Fresh produce depends on deliveries, so if you need green papaya for a recipe, check the shop page or ask in a shop.

Ripe papaya: how to choose and eat it

Papaya comes from Central America and now grows across the tropics, including India and South-East Asia. A ripe fruit has sweet, soft flesh that tastes somewhere between melon and apricot, with a light musky smell.

How to choose: the skin is yellow or yellow-orange and the fruit gives slightly when pressed. A few dark spots on the skin do no harm. A green fruit with yellow stripes ripens at home in 2 to 4 days at room temperature. It ripens faster in a paper bag with a banana.

How to eat it:

1. Wash the fruit and cut it in half lengthways.
2. Scoop out the black seeds with a spoon.
3. Squeeze lime juice over the flesh.
4. Eat it with a spoon straight from the skin, or peel it and cut it into cubes.

Ripe papaya goes well in fruit salads, smoothies, lassi, with yoghurt and in a salsa for fish. Keep cut fruit in the fridge and eat it within 1 to 2 days.

Green papaya: a vegetable in Asian cooking

Green papaya is unripe fruit. It is firm and crunchy with a neutral, slightly cucumber-like taste. It is not sweet, so it is not eaten as a fruit. Cooks use it the way you would use kohlrabi or cucumber:

• Som tam – Thai salad of shredded green papaya with lime, fish sauce, garlic, chilli, tomatoes and peanuts.
• Curries and spiced vegetables – in Indian cooking, for example in Kerala and Bengal, green papaya is cooked with coconut, mustard seeds and curry leaves.
• Atchara – Filipino papaya pickled in vinegar and sugar.
• Soups – in the Philippines green papaya goes into a chicken soup (tinola).

Green papaya also tenderises meat, so some kitchens add it to marinades.

How to peel and cut green papaya

Green papaya gives off a white, sticky sap that can irritate the skin. Wear gloves when you peel it.

1. Peel the fruit with a vegetable peeler.
2. Cut it in half lengthways and scoop out the white seeds.
3. Rinse the halves under cold water to wash off the sap.
4. For salad, grate the flesh on a coarse grater or cut it into thin strips. For curry, cut it into cubes.

Simple green papaya salad (for 2): 300 g shredded green papaya, 1 garlic clove, 1 small chilli, 1 tablespoon cane or palm sugar, 2 tablespoons lime juice, 1 to 2 tablespoons fish sauce, a handful of cherry tomatoes, a handful of roasted peanuts. Pound the garlic with the chilli and sugar in a mortar. Add the lime juice and fish sauce. Mix with the papaya and the halved tomatoes, pressing lightly. Sprinkle with peanuts. For a vegetarian version, use soy sauce instead of fish sauce.

Substitutes for green papaya: in a salad, kohlrabi (kalarepa), green mango, or cucumber with carrot. In a curry, use courgette (cukinia).

Papaya in cosmetics

Papaya also appears in the names of cosmetics, for example papaya soap. That is soap, not food.

Where to buy papaya

Green papaya is on the page green papaya and ripe fruit on the page ripe papaya. Other tropical vegetables are in the fresh vegetables category. The soap is on the page papaya soap Skinblend. Little India has shops in Warsaw, Kraków, Wrocław and Gdańsk and ships orders from the online shop.