Papaya Boats with Key Lime Chia Pudding

When Christopher Columbus came to the New World he also found out about papayas for the first time and hailed them the “fruit of the angels”. They are a tropical fruit with a buttery consistency and unique flavour that sort of tastes like a blend between mangos and cantaloupe. They have a slight muskiness that can be nicely balanced with a sprinkle of some freshly squeezed lime juice (or chia pudding with lime juice already in it). Papayas contain a special enzyme called papain, which helps with the digestion of protein and is used to treat traumas like sports injuries as well as allergies. They are also a great source of vitamins C and A, folate, fiber and several minerals including magnesium and potassium.

When picking them out, they should be soft but not mushy and with less green and more yellow skin. They come in quite a range of sizes, from around the size of an outstretched hand, to the length of a forearm. The smaller, hand sized ones are best for this kind of dish with individual servings but the large ones can be used for a bowl for fruit or regular salads for gatherings.

Key limes are smaller, have more seeds and their juice is less tart and more aromatic with more floral undernotes than regular limes. The downside is that it takes more of them to get the same amount of juice, slightly increasing the prep time and effort. They come in small bags of around one to two dozen and can be found in the produce section of large grocers or at produce markets. Any extras are great in flavoured water (or cocktails). Alternatively, regular limes work well too, but freshly squeezed of either is better than bottled.

Medjool dates are one of my favourite natural sweeteners to use. They are a dense, silky, very sweet fruit with an almost caramel-like flavour that brings a nice depth to healthy treats. Since they are whole fruits they also contain fiber, a perfect compliment to sugar to help balance out its effects on the body, along with an array of vitamins and minerals. The plump, moist ones like this are some of the jewels of the fruit world. They can often be found in bulk or in different sized clear plastic boxes in the produce department.  Chia pudding is incredibly healthy and can be very delicious but it is not very aesthetically pleasing, so topping it with some fruit can make it more attractive. Here I used sliced mango folded around in layers to create roses and used a leaf shaped cookie cutter to cut some kiwi slices into the leaves. To create the roses, any half circles of thinly sliced fruit can be used, simply place the straight edges down with the curved sides facing up. Start with two of the smaller pieces, folding them into each other then surround them, one at a time, with more layers until the desired size is reached. Mangos are easy to use because they already have a circular shape but other fruits can be cut to size, I find that a shot glass makes a good circle cutter, then cut those circles in half and begin wrapping them around each other.