Granadilla substitute

Best substitute

Passion fruit plus sugar

Use the same amount by pulp volume, plus 1-2 tsp sugar per fruit as the granadilla you are replacing

Best for desserts

Different taste

The same genus, the same aromatic perfume and the same jelly-coated crunchy seeds, which no other fruit gives you at once.

Other granadilla substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Ripe lychee or longan
Different texture
Use the same amount by volume, peeled and chopped
The closest flavour match: mildly sweet, floral and perfumed with almost no acidity, which is exactly granadilla's profile.
What changes
Best for
fruit salads, desserts, smoothies, cocktails
No crunchy seeds at all, so anything that relies on granadilla's popping texture will read as smooth and soft. Canned lychees work but are packed in syrup, so cut the recipe's sugar back.
3Dragon fruit (pitaya), very ripe
Different taste
Use the same amount by volume
Gives you the two things people notice about granadilla that other fruits miss: gentle low-acid sweetness and hundreds of tiny crunchy seeds through soft flesh.
What changes
Best for
fruit salads, smoothie bowls, garnishing, yoghurt
Far less aromatic, so it can read as watery next to granadilla's perfume. Choose the yellow-skinned variety, which is noticeably sweeter than the pink-fleshed kind, and add a spoon of passion fruit pulp for aroma.
4Mango puree plus passion fruit pulp
Different texture
3 parts mango to 1 part passion fruit, used 1:1 for the granadilla
The most dependable substitute for anything blended, poured or set: mango supplies the sweet tropical body, passion fruit supplies the aroma in a small enough dose to stay gentle.
What changes
Best for
smoothies, mousses, coulis, ice cream, juices
Thicker and less pourable than granadilla pulp, so loosen it with a splash of water or juice for a sauce. Nothing crunchy, which matters if granadilla was the textural surprise in the dish.
5Kiwi plus honey
Different taste
Use the same amount by volume, plus 1 tsp honey per kiwi
Available everywhere and gives the small crunchy seeds and soft juicy flesh, with honey rounding the tartness down towards granadilla's sweetness.
What changes
Best for
fruit salads, breakfast bowls, tarts
Distinctly green and grassy where granadilla is floral and tropical, so the flavour direction is wrong even though the texture is right. Use a golden kiwi if you can find one, which is sweeter and less green.
6Eaten straight from the shell: no real substitute
Different taste
Granadilla's whole appeal as a fresh fruit is cracking the brittle shell and spooning out aromatic jelly full of popping seeds, and no other fruit reproduces that combination.
What changes
Best for
nothing directly
The least-bad option is a passion fruit with a teaspoon of sugar stirred into the pulp, and you should expect a much sharper, more acidic mouthful. A ripe passion fruit and a couple of lychees eaten together gets closer than either alone.

What is Granadilla?

Granadilla is Granadilla, also called sweet granadilla, grenadia or passiflora ligularis, is a round orange-shelled passionfruit relative whose brittle shell holds a scoop of grey, crunchy-seeded jelly that tastes sweet and floral rather than sour.

Cooking tips

The single most useful thing to know is that granadilla and passion fruit are not interchangeable by default. Granadilla is a sweet fruit used for its perfume; purple passion fruit, maracuya, is an acid used the way you would use lemon juice. Swapping one for the other without adjusting sugar is the mistake that ruins most granadilla substitutions.
Judge ripeness by the shell, which should be deep orange and hard but should give a very slight rattle when shaken. Green-shelled fruit is underripe and tastes thin. A shell so brittle it cracks in your hand is fine and often the sweetest.
The seeds are meant to be eaten. Unlike passion fruit, which is often strained for sauces because the seeds are hard and the pulp is mainly wanted for its juice, granadilla's softer seeds are part of the eating experience, so do not strain it unless a recipe specifically asks you to.
Granadilla pulp is low in acid, which makes it a poor setting agent. If a recipe uses passion fruit to set a curd or to sharpen a cream, granadilla will not do that job, and if you are substituting the other way you will need to add lime or lemon juice back in.
Cut the shell with a knife across the top rather than snapping it, then spoon the pulp out in one piece. The white membrane between the pulp and the shell is edible but bland, so leave it behind.

Frequently asked questions

Can I just leave granadilla out?

If it is a garnish or one fruit in a mixed salad, yes, and nothing is lost beyond a little aroma. If it is the fruit flavouring a mousse, sorbet or juice, replace it rather than dropping it, using 3 parts mango puree to 1 part passion fruit pulp as a like-for-like.

Is granadilla the same as passion fruit?

They are relatives, not the same fruit. Granadilla has a smooth orange shell and sweet, mild, floral pulp. Purple passion fruit has a wrinkly dark shell and pulp that is intensely tart. If you swap passion fruit in for granadilla you must sweeten it; if you swap granadilla in for passion fruit you must add lime or lemon juice.

What does granadilla taste like?

Sweet, gently floral and slightly honeyed, with the recognisable passionfruit perfume but very little of its sourness. The texture is the other half of it: cool grey jelly with hundreds of small seeds that pop between your teeth.

Can I use granadilla instead of passion fruit in a recipe?

Yes, but you have to add the acid back. Use the same volume of pulp and stir in about a tablespoon of lime or lemon juice per two fruits, then cut the recipe's sugar noticeably, since granadilla is already sweet. Without that adjustment a passion fruit curd or sorbet made with granadilla tastes flat and cloying.

Where can I buy granadilla?

Latin American and Andean markets carry it most reliably, and specialty produce sections in larger supermarkets increasingly stock it, sometimes labelled sweet granadilla or grenadia. It is more common in winter and early spring in the northern hemisphere.

Related substitutes

More fruits substitutes

Granadilla substitute

Other granadilla substitutes

2Ripe lychee or longan

3Dragon fruit (pitaya), very ripe

4Mango puree plus passion fruit pulp

5Kiwi plus honey

6Eaten straight from the shell: no real substitute