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Spicy Papaya Margarita

Prep 10 min
Total 15 min
Ingredients 7
Servings 4

I love papaya, but sometimes one large papaya can be too much to handle. A little bit could go a long way when making fruit salads, smoothies and even dressings. Whenever I purchase a large papaya, I always tend to have some left over. It ripens quickly and goes to waste before I have time to prepare something healthy and delicious. The last time I purchased a Hawaiian papaya, the leftover piece was used for a refreshing spicy papaya margarita. Since ripe papaya tends to be very sweet, I decided to add a bit of a kick to my cocktail and infuse it with spicy serrano peppers. The flavors were amazing! Resembling the taste of papaya with chile powder from a street vendor, this cocktail was mouthwatering, unique and with a special twist. Don’t let that extra piece of papaya go to waste, prepare a cocktail and toast to the end of summer. Salud!

Ingredients

1 cup sugar
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1/2 teaspoon fresh rosemary, minced
1 serrano pepper, thinly sliced in rounds
1/2 large Mexican papaya, seeded, or 1 large Hawaiian papaya, halved and seeded
3/4 cup white tequila
fruit spice (equal mixture of sugar, salt and chili powder) for rimming glass

Directions

1

In a small saucepan, bring sugar and 1 cup water to a boil. Stir to dissolve sugar and boil for 2 minutes.
2

Pour 1/2 cup syrup into a pitcher. Add lime juice and 1/2 cup water. Set aside.
3

In a small bowl, transfer the remaining 1/2 cup hot syrup, add rosemary and half of the serrano pepper slices, and let steep for 15 minutes. Strain Serrano/rosemary syrup, discard solids and pour steeped syrup in pitcher with lime syrup.
4

With a spoon, scrape papaya into a blender; puree until smooth. Add 1 cup papaya puree to the pitcher with syrup. Reserve and refrigerate the rest of papaya puree for another use.
5

Add tequila to pitcher with papaya puree and stir to combine.
6

To serve, fill 4 wine glasses with ice and pour papaya cocktail over. Rim glass by running a lime edge over glass rim and sprinkle with fruit spice. Garnish with remaining serrano slices.

Omit Serrano pepper from the recipe for a non-spicy option and garnish with lime zest.

No nutrition information available for this recipe

I love papaya, but sometimes one large papaya can be too much to handle. A little bit could go a long way when making fruit salads, smoothies and even dressings. Whenever I purchase a large papaya, I always tend to have some left over. It ripens quickly and goes to waste before I have time to prepare something healthy and delicious. The last time I purchased a Hawaiian papaya, the leftover piece was used for a refreshing spicy papaya margarita. Since ripe papaya tends to be very sweet, I decided to add a bit of a kick to my cocktail and infuse it with spicy serrano peppers. The flavors were amazing! Resembling the taste of papaya with chile powder from a street vendor, this cocktail was mouthwatering, unique and with a special twist. Don’t let that extra piece of papaya go to waste, prepare a cocktail and toast to the end of summer. Salud!