We love using sweet guavas in drinks, desserts and savory dishes. This tropical fruit is grown in India, Mexico, the Caribbean, South and Central America and is used in these and other dishes and drinks. We love eating guavas year-round, raw, juiced or simmered into a sweet and sour guava paste. Here are some recipes to make the most of guava season, from vibrant cocktails to irresistible barbecue sauce, rich bread pudding and delicious guava quecitos you can make in minutes (and won’t stop eating).
Guava Goddess
Matt Taylor-Gross / Food Styling: Lucy Simon
Evie Negri-Albert created this tropical crowd-pleasing cocktail with bright guava and lime juice, bitter Aperol, nutty orgeat, and blanco tequila.
Guava Quesitos
Christopher Testani / Food Styling: Chelsea Zimmer / Prop Styling: Christina Daly
Brandon Ivan Peña creates a traditional Puerto Rican treat by filling puff pastry with cream cheese and sweet guava paste.
Guava Ponche and Sweet Vermouth
Paola Briceño Gonzalez has adapted the spicy tropical fruit punch “Ponche Navideño,” served with hot tequila at Christmas in Mexico. She uses guava, apple, hibiscus and mint to create a vermouth cocktail with a perfect balance of bitterness that is light, bright, aromatic and refreshing.
Lamb and Guava Glazed Spare Ribs
Greg Dupree / Food Styling: Chelsea Zimmer and Melissa Gray / Prop Styling: Audrey Taylor
In the Caribbean, barbecue gurus use tropical fruits like passion fruit, guava and pineapple to add fruity and sweet flavor to their barbecue, especially their sauces. Chef Nelson German of Alamar Kitchen & Bar in Oakland, California, recreates his memories of guava used in sweet and savory dishes in Dominican homes with a guava-based barbecue sauce.
Guava and Cheese Bread Pudding
Paola Velez says guava and cheese go together as well as peanut butter and jam, and she celebrates the two in this boudin de pain recipe from her husband’s 101-year-old grandmother. She uses extra evaporated milk to create a decadent custard and shares tips for making homemade caramel.
Guava and cheese pastel
Velez stuffs squares of puff pastry with guava paste and cream cheese to create creamy, flaky, sweet and tart pastelitos, pasteillos, or turnovers.
Chinese Style Ribs with Guava Barbecue Sauce
Raichlen mixes up a sauce of sugar, salt, dry mustard, Chinese five-spice, pepper, cinnamon and cloves, then grills baby back ribs in a drip pan, drizzling them with sherry from time to time, then serves the ribs with a sticky Miami-style barbecue sauce made with guava paste and rum.
Guava-infused pork tenderloin with cilantro and jalapeno salsa
In Ruth Van Warrebeeck Gonzales’ recipe for perfect pork tenderloin, a sweet guava glaze pairs perfectly with a cilantro-jalapeno salsa.
