Goiabada - East Indian Guava Cheese Recipe - Abby's Plate (2024)

8 March 202417 November 2020 by Sarah

Guava Cheese is a tasty East Indian sweet dish especially prepared around Christmas time! Both chewy and fudgy, there’s a mouthful of Guava in every bite.

For people who like Guavas but do not like eating them because of their seeds, this is a really great sweet. Don’t believe me, just ask my Dad. He will at any given time, choose Guava cheese over a fresh Guava.

Usually made for Christmas, this guava sweet is called Perad by Goans and Goiabada or Guava Cheese by East Indians. It’s a common dessert among most ex-Portuguese colonies around the world, where quinces were replaced by Guavas. Growing up I remember eating Guava Cheese made by our Aunty Diana. She was the neighborhood sweet specialist and Guava cheese was always ordered from her. We’ve been making loads of Christmas sweets at home – namely – vanilla cream, mass pav, or walnut fudge, and many others – but we never tried making our own guava cheese until much much later.

Turned out it was pretty easy to make and does not take up much time too! Guavas are available around November and December in winters, so it’s easy to find in the markets during the Christmas season and they are also available in March April which is summertime, so you could try it for Easter too! Just keep in mind that you get a different type of guava in both seasons.

The recipe below is using the winter season guavas that are yellower, but this is what the summer season guava looks like. You can still use summer guavas to make the recipe, it will just take a bit longer on the stove since the summer guavas contain more water.

So if you are wondering what sweets to make this Christmas, try out the recipe below. It’s a pretty easy perad recipe aka guava cheese recipe to follow…

Note: You’ll find many foreign sites have created copies of the East Indian guava cheese recipe and call it an Indian recipe. Is guava cheese an Indian dish? Do other cultures in India make this dish? No, other Indian cultures do not make guava cheese. Guava cheese cannot be broadly classified as an Indian dish, it’s an East Indian dish and a Goan dish made only by the Christian or Catholic community in Mumbai and Goa. For someone to just throw a wider classification onto this cultural dish and call it merely an Indian is like calling the rare Sardinian su filindeu pasta simply Italian. Please don’t do it!

What Ingredients do you need to make Guava Cheese?

All you need is fresh ripe guavas, sugar, salt, sour lime juice, butter and pink food colour. You can use pink or white guavas. (Make it dairy free by replacing the butter with coconut oil.)

How to make Guava Cheese?

Rinse the Guavas to wash off any dirt. Boil them in water for about 15-20 mins on a high flame. This will make them mushy and easy to turn into a pulp. Open them up and make smaller pieces. Separate the seeds and move them into a strainer. Strain the seeds and make sure you get as much of the pulp that surrounds the seeds, this part is quite important because the part around the seeds contains more pectin. The pectin allows the guava cheese to thicken and get firm naturally. So you don’t need any gelatin or thickening agents. Isn’t that great?

If you are wondering, pectin is naturally found in most fruits such as apples, guavas, lemons, plums, currants and other fruit. When the fruits are ripe they produce pectin that we need to convert the fruits to jellies and jams. But we need to make sure the fruits are not too ripe, because if they’re overripe the pectin changes to peptic acid, which is of no use in jelly formation.

Once this is done, make a pulp of the entire mixture using a hand mixer or blender. Then add in the sugar along with the salt and sour lime. Put the vessel on the stove and start cooking the mixture.

The sugar will melt to give you a more liquid texture. Keep this guava mixture on a medium flame and stir every few minutes so it does not stick to the bottom of the pan. Once the mixture thickens, you will need to stir continuously till it starts to leave the side of the vessel. Be careful of the mixture splattering when it boils, it can get quite hot.

When your guava cheese mixture starts to thicken, add in butter or coconut oil and the pink food colour and continue stirring. It will keep getting thicker until it leaves the sides almost completely, and you won’t see anything sticking. See the gradual changes below.

To test if the guava cheese is ready to be taken off the heat and moulded, take a little of the mixture on a small teaspoon and drop it into a bowl of cold water. If it forms a soft ball the mixture is ready to be removed. If not, keep stirring and check the consistency every few minutes as you do not want it to get too dry.

Take a glass or steel plate or thali and grease with a thin coating of butter or coconut oil. Then pour the cooked mixture onto the thali and flatten it.

We use another small steel toap (vessel) that has been buttered /greased on the underside to flatten it. Keep flattening till the guava cheese layer is about 1/2 inch thick and then allow it to cool. It usually takes an hour or so to cool. You can lightly touch the guava cheese with your fingers to check if it has cooled and hardened.

Once the perade aka guava cheese is cool and set, take a knife, butter/grease it on both sides, and use it to cut diagonal slices into the guava cheese. After this, cut out diamond shapes by slicing it diagonally the other way. The leftover side slices can be eaten to test the deliciousness of the guava cheese. Consider it a reward for making the Guava cheese; that’s what I do 😉 And the rest can be kept safely stored in an air-tight container for Christmas time.

And voila! Serve on a nice plate and your Guava cheese will vanish in no time!

What’s perfect about this Guava Cheese recipe

• It is easy and quick to make.
• Guava has many health benefits and is a good source of Vitamin C.
• This gluten-free and vegetarian dessert requires just a few ingredients.
• The guava cheese can be stored in the fridge for a few weeks in airtight containers.

Cooking Tips & Tricks

• Rinse the guavas and then boil them before you start cooking this dish.
• Separate the seeds and strain the pulp from them so you can use it. This step is important.
• Keep a bowl of cold water on hand for the consistency test later.
• Make it dairy free by replacing the butter with coconut oil.

Answers to Your Questions About Guava Cheese

What Is Guava Cheese?

Guava cheese or Goiabada is a dessert made of fresh ripe guavas that is fudgy and chewy. Originally made by the Portuguese while in Brazil as a replacement for quince jam, it’s now a popular dessert in most erstwhile Portuguese colonies. The East Indian and Goan communities assimilated the recipe into our culture when we were ruled by the Portuguese, but changed it to a sweeter dish minus the dark hue and we cut it into much smaller shapes.

What Are Guavas?

It is a tropical fruit, in India, where it is called Amrood in Hindi and Peru in Marathi. It can be pink or white inside. Being a tropical fruit, guavas are found in many regions of Central America and Asia. India leads the production of guavas across the world at about 22 million tonnes a year.

What Are The Other Names For Guava Cheese?

The Goans call Guava cheese Perad or Perade, while the Portuguese called it Goiabada.

When Are Guavas In Season?

It varies from country to country, but in India, guavas are usually available in winters and summers. They are harvested year-round, except May and June in different regions of the country.

Other Recipes you might like

• Unusual Vanilla Cream
• Date Rolls
• Walnut Fudge
• Gluten-free meat muffins
• Homemade Enchiladas