Spice Up Your Meals with Cooked Fruit!

How do you usually include fruit with your meals? Most people would say they add it as a piece of fresh fruit or a side of canned fruit like applesauce or peaches. While there is nothing wrong with that, think about kicking it up a notch by serving cooked fruit! That does not mean stewed prunes, but rather trying some new and creative ways to add fruits to help meet the Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommendation of two cups serving per day.

Why cooked fruit?

Cooking intensifies the flavor of fruit and creates an appealing texture especially in unripe fruit. The two methods of cooking used are either moist or dry heat.

Moist Heat Cooking

• Poaching, stewing, sauces, or compotes (fruit cooked in a sugar syrup with spices) are examples of moist cooking.
• Fruits commonly cooked using these methods are pears, apples, peaches, nectarines, plums, and apricots. 
• Figs, grapes, quinces, and bananas also lend themselves to moist heat preparation.
• If you are poaching or stewing, use just enough liquid to cover the fruit.  Cut fruit into uniform sizes for even cooking. Once cooked let the fruit rest in the liquid for 20 minutes to help the fruit absorb the flavor of the liquid.
• For the liquid consider using wine, rum, whiskey, fruit brandies, or juices in combination with the water and sugar.
• Poaching liquid should have a ratio of 1/3 cup – ½ cup sugar to 1 cup liquid or for a lighter liquid ¼ cup sugar to 1 cup liquid. The sugar helps the fruit retain its shape. While you can go without adding sugar the result may be a much softer piece of fruit.
• Sugar substitutes, while providing sweetness, will not maintain the texture of the fruit.

Dry Heat Cooking

• Dry heat methods of cooking include grilling, broiling, roasting, baking, or sautéing.
• Quick cooking is needed otherwise you can end up with a mushy product as the cell walls break down and there is increased water loss.
• Popular fruits for dry heat cooking include apples, apricots, bananas, pineapple, peaches, plums, pears, cherries, and figs.
• With dry heat methods of cooking, sugar is added mainly for sweetness.

Other Ingredients

Think beyond the traditional use of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Consider star anise, ginger, cardamom, black pepper, vanilla, and saffron. Herbs such as mint, rosemary, sage, lemon verbena, lavender, and thyme add some unique flavors, especially when combining fruit with meat dishes. Examples may be oranges combined with thyme, peaches with rosemary, or strawberries with sage served with chicken, pork, or fish.

Serving Ideas

• Fruit can be served as a side dish, as a sauce on foods, compote, or as a main dish component.
• Roasted cherries over frozen yogurt or ice cream
• Peaches poached in lemon verbena and lavender as a side dish
• Whole-grain pancakes with banana compote
• Pork chops with apple-raisin cinnamon compote
• Citrus chicken with grilled tropical fruit
• Fish with orange and fennel compote
• Peach and Tomato Salsa with whole-grain crackers
• Pizza topped with pears or figs

Recipe - Poached Pears with Carmel Sauce

Ingredients

• 4 firm-ripe medium-sized pears such as Bosc, or Bartlett
• ¼ cup lemon juice
• ¼ cup prepared caramel sauce or caramel topping

Directions

1. Begin by washing your hands for 20 seconds with soap and warm water.
2. Wash pears under running water.
3. Peel the pears, leaving the stems attached. Cut a thin slice from the bottom of each pear so that the pear will stand.
4. Place the pears in a saucepan large enough to fit 4 pears without the fruit toppling over. Add the lemon juice and 4 cups of water to cover the pears.
5. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer, and cook for 10 to 15 minutes or until pears are tender, but not falling apart. Keep pears submerged during the process.
6. Drain the liquid. Place the pears on a plate, cover, and chill 3 hours or overnight.
7. Arrange the pears on individual plates. Drizzle caramel sauce over the pears, making a small puddle of sauce on the plate.

Note: You can also substitute 4 cups of apple juice for the lemon juice and water for additional flavor.

Nutrition Information: Serving size 1 pear. Calories, 100; Total Fat, 0.5 g; Sodium, 20 mg; Total Carbohydrate, 24 g, Dietary Fiber, 3 g; Protein, 1 g.

Recipe: Kids Eat Right, Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, March 5, 2019