We Have a Fruit for That!
Author: be well™ with Big Y® Registered Dietitian Team
How adding fruits to summer cookouts brings dishes to wow status in an instant.
Can you feel it? The hint of summer is underway. If you’re like us, thoughts of enjoying meals with family and friends outside in warmer weather are percolating at the top of mind.
As you begin imagining the meals you can cook up in the weeks ahead, let color and flavor be your guide. What better way to add both than with fruit?
Including fruit at your summer cookouts is a simple, tasty way to Have A Plant®. After all, Mother Nature bestows these sweet morsels our way during the warmer months. Who are we not to accept her invitation to enjoy?
Invite the Family
Level up your cookout game with fruits in all forms. Invite the entire family of options—dried, frozen, canned, 100% juice and fresh—to your recipes. Each form offers amazing flavor, fun texture and beautiful color.
Tease the Appetite
Pair the typical mainstays of salty snacks and cheese and veggie platters with fruit. For example, berries and sliced apples make welcome guests to cheese boards; tickle taste buds with a sweet and spicy pineapple salsa and Tzatziki sauce; and whip up a tasty yogurt dip for grapes, cubed melons and segments of citrus fruit.
Meat Mashup
Adding fruit to your favorite grilled meats is the perfect way to make the ordinary extraordinary. Kabobs weaved with stone fruits like plums and nectarines will provide juicy, caramelized flavor to pork. Hearty slices of grilled fresh pineapple take grilled chicken to a whole new level. Prepping steak with marinades made with 100% fruit juice like pomegranate and plum not only helps tenderize the meat, it adds a subtle sweetness.
More Than Lettuce
What makes a salad delicious? The toppings! Include fruit to elevate the beauty and taste of your salads this season. Toss fresh berries into spinach salad, crunchy Honey Crisp apple slices into tossed salad and a sprinkle of golden raisins to mixed greens to treat the eyes and taste buds.
Dessert with Flair
Dessert is prime time for fruit to shine. Imagine the possibilities…Angel Food cake with sliced strawberries or canned peaches; freshly whipped cream with baked apples or just-picked blueberries; or ice cream with berry compote. Simply delectable!
Reviewed 6/01/2023