The fruit, sweet or sour, allows you to prepare light and nutritious desserts full of flavor and color that provide good doses of minerals, vitamins and fiber.
The variety of fruits that reach the market allows you to make all kinds of desserts.
From the simplicity of a piece of peeled and cut fruit, through fruit salads, carpaccio’s, skewers or sweet salads, to juices, sweet and cold soups or semi-cold. The possibilities are so wide that it is impossible to get bored with them.
Due to its contribution of vitamins, minerals and fiber, its low calories and its satiating and moisturizing power, they also report numerous health benefits. Including them in dessert is a good way to eat the recommended daily ration without abusing options such as pastries and pastries, more calories and more fat.
Health professionals of different tendencies highlight the importance of including fresh fruit in the diet in an amount that ranges between two or three pieces a day, but what is it about fruit that becomes so necessary?
BENEFITS OF EATING FRUIT EVERY DAY
Its consumption is related to a better physical condition and an increase in vital energy, since in general it helps to purify metabolic waste, regulates intestinal transit and increases available body energy (by simple sugars).
Its minerals and vitamins, among which antioxidants abound, are also involved in most internal processes of the body and are essential to maintain optimal health.
However, the nutritional qualities of the fruit depend on each type and variety and also on the crop and the point of ripeness. An organically grown fruit is not the same as that which comes from forced cultivation.
Nor is a fruit ripened on the tree that has developed its sugars and whose vitamins are available the same as a fruit that is picked green and ripens in a chamber.
It is clear that they all have fiber, water, vitamins and minerals, but the first has been “nourished” until the last moment, while the second can be considered less complete and tasty.
The fame of the fruit as a low-calorie food is, on the other hand, well deserved: strawberries provide 33 calories per 100 g, 73 grapes, 63 custard apples, 81 bananas, 56 mango and 50 apples, so taken balanced helps control body weight.
IS EATING FRUIT FOR DESSERT BAD?
About the moment in which it is convenient to taste the fruit there are several theories. For many naturopathic dietitians, fruit should not go to the end because it interferes with digestion, although there are fruits that precisely improve it because of the fiber they contain and because of their compounds, such as papain in papaya. Some even help clean the mouth thanks to their acids, such as apple.
My advice is that, apart from being informed, be attentive to the response of your own body and its needs. There are those who feel bad about melon after a meal, or who find orange juice difficult to digest. There are no general rules; only advice that should be applied in a particular way.
From the nutritional point of view the best option is to eat the fruit raw, but other options such as baking, papillates, light sautéed, battered, cooking in syrup or wine, au gratins, puddings and custards, fillings of cakes and cakes, desserts with dairy products, should not be ruled out. gelatin, mousses…
In summer you will crave more cold and light desserts, sorbets, ice cream, salads and fruit salads, while in winter lightly cooked fruits that provide internal heat will be more convincing.
- Pineapple and mango, thinly sliced, allow you to make rolls or lasagna combined with cheese and other fruits that contrast in color and flavor.
- Plums, grapes and apricots can make delicious cakes with a base of breeze or puff pastry.
- A mixture of red fruits accompanied with English cream and spent a few minutes on the grill is delicious, especially if flavored with cinnamon.
- Bananas, apples and pineapple are suitable for dipping in battering and frying paste, then sprinkled with sugar or honey.
- And with strawberries you can make delicious sauces that accompany ice cream, custards and cakes.
7 PROPOSALS TO TAKE FRUIT DAILY
In addition to providing essential vitamins and minerals for health, fresh fruit allows you to prepare countless light and attractive desserts.
MACEDONIAN
The ideal is to use apple, orange, kiwi, peach, watermelon, melon, grape …, consistent fruits that can be cut and do not cloud the mixture.
They can be seasoned with sugar, honey, syrup, apple or orange juice, must or a sweet liqueur such as Cointreau or kirsch, or macerated with spices such as ginger, pink pepper or star anise.
With citrus, nuts and brown sugar are delicious.
If you have leftovers from one day to the next, you can take advantage of it to make a cold soup by crushing the fruit with cream or yogurt.
CARPACCIO
To prepare it, it is advisable to use consistent fruits and play with the combination of colors. Mango, pineapple, apple, kiwi, melon and watermelon are ideal for this type of preparations.
A few drops of lemon will prevent them from oxidizing and blackening. It must be consumed instantly.
GELATIN
It allows to curdle mousses, aspics, cold custards and many other desserts with hardly any calories. Almost all fruits can be used, except kiwi, which is too acidic.
The purees or juices of red fruits are delicious curdled with syrup and gelatin; also, those of peach, mango or watermelon.
SKEWERS
They admit tasty and very attractive combinations, such as mango and pineapple, grapes with cheese, strawberry with banana, apple with quince, tropical fruits, or fruit with chocolate or with a honey and orange sauce.
MACERATED FRUIT
A pinch of salt or a few drops of vinegar or orange juice counteract the acidity of fruits such as strawberries, which can be combined with other berries, peach or banana.
Kiwis can be macerated with syrup and raisins or with fresh mint.
COOKED FRUIT
To cook fruits, you can use syrup or cava, red or white wine, must, raspberry liqueur or spearmint, and flavor the liquid with cinnamon, vanilla or citrus peel. Another option is to curdle the excess liquid with gelatin.
FRUIT AND DAIRY PRODUCTS
Yogurt, cream, milk and fresh cheese combine very well with red fruits, peach, mango and papaya.
