From strawberries to blackberries and raspberries to cherries, blueberries, peaches, apricots and plums. In summer, the choice of delicious fresh fruits is huge. So getting enough vitamins is super easy this summer. Especially if you keep varying your dishes. Therefore, in this blog I share four ideas for fresh, fruity surprises to delight your guests and yourself.
Cooling sorbet with fresh fruit
Whoever says summer, says sorbet. A sorbet is perfect to make yourself with frozen fruit, water and sugar. Mix this together in the right proportions using a blender and you're going to score big points with your friends. Grab a couple of tall glasses from the cabinet and fill them with a layer of fresh fruit. From the ice cream, take out two ice cream balls per person which you place on top of the fruit. Then add fresh fruit again. Over that you pour a splash of fruit syrup or a chocolate dessert sauce. (Do you feel like a sorbet but don't plan on turning ice cream yourself? You can find the most delicious ice cream in the store, of course). For even more celebration, top the sorbet with a generous dollop of whipped cream. Serve your sorbet with a long ice cream scoop, a straw and a colorful umbrella cap.
Fresh fruit salad
A fruit salad is a delicious alternative to vegetables on hot days. Soft summer fruits contain on average more dietary fiber than other fruits and are also full of vitamin C. All fine nutrients and lots of flavor for very few calories. I tell you: it's a match made in heaven. And by not processing the fruit - like mashing or heating it - you preserve all those good qualities.
How about a combination of strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, kiwi and mango? For an extra explosion of flavor, add some mint leaves. But nothing like variety, so the next time, put together a salad of pear, red grapes, melon, kiwi, pineapple and wild peach.
Want to really surprise your guests? Then make a rainbow salad. You choose the fruit based on color and then don't mix it up, but put the fruit against each other per type. All those colors not only look festive, but are also healthy because each color provides its own nutrients.
Do you have some fruit salad left over? You can keep your salad good for two days by storing it in a sealed container in the refrigerator. Fruits that brown quickly, such as apples, can be kept fresh by sprinkling a little lemon juice over them.
Thirst-quenching drinks with summer fruits
In summer, we are all looking for tasty thirst quenchers. A real trend in this is serving water with fruit. It's no secret that water is the healthiest thing to drink, but over time it also gets a bit monotonous. You solve that by adding fruit to flat or sparkling water. Fruit adds a slight flavor to the water and also looks very nice in a transparent carafe or drink dispenser. Actually, any fruit qualifies for this, but my absolute favorite is: strawberry with lime and blueberries. By the way, mint and cucumber are also wonderfully refreshing on summer days.
Feasting on smoothies with fruit
Fruit smoothies take the advice "two pieces of fruit a day" to a whole new level. Because man, how delicious they are. Two pieces of frozen fruit and some orange juice or milk (such as buttermilk, almond milk or coconut milk), that's basically all you need. To give your smoothie a little more body, add Greek yogurt or cottage cheese. For more fiber, a handful of oatmeal or flaxseed will do the trick. You can also top your smoothie with two full hands of fresh leafy spinach. The spinach hardly changes the taste, but it does color the smoothie a nice green and you get extra fiber unnoticed. Yummy, yummy!
Pour the smoothie into a pretty smoothie glass, like this one from Durobor. Insert straw and enjoy!
PS: Do you have more fruit than you need?
Sometimes you have fruit left over. Because there are fewer eaters than you expected or because your vegetable garden is suddenly overflowing with strawberries. What you can do then is pickle your fruit. A matter of heating the fruit and storing it in a preserving jar so you can enjoy it later. Each type of fruit requires a different heating time, so get informed about this. Instructions on how to do this can be found on the Internet.