7 delicious and very imaginative recipes with autumn fruit

Fruit, rich in vitamins and antioxidants, should not be missing from the diet. Incorporating it into the kitchen allows you to create light, tasty and very imaginative dishes.

As soon as the cold arrives, you want hot and restorative dishes, but it is also advisable to ensure a good supply of vitamins, minerals and fiber that helps strengthen defenses and enhance health.

Fresh seasonal or soft-cooked fruit offers a healthy way to do this. In addition, as soon as the imagination is let fly, it allows the elaboration of a wide variety of lively, light and delicious recipes that delight the palate with new aromas, flavors and textures.

The fruit, with its richness in vitamins and antioxidants, helps to face seasonal change with health and overcome the lowering of defenses; It provides abundant fiber, which regulates intestinal transit, and provides energy in the form of carbohydrates. That is why it is so advisable to include it in the daily diet.

Occasions are not lacking. Finishing any meal with fruit is usually the usual. The fruit is also a healthy and light snack to snack between meals. And starting the day with a piece of fruit enhances its purifying effect and allows you to make the most of its nutrients.

Now, fruit can be present as an ingredient in all kinds of dishes, which gain in flavor and help increase the consumption of such an important food.

While it is true that when cooking the fruit part of its properties are lost, if soft, short and light cooking is chosen, you can enjoy its nutritional value and its healthy effects in the short and long term. According to Eastern dietetics, this would be, in fact, the most appropriate way to consume it in winter, a season in which hot foods should predominate.

HOW TO INCORPORATE AUTUMN FRUITS?

The fruit that ripens in time and on the tree is at the zenith of its nutritional and flavor qualities. At this time persimmons, pears, apples, custard apples, pomegranates, winter melons, citrus, kiwis, papayas, pineapples, bananas, coconuts, quinces. Dried fruits and nuts are also a good complement in numerous recipes:

• Snacks. The fruit is usually combined with strong foods to which it serves as a counterpoint and to which it lightens, such as lightly smoked tofu. Raw, well-cut and showy fruit is usually used, although a light sauté of apples or mangoes is also exquisite.
• Salads. They accept the natural fresh fruit wonderfully, which must be at its point and which is usually chosen by contrast with the rest of the ingredients, both in color and flavor: apple with endives and walnuts, thin slices of melon with a vinaigrette of red fruits, pears quartered with mushrooms and endive …
• First and second. The fruits can accompany a cream, such as a vichyssoise to which apple is added, or incorporated into rice pilaf or rissotto. Other tasty combinations are spinach with raisins and pine nuts, pears stuffed with seitan or tofu, fried plantains or accompanying a curry… Legumes combine with nuts and fillings also feel-good fruit: in cakes, dumplings, quiches …
• Desserts. Apart from raw, in carpaccio or fruit salad, the fruit can be prepared in the oven, steamed with spices, boiled in wine or syrup, as part of a jelly or flan, in open cakes or breaded, in the form of mousse, covered with chocolate …
• Dressings. The fruit can serve as a dressing or base of a vinaigrette. With pieces of raw fruit, such as kiwi, orange or blackberry, you can complete an apple cider vinaigrette. Jams give sweet and sour vinaigrettes, especially those of berries, figs or blackberries.

5 METHODS TO COOK THE FRUIT

Cooking enhances the aroma and flavor of fruits, but to better preserve their nutrients it is advisable to opt for soft and brief cooking:

• Steamed. This cooking method preserves the properties of the fruit very well and avoids using fats. Pears and apples lend themselves easily to steaming. It is best to cut them into cubes and distribute them over the steamer strainer so that the heat reaches all the pieces. The broth can be flavored with spices such as cinnamon, cloves, juniper or ginger, and then bound as a sauce with a little cornstarch.
• Boiled. The fruit boiled in syrup or wine is delicious but being a long cooking part of the nutrients are lost. Pears, apples, peaches, dried fruits and oranges are good candidates. Adjusting the amount of liquid, using it as a sauce and reducing cooking times optimizes the result. The liquid is flavored with citrus peel, cinnamon, cloves, ginger …
• Sautéed. It is an ideal cooking for consistent fruits. Little fat is used and little time, and the fruit is tasty, crunchy and with good color. It is suitable for pineapple, slightly green papaya, plantain or apple. Instead of oil you can sauté it with margarine, then caramelize the fruit with sugar and flame it with a sweet liquor.
• Frying. It has the disadvantage that a lot of oil is needed, but it can highlight the taste of fruits in some preparations and allows you to use batters. They are suitable for frying apples, pears, bananas, papaya, pineapple, dried fruits… The fruit can be integrated into a sauce or added at the end of cooking. It can also be floured or covered with a dough of fritters and accompanied by chocolate sauce.
• Baked. Baking takes a little longer but allows you to prepare very tasty dishes. It enhances the flavor of the fruit and preserves its nutrients a lot. You can add apple or pear to a potato gratin, or apples to aubergines ready to gratin. For dessert, pears, apples or bananas seasoned with citrus, liquor, sugar, margarine and cinnamon, split in half and lightly baked, are delicious. Another option is pineapple covered with sugar, orange juice and spices, cut into slices and caramelized in the oven, served with dates.

7 HEALTHY RECIPES WITH AUTUMN FRUIT

PEACH BIND WITH SPICED WINE

Ingredients (for 4 people):

• 4 peaches
• 1/2-liter red wine
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 150 g sugar
• Lemon peel
• 2 sprigs of fresh mint
• 1 nail
• 1 star anise
• 1 package of brick pasta
• Icing sugar for garnish
• Margarine

Preparation (20′ + 20′ cooking + 35′ rest):

1. Boil the wine with sugar, spices and lemon peel in a saucepan. Let cook for 10 minutes, remove from heat, cover and let stand for another 15 minutes.
2. Peel and cut the peaches into quarters. Cook them in the wine for about 5 minutes and let cool in this preparation.
3. Brush the brick pasta sheets with a little molten margarine. In the center of each sheet place a smaller rectangle of paste to create a double bottom. Drain the peaches, dry them with absorbent paper and repair them in the center. Sprinkle with chopped mint and close the packets holding them with kitchen thread.
4. Bake at 200 °C for 5-6 minutes until golden brown. Remove them from the oven and let stand until warm. Sprinkle with icing sugar and, if desired, accompany with ice cream to taste.

Nutritional values:

• Calories: 391
• Carbohydrates: 70 g
• Protein: 3 g
• Fat: 9 g
• Cholesterol: 21 mg

MANGO SALAD WITH NUTS AND COCOA

Ingredients (for 4 people):

• 150 g assorted lettuce
• 1 handle
• 2 tangerines
• 50 g walnuts
• 1 tablespoon whole wheat sugar
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon chocolate shavings
• 2 capsules of cardamom (optional)
• Olive oil

For the vinaigrette:

• 1 teaspoon pure cocoa powder
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• Pepper and salt

Preparation (20′ + 8′ cooking + 15′ rest):

1. Peel the mango and tangerines. The handle cut it into very thin slices and separates the tangerine segments. Wash and dry the lettuce leaves. The largest chop them and place them in a salad bowl with the fruits.
2. Place the sugar in a saucepan, add a tablespoon of water, another of soy sauce and the seeds inside the cardamom capsules, and cook over medium heat until you get a clear caramel. Add the nuts, turn a couple of times and pour the caramel over sulfurized or aluminum paper smeared with oil. Let cool and chop.
3. Place the cocoa in a bowl, add the lemon juice, salt and pepper and add the oil little by little beating with a fork. Drizzle the salad with the obtained vinaigrette and sprinkle with caramelized nuts and chocolate shavings.

Nutritional values:

• Calories: 441
• Carbohydrates: 36 g
• Protein: 5 g
• Fat: 31 g
• Cholesterol: 1 mg

RAVIOLI WITH PEAR SAUCE AND WALNUTS

Ingredients (for 4 people):

• 400 grams of fresh vegan cheese ravioli
• 2 pears, peeled and chopped
• 150 ml vegan cream for cooking
• 100 g peeled walnuts
• Juice of a lemon
• 1 sprig of thyme
• 2 tablespoons olive oil and salt

Preparation (25′ + 5′ cooking):

1. Drizzle the pears with lemon juice and chop half of the nuts.
2. In a saucepan heat the oil and add the chopped walnuts and pear. Room very lightly and cook 5 minutes. Add the cream and cook 10 more minutes so that it is a little thick.
3. Cook the pasta in plenty of salted water. Drain, reserve two tablespoons of the cooking water to rinse the sauce and place in a dish.
4. Drizzle the ravioli with the sauce and sprinkle with thyme and whole nuts.

FRUIT SKEWERS

Ingredients (for 4 people):

• 1 banana, cut into thick slices
• 1 kiwi, thickly sliced
• 8 strawberries, split in half
• 1 mango, cut into tacos
• 1 small pineapple, cut into tacos
• 1 lemon, juice and zest
• 2 tablespoons honey
• Juice of an orange

Preparation (20′ + 12′ cooking + 30′ rest):

1. Let the cut fruits macerate with a tablespoon of honey, orange juice and lemon zest for half an hour.
2. Prepare the skewers by interspersing the fruits to taste and cook them on a grill four minutes on each side.
3. Spray the maceration liquid on the skewers and gratin in the oven until slightly caramelized.

Nutritional values:

• Calories: 126
• Carbohydrates: 29 g
• Protein: 1 g
• Fat: 1 g
• Cholesterol: O mg

WINTER FRUIT SALAD

Ingredients (for 4 people)

• Assorted lettuces
• A quarter chicory
• 1 orange and half a lemon
• 6 mushrooms or any mushroom
• Half pomegranate
• 2 tablespoons sesame
• 30 g cashews
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 1 small tablespoon Muscat
• 6 tablespoons oil, pepper and salt

Preparation (20′):

1. Wash the lettuce. The lettuces chop them with your hands and cut the chicory into julienne. Peel the orange and cut it into segments. Wash the mushrooms, cut into thin slices and pass them through the griddle. Shell the pomegranate and set aside.
2. Toast the cashews in a pan.
3. Mix the vinegar with salt, pepper and muscat, and then add oil while stirring.
4. Assemble the salads on individual plates, spread the pomegranate on top and serve with the dressing apart.

FRUIT SOUP

Ingredients (for 4 people):

• 1 sweet onion
• 2 apples
• 2 pears
• 1 orange
• 100 g berries for garnish
• 1 cinnamon stick
• A piece of grated ginger
• 1 bottle of sparkling water (Vichy type)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Pepper and salt

Preparation (15′ + 20-25′ cooking):

1. Peel the onion and fruits, chop and boil covered with water with the cinnamon stick, a strip of orange peel and its juice, and ginger.
2. After about 20 minutes add the sparkling water, oil, salt and pepper. Remove the orange peel and cinnamon, crush everything and pass it through a Chinese.
3. Serve warm and decorated with red fruits, or crush them and pour them spirally over the soup.

WOK FRUITS

Ingredients (for 4 people):

• 1 apple
• 1 grapefruit
• 1 handle
• 1 pear
• 4 pineapple slices
• 1 lemon
• 50 g sunflower seeds
• 3 tablespoons oil
• Soy sauce to taste
• Chives, pink peppercorn and salt

Preparation (15′ + 12′ cooking):

1. Wash and peel the fruits, cut them into segments or half-moons. Reserve with lemon juice.
2. Heat the wok and pour the oil. Add the pineapple and sauté; In small intervals add the apple, pear, mango and, finally, grapefruit. The fruits must be al dente.
3. Salt and pepper, add the pipes and soy sauce, and serve warm as a side dish or starter garnished with chives.