The Best Spring and Summer Fruits to Cook With
Spring is here, readers! What better way to celebrate the season (and summer) than with fruit-themed dishes?
Fruit is better to eat when it’s in season since they have more flavor, and more nutrients than buying store produce all year round.
Cooking with seasonal fruits is the best way to create better recipes and discover new fruits you probably never thought to use before in dishes, such as desserts and main courses. That’s why I made a list of the best spring and summer fruits to cook with.
Why Eat Fruits Seasonally?
Have you ever received an email from a cooking website highlighting the best recipes to use at the peak of every season? Yeah? Same! Those recipes you read about are going off the best fruits to use in those seasons—like apples in fall. That’s why you see apple pie, crumble, and cake pops more often during that season.
You want to eat fruits seasonally because the flavor is easier to enjoy, and there’s more nutritional value when biting into a seasonal fruit. The fruit you buy in the produce section—out-of-season fruit—goes through a cooling process, causing it to lose its flavor over time. So, to get a better flavor, eat your fruit when it’s still in season.
Spring Fruits to Cook With
Spring fruits are the freshest, most delicious ways to start your cooking journey. Freshen your dishes with cherimoya or avocados—whatever you want, take your pick!
Limes
Limes are an unbelievably delicious spring fruit used to create all different kinds of delicious desserts and make a great pairing with tacos! Its sister, key lime, is a delightful variant commonly used in one of America’s most popular fruit pies, key lime pie! You can tell a lime is ripe by its smell. Take a whiff—it’s ready to use if it smells strongly of lime.
Cherimoya
Cherimoya is a fruit Mark Twain famously described as the most delicious fruit known to man. This delightful citrus looks like an apple on the inside, with a pinecone-shaped body on the outside. Try this in your cookie dough, and you’ll thank me later!
Summer Fruits to Cook With
Summer is creeping up, and what better way to prepare than to learn the best summer fruits to cook with?
Blueberries
Blueberries are one of America’s most popular fruits, best enjoyed at the start of the summer season. These are perfect for a late-night snack or something to dry out and put into trail mix later.
My favorite thing to create with these is always blueberry muffins—you can’t go wrong with the beautiful purplish color dotting the top. Mmm! Thinking about it is making me want to make some muffins now.
Figs
You might not like figs as much as other fruits because the ones you buy are out of season. Again, much grocery store produce is cooled to sell all year long. Figs are summer fruit; you can tell they’re fresh by how they look—the ripest have wrinkled skin and a bent stem. Pick this fruit for its sweet flavor profile and endless recipes, like a fig bread spread.
It’s better to eat fruit in-season than out. While picking out your favorite fruit to try this season, explore more of my blog to learn how to use the fruit in your recipes. I can’t wait to see how you incorporate seasonal fruit into your dishes.
