Fruit

Beyond Meat is a super-approachable product for anyone who already knows how to cook with meat.

It’s true that you can actually get a good meal, maybe even a great one, with wine pairings to boot, on an airplane — that is, if you’re flying first class. For main cabin passengers, it’s another story altogether. Airlines have whittled down their complimentary onboard options to a selection of itty-bitty packets of peanuts and pretzels — and that’s if you’re lucky.

'Tis the season to start stocking up.

It didn't take much to turn me into a convert.

No more shrunken filling or soggy crusts!

It's so much faster and easier!

Picked a bushel? Learn how to keep them fresh for months, and get some ideas for cooking with them.

Citrus zest is one of those fabulous kitchen secret weapons. It brings that bright, sunny flavor you know and expect from citrus fruits, minus the acidity of the juice. But knowing how to zest citrus is only half the battle. The real ticket is knowing how to put that bright zest to work. First, don’t confuse citrus zest and citrus peel. Zest refers to just the thin, colored outer skin, while peel refers to the entire skin, including the outer skin and white pith.

Q: My husband and I have recently moved into a house which is surrounded by beautiful grape vines. It seems like a waste to just let all of those grapes go to waste.Do you or your readers have any suggestions on what we could do with our home grown grapes?Sent by CaseyEditor: Casey, why yes!

The easiest, tastiest way to eat a bunch of snacks for lunch.

Before you put that fresh fruit or veggie in the freezer, read this.

And you only have to clean the blender once.

If there's one thing you do with that carton of strawberries, it should be this.

No, it's not macerating.

Happy 2018! Now is the time when magazines and websites start talking about New Year’s resolutions. We don’t necessarily believe in them (so many set you up to fail!), but we do believe in making every year better than the one before it. And so we present you with Feel Good Habits. Every day this week, we’ll be running tips to help you with a new promise you might have made yourself. A banana here and a few pieces of arugula there do not make for the most nutritious days.

Watch the video to learn how to keep berries fresh for longer after washing them.

Luscious sweet figs are among the oldest cultivated fruits, prized for their honeyed flavor and soft, jammy texture. But did you know that figs are technically not fruits but inverted flowers, some of which are pollinated by wasps in an amazing symbiotic relationship? While fresh figs are available twice a year, each season is short. Here are some tips to help you savor them fully!

Whether you’re making a fancy cocktail garnish, putting together a festive bowl of fruit salad, or serving appetizer-friendly fruit skewers, cutting your watermelon into stars adds a fun element to any summer spread. Here’s our simple method for cutting a whole watermelon down into cute little stars! Cutting watermelon into stars is easy. Once you trim the melon and cut it into slices, all you need is a star-shaped cookie cutter to stamp those stars out.

Removing the pit from an avocado is one of those supposedly “easy” food prep tasks that we think could actually use a little explaining. How do you hold the avocado still? Do you have to use a chef’s knife? How do you keep from cutting yourself? If you’ve never done it before, all of this can definitely feel a bit scary! Well, here’s a close look at how we do it so the next time you’re faced with an avocado, you know exactly what to do.

This time of year, hearts are abundant in every way, shape, and form. There are the classic heart-shaped candies, of course, but also cookies, cupcakes, and pizzas. Even breakfast gets in on the action with heart-shaped eggs and bacon! (See all the heart-shaped things here.) But it’s rare we actually stop to think about our real heart — and I’m not talking about in the emotional sense.

Did you know you can peel a mango with just a drinking glass? Or that you can use a pastry tip to remove cherry stones? There are so many ways to peel, cut, or otherwise prepare fruit in the kitchen, but some are better than others. If you love eating fruit by itself, or use fruit in a lot of seasonal recipes, these 10 small yet mighty shortcuts may just save you some valuable time. Instead of cutting a kiwi in half and shaving off the skin, just use your spoon!

Think twice before tossing those trimmings and peels.

It works like magic.

Over the weekend, I purchased a durian, which is a tropical fruit that originates in Southeast Asia, in Chinatown in San Francisco with my friend Prisna. Durians have received mixed reviews across the board. They are considered either a delicacy or a nuisance; some say their scent is fragrant, while others have a far different opinion. The durian fruit.

Whether you like it chunky or creamy, spicy or mellow, guacamole is basically the best thing on the snack table, and a welcome addition to a weekend meal of breakfast tacos or carnitas. But if you’re making guacamole, do it right. Here are five important things you should know about making the best guacamole. Do you have a knack for picking avocados with a streak of brown inside? Or ones that aren’t quite ripe enough?

Onions are definitely the cornerstone of our cooking. Minced, diced, or simply sliced into half-moons, they show up in almost every dish that we cook! How to cook them was one of the first techniques we learned when starting to cook. Here’s how we do it…Onions are one of the vegetables that takes the longest to cook, and they also hold up well over extended cooking. For this reason, onions are the first thing we start cooking whenever they appear in a recipe.

Just in case you’re still finding scapes at your local market, my mother has a tip for you that she recently learned. In brief, she says, “Eat your scape buds!”My mother had no idea what to do with the scapes she found in her CSA, or even what they were. The farmer running her CSA explained what they were (the pruned flower stalks from growing garlic plants), and gave her some pointers for cooking with them.“And the flower bud?

Have you ever tried roasting and peeling your own chestnuts? Well, an unfortunate experience with a batch of chestnut stuffing a few years back taught us that it’s a Royal Pain. That said, we just heard this clever chestnut-peeling tip from Melissa Clark that might make it worth giving it another go.Melissa Clark’s family makes chestnut stuffing every year for Thanksgiving. (Unlike me, apparently they didn’t give up after the first time!

Hot or sweet, red or green, we’ve been buying all the peppers we can at the farmers market while they’re in season. Some are for eating right away, but the majority of these beauties are destined for our freezer. We’ll see them later this winter!Peppers do change a little during the freezing process and tend to become limp and watery once thawed.

There is almost nothing worse than biting into an apple that looks delicious and crispy on the outside only to get a big mouthful of grainy, tasteless sawdust. It’s one of the only times we actually spit food out! What causes this travesty and is there any way to avoid being duped?Apples become mealy when the glue holding its cells together gets weak. When this happens, a bite of apple will just disintegrate into individual cells when we chew instead of holding firmly together.

Q: What is the difference between a sweet potato and a yam? My boyfriend and I are in love with “sweet potato fries” so I shop for them frequently, usually grabbing whichever is in stock.Is there a difference? Is one better for fry making? – Sent by KateEditor: Kate, sweet potatoes and yams are actually two different species, but it gets confusing because the names are used interchangeably US markets to refer to sweet potatoes.

Tamarind is one of the not-so-secret ingredients in a lot of Asian cooking. Eating a bowl of pad thai or a spoonful of chutneyUntil we started researching this post, we didn’t realize that the tamarind tree is actually native to Africa. The ingredient is so ubiquitous to Southeast Asian cuisine that we assumed it was from there! Tamarind trees have also spread to the Pacific islands, Mexico, and parts of South America, and gets used in the cooking from those regions as well.

Elizabeth’s post the other week on having salad for dinner reminded us of another favorite addition to the simple salad: fresh fruit. We find that a handful of berries or a diced apple transforms an otherwise ordinary bowl of leafy greens into something we can’t wait to dig into!Most fresh fruits add a sweet-tart note to other flavors in a savory salad. They pair well with toasted nuts and make an interesting texture contrast to raw vegetables.

Do you ever taste a dish at the end of cooking and think that it tastes okay, but just kind of…blah? What you need is something to perk up the flavors, and in our kitchen, that “something” we reach for is almost always a squeeze of lemon!Lemon juice is a magical ingredient, in our humble opinion. It brightens a dish and makes its flavors distinct, but without actually making it taste lemony. If we didn’t say anything, chances are that our guests would never know!

Whenever we come across this instruction in a recipe, we can’t help imagining little cartoon onions and carrots eying a soup pot with beads of sweat running down their faces. Fortunately, the reality is nothing so dramatic!“Sweating” applies to the aromatic vegetable base of a recipe and simply means for you to start those veggies cooking before other ingredients are added.

It also doubles as the best-ever burger topping. Can you guess what it is?

How are you enjoying the abundance of apples this season? Alongside the fifteen apple recipes we featured yesterday, we have been making batches of apple chips. Most of them are destined for snacking, but here are five other ways we like using apple chips to add a bit of natural sweetness and autumnal flair.• Oatmeal: Sweet but not sticky, apple chips are perfect for office drawers and DIY instant oatmeal mixes.

Fruit is like the hole-in-one of my children’s lunch boxes; it is one of the few things my kids are guaranteed to eat every day. (The same cannot be said for green vegetables or even baby carrots.) The pitfall of fruit is that some of its best specimens — summer strawberries, delicate fall pears — take a beating in transportation from backpack to bus stop to school cubby.

One of the easiest ways to eat a healthful diet is to consume more fruits and vegetables. That sounds fine on the surface, but how do you actually do it? Making salads for lunch every day is an easy way to start, but that can get boring fast. Luckily, there are lots of tricks to squeezing a few more wholesome fruits and vegetables into breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and even incorporating them into snacks and desserts. Let me show you how.

My three-year-old rescue dog, Goblin, will do anything for a morsel of food, which is why I always keep a stash of dog treats on hand. But the cost of high-quality treats without corn and other fillers can start to add up, which is why I’ve bookmarked EatingWell’s budget-friendly (and healthy) list of fruits and vegetables dogs can safely snack on — and there are quite a few for cats, too!

As I eat my weight in sweet strawberries this time of year, the subject of what to do with the abundance of spring and summer fruit comes to mind. I am usually more than content with enjoying berries and stone fruit as-is, but when I’ve gone a little overboard at the farmers market, jam is one of the many things I consider making. Or is it jelly? The two terms for fruit spread have always confused me a bit. Luckily, there’s an easy way to distinguish between the two.

Well, aside from simply eating them all out of hand.

Their name means “little beaks” and it’s easy to see why. This diminutive and sharply-tapered variety of chili pepper is one of the stars of the Spanish table. Have you ever tried them?These peppers are simultaneously sweet, spicy, and smoky thanks to some time spent over wood fires after harvesting. The slow-roasting also cooks away much of the water in the pepper, concentrating and intensifying the natural flavors.

Here’s a good question from reader Betsy. She writes:I was very happy to receive some gorgeous figs in my CSA this week. How do I know when they’re ripe? They’re a light purple color with light-colored stripes (and they’re still a little green). Should I let them ripen on the counter or in the fridge?Betsy, we love figs! It’s wonderful you get them in your CSA box.Figs do not ripen very well once they’ve been picked, however.

Have you ever tried Castelvetrano olives? We first had a sample at a farmers market. They were giant olives, bright green, with a crunchy bite and a clean, fruity flavor that actually – get this! – tasted like olive oil.These olives are very different from the salty, pungent cured olives that we also love. They are delicate and light in flavor, with a crisp bite. They are hard to find, though, and even when we find them they are of varying quality.

If you hit up a cheap country farmstand or went apple picking this fall, you may have come away with a bounty of apples. You may, like us, be wondering how to keep these apples fresh for as long as you can. Here’s what our local apple farmer told us about storing apples for the winter.• For every 10 degrees above 30°F, the apples’ lifespan decreases dramatically.

Wheels, slices, wedges, spirals, twists – and flamed twists. When it comes to citrus garnishes, cocktail recipes can get quite specific. Here’s everything you need to know to garnish like a pro: THE BASICS Wedges Used in Margaritas, Dark and Stormies, Bloody Marys, and countless other fresh-tasting classics, citrus wedges are usually served perched on the rim of a glass, and can be optionally squeezed and dropped into the drink once it’s served.

Looking up from prep work to find your peeled and cut potatoes have all taken on a disconcerting pinkish hue is a bit startling and downright unappetizing! Why does this happen? Is it safe? And is there any truth in your mother’s advice to hold cut potatoes in cold water? Take a look…Believe it or not, that lumpy, brown potato you’re holding is actually a complicated package of chemicals and enzymes.

We ate at a new Middle-Eastern restaurant over the weekend and our dish came with a warm sauce of tiny berries we can’t wait to try at home. The sauce was just so deliciously tart and paired so well with the yogurt-marinated chicken we’d ordered!

We use a lot of lemon zest. In fact, it’s a safe bet that at any given time there are two or three naked lemons lurking about the kitchen. We stick them in plastic bags or containers and put them in the fridge, but we are always looking for ways to use up these denuded lemons. Here are five favorite ways to use the inside as well as the outside of a lemon.Lemon zest goes into so many things!

Picture this: You reach in the pantry for the dried fruit you thought you bought not that long ago, and what you find is far from what you expect. Those once-plump raisins and bright dried cranberries are now even more dry, shriveled, and maybe even hard. They kind of give new meaning to the words dried fruit. But don’t toss them just yet; this fruit isn’t a lost cause. With the help of a simple trick, there’s an easy way to bring them back to life.

Ever made a batch of blueberry muffins only to find that all the fruit sank to the bottom during baking? Soggy-bottomed muffins are so disappointing. Here’s how to keep that from happening. The solution to sinking fruit is to toss them in a tablespoon or two of flour from the recipe’s dry ingredients — just enough flour to give them a coating. Then, fold the flour-coated fruit into the batter as the very last step before baking.

One of our favorite things to bring to outdoor get-togethers (or give as a hostess gift) is a whole watermelon. Not only does it alleviate the stress of prep work, but it’s easy to pack and go in a jiffy, especially when it’s being toted around in a sling. Although it looks like something the stork would bring (babies, watermelon, same difference right?), this easy sling means no slipping, dropping or rolling around can occur!

Here’s a pungent ingredient we recently picked up from a Thai market. Have you ever cooked with it?This is a sprig of green peppercorns preserved in salt and vinegar. Green peppercorns are the unripe berries of the pepper plant; when dried and oxidized, they turn into the more familiar black peppercorns. Green peppercorns are quite perishable, so they are usually freeze-dried or, like these, packed in brine.

A mealy apple is no one’s favorite lunchtime surprise, we can all agree on that! So what do you do when you wind up with a bunch of them in your fridge? Before just throwing them away, try using them in one of these ways:Cooking helps to break down dry, mealy apples and release their flavorful juice:1. Applesauce – Homemade applesauce is a great snack to have around the house, and you can make a batch with even just a few apples.

Personally, we can’t get enough garlic. If the recipe calls for a clove or two, we’re bound to put in three or four. But not everyone has the same opinion and not every dish needs the same kind of garlic flavor. Here’s how to change its flavor and intensity in any dish you make!One of the things we love about garlic is its versatility. Depending on how you cut it or cook it, garlic can be sweet and smoky, sharp and pungent, or simply mellow.

Fresh pomegranate season may have ended, but it’s still possible to cook with these fruits in their dried, spice form. Dried pomegranate seeds, also known as anardana, are a fairly new ingredient for us, but here are some of the things we have learned.Dried in the sun or with a dehydrator, the pomegranate seeds may be left whole or ground into a powder. The anardana we bought (pictured) was crushed until crumbly and slightly sticky.

We spotted big boxes of beautiful medjool dates at the store this week, and we’re wondering if we can think of enough things that we can make with them without getting bored. We have a few ideas – what are your suggestions?Granted it takes a long time for dates to get too shriveled and dry to use, so we have plenty of time to use them up! Dates are partially dehydrated tropical stone fruits with a chewy, moist texture.

Can mashed potatoes really qualify as a meal by themselves? If you mix in enough other ingredients, we think they certainly can! Mashed potatoes are really just like polenta, rice, or any other starchy side, and they make the perfect foil for just about anything we have in the fridge. Here are a few of our favorites extras!We realized mashed potatoes could be a meal unto themselves when we got hungry while making a batch of Twice Baked Potatoes.

Q: I started the Kitchen Cure last weekend, and I somehow forgot that I canned pints and pints of pickled peaches over the summer! Out of sight, out of mind, I guess. And while pickled peaches are OK swirled into some yogurt, I’m hoping I can find something new or different to use them for.Any suggestions? I’m trying to cut down on desserts, so something savory would probably better.

Have you tried guava paste? We first encountered this sweet concoction in an empanada at our favorite Cuban restaurant. Guava, cheese and fried dough in one bite? Yes, please! But there are lots of ways to use guava paste. We’ve got 10 ideas for you below. Guava paste – also known as guayabate or goiabada – is a very thick puree of guava fruit and sugar, often with added pectin. The consistency is similar to membrillo, or quince paste.

Now that the fresh tomatoes are finally coming in, we’re in seventh heaven using them every way we can. Whenever we put tomatoes in a cooked dish, we find that we gain sweet flavors, but lose that the super fresh, bright tomato flavor that we love. Tomato leaves might just be the answer.In On Food and Cooking, Harold McGee explains that tomato leaves contain certain enzymes and oils that give them a very strong “fresh tomato” aroma.

We know all about the difference between coconut milk and cream but lately we’ve been hearing lots of people talk about coconut water and juice. What are they, exactly, and is there a difference between them? And does it matter whether you buy it in a bottle, carton, can, or shell?The short answer is no, there is no real difference between coconut water and coconut juice. Both refer to the clear, slightly sweet and refreshing liquid found inside young green coconuts.

If you love strawberries for dessert, here’s a fun fact for you: strawberry pulp can actually be used as a natural teeth whitener!Read on for the method, as well as the science behind it.Apparently the malic acid in strawberries is an astringent which removes surface discoloration on teeth. A simple tooth-cleaner can be made by mixing strawberry pulp with baking soda and brushing it on with a toothbrush.Health.

We’ve been a little avocado-happy around here lately, what with the breakfast puddings, our new favorite salad, and even an attempt at avocado ice cream. Needless to say, there have been a lot of avocados floating around the kitchen.According to Cheryl Sternman Rule of 5 Second Rule, the best place to keep all these avocados is not necessarily on the counter as we’ve always believed.

Q: In an effort to reduce food waste, I’ve been saving the zest and juice of any leftover citrus fruits that I have. What I don’t know is: how long will it last in the refrigerator? Can I freeze it? Any other good tips for using citrus zest?Sent by HarmonyEditor: Harmony, good timing! We wrote a post just yesterday on freezing citrus zest. You should also check out this post on measuring and storing lemon zest for more suggestions.

You can spot a display of Granny Smiths a mile away. Among the vibrant reds, oranges, and yellows of the other fruits, these bright spring-green apples shine like they have their own special spotlight. And maybe they do.The Granny Smith hybrid was first propagated in Australia in 1868 by, yes, the real Granny Maria Ann Smith and it is now grown in apple-growing regions around the world.

Q: In recipes that call for the juice of one lemon or lime or other citrus fruit, how much are they asking? 1/4 cup? 1/8 cup? Some fruits are very juicy, and fruit size can vary too. I also have a tendency to wring out every last drop of juice! It’d be nice to have a standard measurement to go off of.

Some of the best lessons in the kitchen are learned the hard way. For me it took puzzling over why the heck my raspberries were always moldy, year after year, when I usually only keep them for a day or so.

Q: My boyfriend just sent me a package of date crystals straight from the famous Shields Date Gardens in Palm Springs. I’m very excited, but apart from adding them to my morning oatmeal and trying them in a smoothie, I’m not sure how else to use them. Any ideas for using date crystals?

Is it true that most of the nutrients in fruits and vegetables are found in the skin? The New York Times recently tackled this question, and if you’ve been feeling guilty about trimming away carrot peels and apple skins, the answer may surprise you. While there are certain compounds found only in the skins of fruits and vegetables, such as resveratrol in red grapes, most nutrients found in the skin are also in the flesh.

I usually tuck some type of whole fruit in my bag to eat with lunch or snack on later in the day. It might roll around a bit or — if I put it directly into my backpack or purse — encounter who-knows-what at the bottom of my bag. To protect apples, pears and other fruit with edible peels, I’ve come up with an quick way to keep them clean and protected from bruises.When I pack my lunch in the morning, I use a cloth napkin to tie up the fruit in its own little protective pouch.