Vegetables are often bland and fruits are often too sweet. If only there was a balance to be had. Well, there is! When you cook fruits and vegetables a certain way and add in some extra healthy sweeteners. When you learn how to cook these just right, you can freeze them for later and or have them as a snack while at work. The key is to select the right vegetables that won’t get too soft when left in the fridge and also, select the best sweeteners that won’t turn bitter over time either. There is a nice balance to be had and we will show you how.
Podded peas
Podded peas are a great canvas for multiple flavors. The shell of the pods absorbs a lot of ingredients that add to the flavor of the peas inside, especially when you use your mouth to strip them. So, salt is perhaps the most common type of additional ingredient, but you can also use red chili flakes. But to make this recipe sweeter, you should use brown sugar. Cooking the spicy podded peas in brown sugar, in butter, is a great way to make the pods hard and sweet. The butter will brown the pods and the sugar will absorb into them. You can use white sugar but this might be too bitter. Don’t cook them in olive oil! Butter is far richer and will gently brown the pods instead of singing them.
Candied fruit
Fruit is ripe for making candy. Fruit is naturally sweet and when cooked, the bitterness goes away. Apples and peaches as the main sweet candy fruit which you can make at home. Candied fruit is made very simply. Put some water into a pan, along with some sugar, and dump in the cut pieces of fruit. Boil everything down to the absolute minimum. And yes, we mean absolutely minimum. This will mean until there is no more water and it’s a fruity goopy mess at the bottom. Then when its just the fruit left, add in some honey. Simmer very gently until the fruit becomes small and hard. Candied fruit! However, you can just buy some good old CBD candies. These are made out of peach, apple, lemon and all sorts. They also have the extra benefit of healing inflamed limbs. They are just as sweet and juicy as homemade candied fruit.
Honey parsnips
Lately, as the world goes crazy for cauliflower cheese, honey-roasted parsnips are bursting onto the scene as a nice snack. Although they are nothing new and have always been part of the Sunday Roast dinner, they haven’t usually been seen away from the dinner table. Now you might see them in your colleague’s lunchbox at work. The trick is to dry them out, not to roast them. You can do this by cutting them up and leaving them to dry for about 3-4 days. Put some butter into a pan, cover them in honey and flash fry them. Now you have a sweet, hard and chewy snack whenever you want it.
Sweet fruit and vegetables make eating healthy so much easier. Which one of these three is your favorite? If you haven’t tried any of them yet, let us know how you get on!
