Grilled Fruits for Summer Desserts
Healthy Cooking for Hot Days:
Grilling Fruits for Refreshing Summer Desserts
Depending on where you live right now, the weather is anywhere from hot to sweltering. The last thing you want on a hot summer day is a heavy, calorie-filled dessert that’s just going to weigh you down. So how do you satisfy your sweet tooth without all of the heavy tastes and flavors of standard desserts?
Why not try a refreshingly light, summer dessert using your George Foreman grill! With just a few slices of some of your favorite fruits and a few minutes with your George Foreman grill, you can make a dessert that pleases the palate without weighing you down. It’s simple to do, light on the tummy and a tasty way to satisfy a sweet craving without being horrendously unhealthy.
So what fruits can you grill for dessert? Here are just a few of our favorites:
- Pineapple
- Peaches
- Apricots
- Pears
- Bananas
- Apples
- Nectarines
- Plums
Besides, the above, you can basically grill almost any kind of fruit – even mango and papaya. We’ve even seen a few recipes that use grilled berries (strawberries are the most common), but this can get tricky since they can be easily squashed by the weight of the top plate on the grill.
For any fruit, you’ll want to add a little bit of a glaze to provide an extra bit of sweetness. The most common glazes are either done with a little honey brushed on or a mixture of butter and brown sugar. If you’re using the butter/sugar mix, just brush the outside of the fruit lightly with butter, then sprinkle with brown sugar (and any other spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, etc, that suit your taste buds). If you want any extra special dessert for the grown ups, you can also use dark rum.
Too cook, simply preheat the grill as you prepare and apply the glaze to your cut pieces of fruit. To cut the fruit, you want even pieces (halves usually work best) so that the fruit will lie flat as you grill. Then, grill anywhere from 3 – 6 minutes for most fruits, checking at the lowest time to make sure you’re not overcooking.
For serving, you can plate the fruit by itself, do mixed fruit kebabs for a multitude of tastes or serve in a bowl with some frozen yogurt or a small scoop of ice cream. Even with the ice cream and the little bit of butter you may have used in the glaze, your getting a refreshing summer treat that gets at least one serving of fruits into your daily diet.
