Fruit is an excellent choice for a healthy diet, but should we really be eating only raw fruit? After all, warm meals, such as soups and casseroles, taste particularly good in autumn. Today we reveal whether you should actually enjoy fruit warm and how you can do this.

Which dishes taste good with warm fruit?

We all have individual preferences when it comes to enjoying fruit. While some fruit fans love to bite into a crunchy apple, others favour only soft bananas. Of course, now that autumn has arrived, we have an opportunity to try warm fruit. Hearty casseroles with vegetables and sweet fruit, such as our banana and sweet potato casserole, are a delicious option. A warm soup with berries is also a good choice for the cool autumn weather.

How healthy is warm fruit?

It goes without saying that warm fruit tastes absolutely delicious. But how healthy is it? Is it damaged by the heat? Some vitamins, such as vitamin C, are actually very heat-sensitive and may be lost when the food is heated. Vitamin A is different – it is in fact easier for our bodies to absorb this vitamin from oven-cooked or boiled foods. By the way, steaming food in a strainer insert is a particularly effective way of preserving vitamins. Unfortunately, the important phytochemicals are heat-sensitive and do not survive the cooking process. Because they also give plant-based foods their distinctive flavour, heated fruit tastes different to raw food. Finally, dietary fibre is also more effective in food that has not been heated – a raw apple needs to be chewed for longer than a cooked apple and therefore keeps you full for longer.

So, warm fruit can definitely be enjoyed once you ensure that you include enough raw produce in your diet.

Tip: To get the best of both worlds and ensure a variety of flavours, simply combine raw and warm fruit and vegetables in your meals. Add some fresh berries to your cooked porridge, for example, or enhance raw salad ingredients with fried banana and pineapple slices.

Discover fruit in your own particular way!

Your Dole Team