Go wild for blueberries in these summer dishes
From appetizers to desserts, blueberries abound in chef Kathleen Daelemans' healthy and fresh take on summer favorites. Check out her recipes
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Fresh and healthy blueberry recipes July 11: Chef Kathleen Daelemans shares some delicious, healthy blueberries recipes with "Today" show's Alexis Glick. Today show |
Blueberries can add a little something special to your favorite summer salads and desserts. The result is not only delicious, but healthy for you too. Accomplished chef Kathleen Daelemans, author of "Getting Thin and Loving Food," shares these fresh and slimming dishes using yummy blueberries. Here are the recipes.
Peach, Blueberry and Fennel Salad
Especially during the summer, when it’s too hot to fire up the indoor oven, I look for delicious salads that I can easily pair a piece of outdoor grilled chicken or fish with. This salad is the perfect accompaniment to a lovely piece of grilled white fish such as sea bass or halibut, and it’s especially nice with shrimp and scallops.
Serves 4 as an entrée, 6 as a side salad
INGREDIENTS
Place onions and 1/4 cup lime juice in a shallow non-reactive dish and set aside for 30 minutes or overnight. In a large non-reactive salad bowl, toss together peaches, blueberries, fennel, and cilantro. Remove onions from lime juice, discard juice. Add to bowl with salad. Add remaining lime juice, olive, salt and pepper, and toss until combined. Taste and adjust seasonings. Serve over grilled fish, shrimp or scallops.
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Thai Chicken and Mango Blueberry Salad
When you’re in the mood for Thai takeout, this is the perfect dish to satisfy your cravings. It’s super simple to prepare, especially if you have leftover chicken on hand. The basil, mint and cilantro are cool and refreshing, making this dish the right choice for hot summer nights and easy entertaining.
Serves 4
INGREDIENTS
For the dressing
For the salad
For the dressing
To prepare the dressing, in a small non-reactive bowl whisk together garlic, chili paste, brown sugar, lime juice and fish sauce until combined. Set aside in refrigerator.
For the salad
To prepare the salad, in a large bowl place shredded chicken, onion, red pepper, basil, mint, cilantro, spinach, mango and blueberries. Add dressing and toss to combine. Serve immediately.
Make ahead tip: When you’re making chicken earlier in the week, make extra so you can enjoy this salad on a moment’s notice.
Taste tip: If you’re not a fan of raw onions, add the onions to the dressing a few minutes ahead of time. It will remove their peppery bite.
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Blueberry Polka Dot Popsicles
These whimsical, easy-to-make popsicles are perfect for summer birthday parties, beach picnics and days you need an in-a-hurry dessert. They take a few hours to freeze but only a minute to make.
Makes 6
INGREDIENTS
Divide blueberries evenly among Popsicle molds or paper cups. Add a stick to each mold. Pour lemonade over blueberries and freeze until popsicle perfect, about 2 hours.
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Blueberry Blast-sicles
These creamy sorbet-like popsicles are a great way to sneak in extra servings of fruit. They’re perfect for nights you feel like bingeing on ice cream but know you shouldn’t.
Makes 6
INGREDIENTS
In a blender, whirl blueberries, lemonade and sugar (to taste), blend until smooth. Push mixture through a fine mesh strainer into glass measure. Pour into popsicle molds, add a stick and freeze until popsicle perfect, about 2 hours.
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Mom’s Best Blueberry Gelato
This is as close as I've come to the gelato in Italy. Its pure and clean, maximum fruity flavor has none of the fat found in rich ice creams. A vacation to Rome in a bowl!
INGREDIENTS
Put fruit in blender with lemon juice and puree until smooth, or chunky if you like chunks of frozen fruit in your gelato. Taste and decide if you want to add the pinch of salt. If it tastes a little flat, add the salt. Store in the refrigerator in the blender container. Chill for a few hours or overnight. Meanwhile, put milk and sugar in a small saucepan. Heat just until the sugar melts. Refrigerate a few hours or overnight. Pour fruit and milk/sugar mixture into the ice cream freezer and freeze according to manufacturer's directions. The gelato tastes best just out of the ice cream freezer, but the leftovers can be put in the freezer and eaten another day.
To revive leftover frozen gelato, remove from freezer, microwave on high for 30 seconds, then mush it up with a spoon like you did as a kid, when your mother wasn't looking. It should be a melty ice cream consistency but still pretty much frozen. Microwave a little longer if needed. It's just as good as fresh made.
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Blueberry Kuchen
One of my favorite dieting tricks is to stick to my diet rules. For instance, only eat sourdough bread in San Francisco. Only eat cupcakes at Magnolia Bakery in New York City. Only Eat German Chocolate cake on my birthday. My blueberry kuchen rule: Only eat blueberry kuchen in the summer when the berries are best and you make it from scratch.
INGREDIENTS
For the crust
For the filling
For the crust
Preheat oven to 400°F. To prepare the crust, combine flour, 2 tablespoons of sugar, salt and butter in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until crumbly and starts to form a dough. With floured fingers, press the mix into the bottom of a 9-inch spring-form pan.
For the filling
To prepare the filling, spread 3 cups of blueberries over the pressed mix. In a small bowl, combine 2/3 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons of flour, and cinnamon. Sprinkle over the blueberries. Bake on the lowest rack for 50 to 60 minutes. Place on rack to cool. When cooled, sprinkle with the 2 remaining cups of blueberries.
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Microwave Blueberry Sauce
This is hardly a recipe but it’s so cool you need to know about it because it’s an out-of-this-world-delicious super easy sugar-free blueberry sauce. I promise you no one will know the difference.
Makes 1 cup
INGREDIENTS
Place blueberries in a large glass measuring cup and cook on high until blueberry sauce thick, about 2-1/2 minutes. Stir immediately. Serve when cool.
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Lemon Loaf
I highly recommend eating this warm from the oven. However, my Mom prefers it the next day. I must agree that it’s delicious the next day but there’s nothing like just from the oven baked goods, especially when the house is filled with heavenly scents.
The original recipe called for cream instead of milk and twice the amount of nuts. We don’t think you’ll miss the fat. My father thought cranberries would make a great addition to the bread, but then he puts cranberry sauce on anything he can get away with. I happen to agree that cranberries — or blueberries for that matter — added to the batter would be nice, and cranberry sauce spooned over the bread would be delicious too.
Makes 8 to 10 servings
INGREDIENTS
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour a 9 x 4-inch loaf pan, set aside. In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. Meanwhile, in the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together butter and 1/2 cup of sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and lemon zest and mix until combined. Add the dry ingredients alternating with the milk. While there are still bits of flour to be seen, add the pecans and mix until ingredients are just combined. Don’t overmix or you’ll be serving lemon butter pecan hard tack.
Pour batter into pan, bake in the center of the oven until bread is golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean, about 50 to 60 minutes. Prepare the lemon glaze while your bread is baking by whisking together in a small bowl the lemon juice and remaining 1/2 cup of sugar. Just after the bread comes out of the oven, poke holes all over the top with a fork or skewer and pour lemon-sugar mixture over the cake. Cool bread in the pan on a rack 1/2 hour or as long as you can stand it. Serve warm or cool.
The night before, squeeze the lemon juice, measure and sift dry ingredients, and zest your lemons and/or make the lemon-sugar syrup.
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