Category — Fabulous Fruits

I adore avocados. I love them in guacamole, in sushi, added to salad or a sandwich, or even sliced up and eaten on apple slices. I love avocados for the creamy texture and delicious flavor, but if that were not enough, their health benefits would definitely make me give avocados a try.

Just check out these avocado facts:

• The average avocado contains more potassium than an average banana! It provides 25% of your recommended daily allowance, while a banana provides just under 15%.
• Avocados are high in fiber (16 grams in 1 cup!), vitamin K, lecithin, folic acid, and oleic acid, a monounsaturated fat that may help lower cholesterol.
• In addition to containing multiple health-promoting carotenoids itself, adding avocado to your tossed salad or mixing some chopped avocado into your favorite salsa will not only add a rich, creamy flavor, but it will greatly increase your body’s ability to absorb the carotenoids that vegetables provide.
• Avocados contain a high amount of copper, which helps in red blood cell formation.

Selection and Storage

For a ripe avocado that is ready to eat right away, look for one that is quite dark on the outside—not bright green—and is slightly soft, with no dark sunken spots or cracks. If an avocado has a slight neck instead of being rounded on top, it was probably tree ripened and will have better flavor. If you choose a firmer, less ripe fruit, it can be ripened at home and will be less likely to have bruises. To let an avocado ripen at home, keep it at room temperature in a paper bag with a banana, which will emit ethylene, speeding the ripening process.

Once ripe, avocados can be kept refrigerated for up to a week. It is best to keep the avocado whole and not slice it in order to avoid browning that occurs when the flesh is exposed to air. If you are saving part of a ripe avocado, leave the pit inside the remaining portion, wrap the entire thing tightly, and store in the refrigerator. Adding an acidic ingredient, like lime or lemon juice, will also help prevent browning.

Here are some of my favorite ways to enjoy avocados:

• Guacamole
• Cucumber Tomato Avocado Salad
• Scallop and Avocado Appetizer

Here are some recipes I haven’t tried yet!

• Kale, Carrot, and Avocado Salad—Whole Foods
• Summer Corn Soup with Shrimp—Sprouted Kitchen
• Raw Chocolate Avocado Pudding—Rice of Life

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One of the dietary theories I have been studying lately is Ayurveda. Ayurveda is about living in harmony with nature. Based on that principle, there are recommendations for what to eat, when to eat, when to sleep, etc., all based around both the seasons (of the year and each day) and your own body type. I’m finding it fascinating!

I have already been trying to eat “seasonally,” getting whatever was available at our local farmers’ markets, but I hadn’t really thought about why this was a good idea, beyond the fact that getting it in season typically ensures that it is fresher.

But John Douillard, the Ayurvedic lecturer and author that I have been studying, teaches that each harvest season of the year provides us with foods that perform specific functions. In the winter, we eat grounding, warming foods from the fall harvest such as root vegetables, soups, stews, and higher-fat and protein foods like nuts and meat. In the spring, greens and sprouts encourage cleansing after the winter. In the summer, fruits and vegetables give us energy we need to last throughout the long, hot days.

Today’s “fabulous fruits” are quintessential summer foods: cantaloupe and watermelon. Both are cooling fruits that will help hydrate a hot, tired body in the summertime. They also offer lots of nutritional benefits!

Cantaloupe

Benefits:

• Half a melon provides 100% of the daily requirement for vitamins A & C
• It’s full of potassium, and contains vitamin B6, dietary fiber, folate, and niacin (vitamin B3)
• It’s only 60 calories per cup!

Buying & Storing Tips:

• Look for melons with a smooth indentation at the top, with no bits of stem, indicating it was ripe when picked and separated cleanly from the vine. The other end should give a little bit when you press with your thumb.
• Smell the cantaloupe: it should have a sweet, slightly musky scent.
• If your melon is not quite ripe when you buy it, let it ripen on a kitchen counter for up to 2 days (put in a paper bag to speed it up).
• Refrigerate an uncut ripe melon for up to 5 days, and cut pieces for up to 3. Cover the cut surfaces of melon wedges and if possible, keep seeds intact until ready to eat because the will prevent it drying out.

Serving Ideas/Recipes:

• Minty Melon Salad—Whole Foods
• Crabmeat and Cantaloupe Salad (plus 3 other recipes!)—DoItYourself.com
• Tomato and Cantaloupe Salad—Real Simple
• Cantaloupe Sorbet—Epicurious
• One Cantaloupe, Three Soups—Seriously Soupy
  

Watermelon

Health Benefits:

• Packed with antioxidants, including lycopene, which has been found to be protective against many cancers
• Excellent source of vitamin C and a good source of vitamin A
• Very high in citrulline, an amino acid which our bodies use to make arginine, which lowers blood pressure, improves insulin sensitivity, and may even prevent erectile dysfunction naturally!

Buying & Storing Tips:

• For best flavor and nutrient content, you want your watermelon to be as ripe as possible for maximum antioxidant content.
• Look for a watermelon that is relatively smooth and neither overly shiny or overly dull.
• One side should have a yellowish or creamy tone. This is the underbelly, where the melon was sitting on the ground while ripening, and if the watermelon does not have one, it may indicate that it was picked too early.
• Although watermelon is very refreshing when stored in the refrigerator, the quantity of lycopene and beta-carotene will increase if the melon is stored at room temperature.

Serving Ideas/Recipes:

• Watermelon Agua Fresca refreshing drink recipe—Whole Foods
• Watermelon Salad—Life’s Ambrosia
• Watermelon Gazpacho–KitchenDaily
• Thai-Spiced Watermelon Soup with Crabmeat—Epicurious
• Watermelon Martinis—Bunkycooks
  

What’s your favorite way to enjoy these summer melons?  I’ll be trying at least a few of these recipes over the coming weeks as the summer winds down and will be sure to report back.

If you are interested in Ayurveda, check out these resources for more information about the principles and about how to determine your dosha, or body type!

• What’s Your Dosha
• Dr. Douillard’s LifeSpa

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For the next several weeks I am going to highlight some of my favorite Fabulous Fruits and Vivacious Veggies. They may not be exotic, but you’ll likely learn something you didn’t already know about these delicious foods, and of course I’ll share recipes I’ve found.

Although many people think of today’s Fabulous Fruit as a vegetable, the tomato is actually a fruit in the nightshade category. Tomatoes are native to South America, but have spread over the last few centuries and adapted to virtually every country in the world. They come in a variety of sizes, from tiny currant tomatoes to fat beefsteaks, and their color can be red, pink, orange, white, yellow, deep violet black or even green zebra stripes!

Tomatoes are fun to grow in your backyard or in a container on a deck. The photo here is one of my potted tomato plants that is just now starting to flower, and will hopefully yield some fruit soon. Sitting there next to it, a lovely ripe tomato from my father’s plentiful backyard garden. I thought maybe setting the fruit there would inspire my plant to do its thing…fingers crossed!

Health Benefits

Fresh tomatoes are rich in vitamins A, K, and C, potassium, and fiber. Tomatoes also contain a phytochemical called lutein, which is found in our retinas and is necessary for good vision. A diet rich in lutein can improve vision and play a role in preventing cataracts and macular degeneration.

When it comes to tomatoes and your health, the real star these days is lycopene. It’s a carotenoid that has gotten a lot of attention lately for its antioxidant and cancer-preventing properties. As an antioxidant, it’s been shown to prevent heart disease (the polyphenols in tomatoes thin your blood naturally). It has been linked to a reduced risk of lung, stomach, prostate, breast, cervical, and other cancers. It also acts like a sunscreen—eating tomatoes cooked can quadruple the SPF in your skin! How’s that for nature taking care of us in the heat of the summer?

For an even bigger health benefit, eat your tomatoes with broccoli. Both are separately recognized for cancer-fighting capabilities, but according to a study published in Cancer Research, eating them together makes them even more successful against cancer, particularly of the prostate.

Season and Selection

Now is the perfect time of year to find local tomatoes at your farmers’ market. Like all fruits and veggies, they are most flavorful when in season, which is mid-summer to early autumn. Local, vine-ripened tomatoes are ideal for the best taste and highest nutrient content. Eat them raw in thick slices with salt sprinkled on top, in salads, or in salsas, or cook them in a sauce, a tian, or gazpacho for even higher lycopene content.

Storage

Keep tomatoes at room temperature until ripened. Once ripened, tomatoes will last for two to three days. If necessary, tomatoes can be refrigerated in a vegetable bin for approximately one week. Try to avoid refrigerating tomatoes whenever possible, because tomatoes will lose their flavor once stored below 55°F.

More Tomato Tips

• To cut a tomato without a squishy mess, be sure you are using a very sharp knife, preferably a serrated one.
• To peel tomatoes, first cut an “X” in the skin (just the skin!) on the bottom of the tomato. Bring a pot of water to a boil and put your tomatoes in for 1 minute. Take them out and put them directly into a bowl of cold water and ice to keep them from cooking. The peel will be wrinkly and easy to remove.

My Latest Favorite Tomato “Recipe”

There isn’t much to this “recipe,” but it makes a fabulous lunch, appetizer, or side dish. Take one nice big tomato per person and slice it and place it on a plate. Season with sea salt, pepper, and fresh basil, and drizzle with a bit of olive oil and a bit of balsamic vinegar. Add a small slice of mozzarella cheese to each tomato slice to make a caprese salad, or just eat the seasoned tomato. Both versions are delicious!

P.S. Check out that basil! The tomato came from Dad, but the basil came from our “garden” of pots on the deck!

Recipes from the Truly Vibrant Blog

• Vegetable Tian
• Guacamole
• Cucumber Tomato Avocado Salad

More Recipes I Haven’t Tried Yet

• Family Secret Tomato Sauce from the Animal, Vegetable, Miracle website
• Heirloom Tomato and Mozzarella Bruschetta from Life’s Ambrosia
• Savory Caprese Crepes from the Foodista Blog
• Fresh Corn, Tomato, Avocado, Black Bean Salad from Kilee’s Kitchen

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