A Taste of Summer in the Bleak Midwinter

Written by Julie Van Rosendaal

Take heart. Contrary to popular belief, fruits and vegetables don’t have to be fresh to be nutritionally beneficial – frozen, dried and even canned produce is good for you, too.

When I was a kid, vegetables were the biggest obstacle between the confines of the dinner table and the park across the street, where all my friends played kick the can during the last few hours of sunlight. My mom’s torture of choice was warmed up stewed tomatoes with little green bits. As it turns out, she was right, as always, in insisting that I finish them.


Although it’s easy to be disoriented by the constant bombardment of dietary recommendations coming at us from every imaginable direction, the advice of doctors, dieticians and my mom to eat more fruits and vegetables has remained constant for over 50 years. (Although I doubt my mom was doling out her advice 50 years ago.)

Fruits and vegetables are essential for long-term health. It’s easy to get enough of them during those fleeting summer months when fresh produce is abundant, flavorful and cheap. But when winter starts early and ends late, it’s hard to feel like you’re getting enough.

And it’s easy to add frozen, canned and dried fruits and veg to your daily menu. Dried fruit such as raisins, cherries, cranberries, pears, peaches, plums (otherwise known as prunes), apricots and figs can be sprinkled on cereal or stirred into granola, trail mix, muesli, oatmeal or sweetened quinoa for breakfast, and of course into muffin and cookie batter. (When you use dried fruit in your baking, make sure it is plump – dried out fruit will absorb the moisture from your batter and result in dry baked goods. To plump it up, cover with hot water or other liquid, soak for about 10 minutes and drain well.) Frozen berries can be used in much the same way, stirred into yogurt or added to a smoothie. Topped with a crumble of oats and almonds, they transform into a fantastic dessert.

If your only resource is the pantry, it takes minutes to turn canned beans or lentils into a marinated salad that will keep in the fridge for a week. Or try replacing half the oil in your favorite cake or muffin recipe with canned pumpkin or pureed peaches and pears instead of applesauce to reduce fat while boosting nutrients in your baked goods.

Pear-berry crumble:

Any kind of berry works well in this crumble – I particularly like the berry blend, or just raspberries.
2 ripe pears, cut into chunks (don’t bother peeling them)
3 cups frozen berries (don’t thaw them)
2 Tbsp. flour
2 Tbsp. sugar (or more, if the plums are very tart)
A shake of cinnamon

Crumble:

1 cup all-purpose flour (you could use whole wheat flour or oats)
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
A shake of cinnamon
1/3 cup butter

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Spread the pears and berries in a pie plate, quiche pan or other similarly-sized baking dish, sprinkle them with flour, sugar and cinnamon and toss them about a bit with your hands, then spread them out again.

In a bowl (or a food processor) mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon; add the butter and blend until crumbly. Sprinkle over the fruit, squeezing the mixture as you go to create larger clumps. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until golden and bubbly around the edges. Serve warm. Serves 6.

Julie is a best-selling cookbook author, food writer, cooking instructor and the food and nutrition columnist on the Calgary Eyeopener on CBC Radio. She lives in Calgary with her husband and son, Wilem. Watch for her cooking show, It’s Just Food, with co-host Ned Bell on Access TV and CLT stations across Canada. For more information, visit www.dinnerwithjulie.com.