By Anne-Marie Nichols of My Readable Feast

There’s nothing that says summer like walking into your grocery store’s produce section and finding a display of gorgeous, seasonal berries that you can actually afford. Nothing makes me happier than when strawberries at $1.50 a pound!

Besides being affordable this time of year, berries are good for you. According to the Driscoll’s website, berries are a terrific source of vitamin C, fiber and antioxidants. They’re even heart healthy since they contain flavonoids, which have been linked to a reduced risk of coronary heart disease. They’re low in calories and a delicious way to get in the recommended daily allowance of fruits and vegetables. Even fussy kids who won’t look twice at a piece of broccoli will gobble up bowls of berries.

You can eat berries plain, add a sprinkling of sugar or a bit of whipped topping. Some people even like to pour balsamic vinegar over sliced strawberries. But if you enjoy cooking, you probably like to use berries in everything from pancakes to cocktails. Here’s some berry good inspiration for your summer time recipe planning.

Mixed berry recipes

Bridgett at La Bella Cook uses mixed berries in her Classic Berry Tart. Even though it looks like you need to be a professional to make it, you can cut corners by using a store bought crust. I promise not to tell.

You don’t have to be a vegan to enjoy Kathy at Healthy, Happy, Life’s Chai-Berry Short-Cup Dessert Smoothie. Fruit and chai? Why not! Plus, between the bananas and strawberries, you get a bunch of good-for-you fiber to boot.

If you prefer a plain cup of chai, maybe you’d like a few mixed berry baked goods to go along with it. You could try Jessica at What’s Cooking in the Orange Kitchen’s Double Berry Muffins. These would be terrific to pack in a lunch box or take on a picnic. Or maybe State of Gracie’s Berry Buttermilk Cake is more to your liking. This super simple recipe uses fresh raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, or peach slices - or you can mix and match.

But as my children say, “Everyone loves pie!” So bake up Skip to My Lou’s Very Berry Pie. Cindy’s a practical woman and uses premade crusts - anything to get out of the kitchen faster on a hot summer day.

Blueberry baked goods

When choosing blueberries, look for berries that are dry, plump, round and free of bruises. Blueberries should have a soft, hazy white coating (this is called “bloom”) which protects them from the harsh rays of the sun. Blueberries taste best when kept chilled and will stay good for up to a week in the refrigerator.

Start your day off with some blueberry scones. You can bake up a batch of Blueberry Sour Cream Scones from Hun…what’s for dinner? Or try Blueberry Scones with Lemony Glaze by Chef David Lawrence, featured at Laura’s Best Recipes blog. This recipe is from his cookbook, Boy Eats World!: A Private Chef Cooks Simple Gourmet. You can check out more of David’s recipes at his blog, Forking Delicious.

Another breakfast blueberry treat comes from Jenn at J’adore These Stores, Indulgent Breakfast: Best Blueberry Muffins. Or you could end your meal with Delementals’ Blueberry Rhubarb Buckle. Don’t know if blueberries are an excuse to eat rhubarb - or vice versa. All I know is that this recipe literally makes my mouth water.

Raspberry treats

Raspberries are probably the most fragile of all the berries, good for only a couple of days in the refrigerator. Keep them dry and rinse only before eating or cooking with them.

Combine your raspberries with a little lime juice as Linda does at Weekend Cook in her Lime-Raspberry Bread. Or maybe you’d like to use them with pears in a salad like in this recipe for Mixed Greens with Raspberries and Pears from For the Love of Cooking.

Since raspberries are so special, I think they should mostly be used in decadent desserts, don’t you? Steph’s narrowly averted baking disaster turned Raspberry Cream Cheese Pound Cake at Obsessed with Baking is one example.

Then there’s Allen at Eating Out Loud’s Raspberry Souffle I love how he sprinkled pomegranate seeds to provide some tartness to this sweet dessert. If you look closely at the recipe, except for the sugar, it’s fairly healthy since it’s mostly fruit and egg whites. So don’t feel too guilty if you make up a batch.

Strawberry goodness

Rounding out our berry culinary trip are all American favorites, strawberries. When you buy them, make sure they are clean, dry, and have unwilted caps. Avoid ones with seedy tips or white (unripe) shoulders. Store them in their original container in the refrigerator and rinse them in cool water when you are ready to use them. Remove the stems after washing in cool water, too.

Alice at Savory Sweet Life uses hers in a salad in her Strawberries and Spinach Salad Recipe. But strawberries are best in dessert, don’t you think?

There’s Tofu and Cupcakes’ Strawberry Cupcakes. Along with the berries, this recipe uses strawberry herbal tea to make infused milk. The result is cute pink cupcakes. Yum!

Strawberries and rhubarb is a classic cobbler combination. Phoo-D makes a Strawberry Rhubarb Cobblerand combines it with homemade strawberry buttermilk ice cream. Double strawberry goodness - what a treat!

Finally, Jan and Lori at What’s Cooking? make a simple Strawberry Sorbet in an ice cream maker. So good even their cat wants a taste.

Hope these recipes have inspired you to have a berry delicious summer!

You can also find a plethora of yummy berry dishes on the FoodieView Recipe Search Engine.

When Anne-Marie isn’t harvesting blackberries and raspberries from the massive bushes in her Colorado backyard, you can find her at This Mama Cooks! On a Diet or This Mama Cooks! Reviews.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 8th, 2009 at 9:17 am and is filed under Recipe Roundup. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.