Tangled up in blue (berries)
It’s summer, which means there are surely blueberries on your kitchen counter or inside your fridge just waiting to be turned into something fantastic. Whether you’re picking them fresh or piling them into your shopping cart at the market, blueberries can be used so many different ways in so many dishes.
Native to North America, blueberries were first cultivated for sale in 1916. They’ve been insanely popular ever since. Growers in more than a dozen states produced more than 680 million pounds in 2019, according to the USDA.
It’s pretty easy to find blueberries year-round at the grocery store, but there’s something that just feels special about eating and cooking with berries that have grown nearby and arrive at the market within hours or days of being picked.
Fresh or frozen, juicy and sweet, blueberries pack a nutritious punch too. One cup provides 25% of your daily vitamin C requirement and 3.6 grams of fiber at just 80 calories.
Even better, they have one of the highest antioxidant levels of all common fruits and veggies.
When buying blueberries, color is a better sign of maturity than size. Those green or barely purple berries don’t ripen once they’re picked, so look for fruit that is deep-purple or purple-black. Definitely avoid berries that have shriveled up or look mushy or soft. While they need to go in the fridge once you get home (they’ll stay fresh for up to a week), don’t wash them until right before you eat or cook with them. The added moisture will decrease their shelf life.
Because they’re so delicate, blueberries should be dipped into a bowl of water to clean instead of rinsed under the faucet. If you decide to freeze them, make sure they’re completely dry before putting them in a freezer bag or container so they don’t stick together. Or freeze them first on a cookie sheet.
Blueberries can play a starring role in so many recipes, and we’re not just talking sweet desserts or breakfast dishes.
Blueberries add punch and a pop of color to salads, rice bowls, wraps and even flatbreads. For such a small fruit, the blueberry is one of summer’s culinary giants.