Those fragrant beauties are notoriously known to accompany champagne or cream are nowadays available in the supermarkets year around. But only strawberries picked in their season have this unforgettable fragrance and sweetness (unless you live in some sunny land with never-ending strawberry season). Try to find the best berries from local farmers (or your own garden) and enjoy those flavour-bursting red ladies to the fullest.
Some ideas to celebrate the strawberry season:
- Naked: On its own, plain or with some other seasonal fruit. Good ripe strawberries taste amazing as they are.
- Chefy: Drizzled with a bit of balsamic reduction or balsamico crema, a pinch of freshly cracked black pepper and fresh herbs (mint, basil, thyme)
- Shaky: make a milkshake mixing vanilla-flavoured (or plain) soy milk, banana and strawberries. Yummy!
- Smoothy: make your usual smoothie super seasonal mixing strawberries with other fruits (like banana, pineapple, frozen blueberries), a handful of spinach, some fresh mint and whatever else you usually put in your smoothie (protein powder, chia seeds, turmeric).
- Icy: for summery treat make banana nicecream adding fresh strawberry puree. Strawberry sorbet with basil is also a great idea. Can make it slightly boozy adding a couple of shots of gin/ white rum. Or just pair some store-bought ice cream with fresh strawberries
- Breakfast-y: Waffles, pancakes, oatmeals. All your usual sweet breakfasts will turn delicious and pretty with adding some strawberries
- Dumpling-y: People of Central and Eastern Europe have various dumpling-like creations in their cuisines – knedliky, varenyky, pierogi etc. Sweet versions of those can be made with fruit including strawberry. Some traditional recipes are not vegan, like tvarohové knedlíky, but can be made with dairy alternatives (tofu, soy quark etc).
- Salady: strawberries pair well with green salads, fennel, asparagus. Your usual veggie salad will shine with a bit of strawberry, especially if dressed with balsamic vinegar or lemon juice.
- Cake: From strawberry shortcake (with coconut whipped cream) to strawberry/rhubarb crumble or decadent sponge, you have to dedicate at least one of your weekend bakes to those beautiful berries
You can use strawberries for drinks, desserts, soups (yep, it’s a thing in Hungary), condiments, even DIY skincare so get creative and celebrate those treats of summer while loading up on vitamins! 🍓❤️