Dried apricots in the diet 🆙

History of dried apricots

We spoke years ago of the secret of the Hunza, one of the longest-lived peoples on earth.

Hoaxes and truth aside, there is certainly that these sprightly old men of Pakistan they have always used a lot of fruit and vegetables in their diet, cold-pressed seeds and kernels, preferring a type of vegetarian food.

Among their 'secret ingredients' of longevity are apricots, which they use to consume in several ways, fresh or dried, they put them in soups e they even make a juice out of it which often mix with ice or snow to create a kind of gelato.

So let's see too, in our modern and daily life, as we can insert apricots in the diet and make one precious ingredient of the everyday diet.

How to use dried apricots

Le dried apricots they can be used in different types of dishes, both sweet and savory.

Particularly suitable for tplaces e biscotti, but also how special ingredient in muffins or vegan tart doughs - as a replacement for sugar for example - or as a natural sweetener of muesli in the morning.

Dried apricots can also be rehydrated and used to enrich salads, season vegetables or add to the mixture of sweet bread and focaccia.

Among the typical dishes and traditional recipes with dried apricots there are:

1. the Lebanese rice pudding, eccovi la ricetta originale Nigel Slater dal sito della BBC;
2. the fruit soup, the Danish and Scandinavian fruit soup;
3. the apricot kolaches, Christmas biscuits of Hungarian origin, which are eaten at Christmas also in Russia and in the Czech Republic;
4. the plumcake cake with raisins and dried apricots typical of the island of Newfoundland, Canada.

Healthy diet: the benefits of dried apricots

In fact, dried or semi-dried apricots represent one valuable source of beta carotene, a substance that protects against aging and the harmful effects of free radicals. They also have a sweet and intense taste as well they are rich in fiber.

So here, in addition to consuming them as they are, possibly naturally dried and free of sulphites or chemicals, dried apricots, as we have seen, can be inserted with a little imagination in many recipes of the daily diet, typical of the Mediterranean cuisine and diet but not only.

To prepare healthy and dried fruit recipes with children, read SlowMed's "The Mediterranean Diet for Children".