Fall is prime apple season, your chance to sample different varieties of this delicious, super-healthy food that’s low in calories, rich in vitamin C and antioxidants, fat and cholesterol-free, and a great source of fiber.
Honeycrisp (Best Snacking)
Exceptionally juicy and crunchy, Honeycrisp has a bright red skin and crispy flesh that’s predominately sweet, with a slight tartness. This apple is great for snacking by itself, enjoyed with a handful of almonds, or sliced and spread with nut butter.
Mutsu or Pippin (Best for Baking)
The yellow Mutsu apple is perfect for desserts, salads, and cider. Cooking brings out this apple’s mild spicy-sweet flavor and in baking its coarse-grained flesh really holds its shape. Mutsu apples can grow quite large; an entire pie may require as few as three apples.
Pippin is a hard, crisp pale green apple with a creamy aromatic white flesh that has a sweet-tart flavor with notes of spice and pine that make it wonderful in pies, muffins, cider. Pippin not only stores well, its flavor improves over time in cold storage.
Must Try Recipe: F-Factor Cinnamon Spice Baked Apple
Granny Smith (Best Savory)
It’s easy to spot a Granny Smith by its brilliant green skin. Inside its bright white flesh has a firm, snappy bite with a bracing tangy-tartness that’s slightly spicy. Granny Smiths are popular for snacking, but try them in recipes too, such as apple stuffing and apple-ginger chutney, or chop some to stir into your morning oatmeal.
Ginger Gold (Ideal for Salads)
Ginger Gold is a sweet, tangy, juicy apple that’s a tasty cross between a Pippin and Golden Delicious. Characterized by its smooth green-yellow skin and a faint red blush, Ginger Golds are equally good for snacking and cooking. Its mellow flavor makes a delicious applesauce, and it’s a good choice for salads because its flesh does not brown quickly after chopping the way less acidic apples do.
Pink Lady or Gala (Sweeter Smoothies)
Pink Lady is a green apple with a pretty pink blush outside and a crisp fleshy inside that’s tart with a hint of honey-sweetness that bursts with ‘fizz-like’ flavor. Gala apples have a distinctive red-orange yellow striped skin, and inside the flesh is firm, mildly sweet with a subtle hint of vanilla.
Either will pair nicely with sliced avocado or try blending them with leafy greens for a refreshing, nutrient-packed Green Smoothie. For a light and healthy fall dessert cup, mix together chopped apple, sliced banana, and a fragrant spice such as cinnamon!
Shopping and Storing Tips
- To get the most nutrition (and fiber) eat your apple with the skin on. Avoid exposure to pesticides by choosing organic varieties.
- Storing apples in the fridge in a plastic bag away from strong odors will keep them crisp and flavorful for several weeks.
- Go for firm, shiny smooth-skinned apples with their stems intact. They should appear clean and smell fresh, not earthy or musty.
Tanya Zuckerbrot MS, RD, is a Registered Dietitian in New York City and the author of two bestselling diet books: The F-Factor Diet and The Miracle Carb Diet: Make Calories and Fat Disappear – with Fiber.
Subscribe to Tanya’s FREE Weekly Newsletter and follow her on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. To learn more about Tanya’s private nutrition counseling services visit www.ffactor.com
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