how to eat organic berries on a budget

Who loves berries? Blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, boysenberries�they are my personal fruit of choice. They provide antioxidants, vitamins, fibre and are low fructose; all good things for your body and your health.

However, there are two initial problems. First, non-organic berries have some of the highest levels of pesticide residue and second, you practically have to take a loan out to buy fresh organic berries. 

My solution?

I buy frozen organic berries (usually blueberries or raspberries), which I pick up from my local organic grocery store. The brand I buy gives me 350g for about $8, whereas your typical 100g punnet of organic blueberries or raspberries is about the same price. Freezing the berries keeps them fresh, you can keep them on standby in your freezer and from what I have read, most of the nutrients are retained. 

However, there is a third problem. Once frozen berries are defrosted, they are wet. And sometimes a bit slimy. We shouldn't judge food by its cover, but the mouthfeel of slimy berries is not enticing.

My solution?

Coconut flour. If you're familiar with this stuff you'll know that it absorbs moisture like nobody's business (i.e. do not attempt to eat it by itself as it will dry up the back of your throat and choke you - I learnt this the hard way). It also has a lovely sweet flavour that works well with naturally tart berries. 

This is how I do it (image above):

1. Tip some frozen berries into a bowl. (Blueberries work best in my opinion). 

2. Defrost the berries by sitting the bowl in some hot water (or microwaving it if you're super short on time, but this isn't ideal). 

3. Lightly mash the defrosted berries with a fork to encourage some of the juices out, then stir through some coconut flour about half a teaspoon at a time. The coconut flour will soak up the excess moisture and coat the berries, but go slowly as you don't want to dry things out. 

4. Top with coconut flakes or shaved dark chocolate.

I also use this technique to make my Berry Coconut Parfaits. 

Enjoy!

I would just like to congratulate myself for getting through this post without any "berry nice" puns. It was tempting, but I resisted.