Maple Ginger Fruit Crostini with Basil
It’s a dreary, wet morning in South Dakota. Everything is very green and growing fast … I need to get out and pull weeds and tend my little garden. And I have some MORE grocery shopping to do … but first, I think we need a little color to brighten the day. Just looking at these little toasts makes me happy.
This is a little fruit crostini I whipped up last week for a snack. I was very pleased with it overall, but I have to be honest with you, I didn’t like the french bread as the base for this little toast. I think it would be much better on blueberry bagels or maybe some sugar cookies or snickerdoodles? Something that goes better with the juicy fruit. But I do have to say the maple, ginger, and basil in the cream cheese is oooh so good. The fruit mixture is just perfect with the sweet creamy cheese. You could toss on some toasted nuts as well. I think that would be nice. I’m not sure why I left off the nuts … ah well, you get the idea.
If you are serving this at a party or get together (they’d be marvelous for a brunch, don’t you think?), rather than making them all up like this, you could also serve the bagels with the cream cheese and bowl of fruit on the side and let the guests do the work of putting them together. But if you’re making them for a big crowd, you’ll need to double or triple the recipe …
Maple Ginger Fruit Crostini with Basil
- 3 Tablespoons maple syrup
- 3 teaspoons fresh ginger, grated
- 1 Tablespoon fresh basil, chopped
- 3 oz. light cream cheese
- Blueberry bagels (or other fruity bagels), sliced & toasted (or sugar cookies or snickerdoodles … just please, don’t use French Bread like I did …)
- 3 cups mixed fruit, chopped into little pieces (I used honeydew melon, blueberries, pineapple, and strawberries)
- A few fresh basil leaves, for garnish
- Toasted nuts, if you like. I think walnuts or pecans would be nice on these …
Mix the maple syrup, ginger and basil together. Take 2 Tablespoons of the syrup mixture and mix it in with the cream cheese. Mix the rest in with the fruit.
Toast the bagels, spread with the sweet ginger basil cream cheese, and top with fruit. (If you’re using cookies, I suppose there’s no need for toasting …) Garnish with fresh basil leaves and a few toasted nuts (if you’ve decided you want nuts).
P.S. You might notice I added a watermark to my images … I will be doing that from now on, just because, well, they are my images and I work hard on them. I really love it when people share my pictures and recipes, but I don’t like it when people post my words and/or pictures as if they had taken / written them. If you like my photos or recipes, please share, but just mention that it’s from Sumptuous Spoonfuls and give me a link back to my blog, okay? Thanks for understanding …
This recipe was shared at Everyday Mom’s Meals, Scrumptious Sundays, Weekend Potluck, Moosewood Monday, Tuesday Talent Show and Totally Tasty Tuesdays.
Rainbow Symphony Fruit Salad with Walnuts & Feta
on Wild Greens with a Honey Citrus Poppyseed Dressing
We made rainbow fruit kebabs for my daughter’s birthday party. Both of her parties, in fact (one for her school friends, one for her dance friends). The second party was smaller, so now my fridge is filled with fruit. Fruit in literally all the colors of the rainbow.
That just screams for a salad, doesn’t it?
Now, you could arrange all these pretty fruits over the greens in the shape of a rainbow I suppose. I just wanted a sprinkle of fruit amongst my greens, though. And a crunchy nut flavor with some salty, creamy cheese. The best part of this salad, I think, was each time I encountered a new fruit, the taste was a little different. But the greens, the dressing, the cheese and the walnuts held it all together so it was a constant symphony of taste with changing fruit highlights. Sort of like different singers singing the same melody, or different instruments playing the same tune. It felt a little like listening to a really good orchestra playing a beautiful piece of music … like being at the Symphony.
Rainbow Symphony Fruit Salad on Wild Greens
with Toasted Walnuts & Feta Cheese
- Greens of your choice (I used dandelion greens.)
- Fresh blueberries
- Honeydew melon
- Chopped fresh pineapple
- Fresh orange, peeled and cut into chunks
- Fresh strawberries
- Toasted walnuts
- Feta cheese
Fill your salad bowl most of the way with greens. Tuck the fruits in amongst the greens, sprinkle with a few toasted walnuts and a bit of crumbled feta cheese. Drizzle with Honey Citrus Poppyseed Dressing.
Honey Citrus Poppyseed Dressing
Okay this isn’t really a NEW salad dressing recipe … it’s a salad dressing transformation. I wanted that honey lemon, but I also wanted a bit of creaminess, a bit more sweet citrus taste, and some poppyseeds, so I just added them. I think you could get away with using the Honey Lemon Ginger White Wine Vinaigrette as is. Or you could go a different direction and just add some honey to the orange juice, yogurt and poppyseeds.
- 1 Tablespoon Honey Lemon Ginger White Wine Vinaigrette
- 1 Tablespoon fresh squeezed orange juice
- 1 Tablespoon plain yogurt
- 1/2 teaspoon poppyseeds
Mix all ingredients and drizzle over the salad.
Enjoy the symphony.
This recipe was shared at Mealtime Mondays, Totally Tasty Tuesdays, Trick or Treat Tuesdays, and Tastetastic Thursdays.
Rainbow Fruit Kebabs
My daughter had a sleepover birthday party last night. We like to have at least one healthy food at her birthday parties … and it usually involves fruit. This year I suggested rainbow fruit kebabs. My girl wasn’t too excited about the idea until I showed her a picture. Then she was sold.
These were a huge hit with the girls at the party. They were gone in an instant. Somehow the fruit in a bowl just didn’t have the same appeal … well, food is always more fun on a stick, right?
These are super simple. All you need are fruit chunks for each color of the rainbow and some skewer sticks. Put the fruit on a stick in the order of the rainbow. Arrange them in a fan to make a rainbow.
We used:
- Purple: red grapes
- Blue: Blueberries
- Green: Honeydew melon
- Yellow: Pineapple
- Orange: Cantaloupe
- Red: Strawberries
This recipe was shared at Crazy Sweet Tuesdays, Totally Tasty Tuesdays, Thursday’s Treasures and Fit & Fabulous Fridays.
