5 must-try autumn apples
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
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.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
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.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
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.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
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)
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
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
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
- 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