Roasted Fruit Salad

Warm sweet roasted fruit makes a succulent alternative to a traditional fruit salad. Roasting the fruit concentrates the natural sugars so the fruit is deliciously sweet; the juices combine to form a sublimely exotic and surprisingly healthy sauce. Roasted fruit salad is beautiful served warm with ice cream or Mascarpone, enjoy left overs on your breakfast cereal or with a dollop of Greek yoghurt or layer the fruit into a trifle or parfait type dessert for alcohol free oomph.

Ingredients

• a selection of fresh seasonal fruit such as peaches, pears, nectarines, pineapple, apples or apricots
• one or two bananas for sweetness
• something red for colour – a couple of sliced tamarillos, a handful of fresh or frozen berries or a few cherries
• the juice of an orange
• a handful of brown sugar

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C. Prepare the fruit. If using stone fruit split them, peel if needed (peaches) and remove the pits. Slice chop other fruits such as pineapple, pears or bananas, pick over berries and put all in a smallish oven proof dish (not a metal one).

Squeeze over the orange juice and sprinkle on the brown sugar. Roast in the oven at 180° for 20-30 minutes or until fruit is very tender. Serve warm or cold. Great with meringue, or in a trifle.

Tips

A mulled wine roasted fruit salad will make the house smell like christmas and tastes amazing. Prepare the fruit as described above and after 10 minutes cooking add 1 cup red wine, ¼ cup orange juice, ¼ cup brown sugar, 1 cinnamon quill and 3 cloves. You can thicken the juices with a little cornflour mixed with water, stirred in and heated till thick.