Baked peaches with blackberry sauce: fruit, warmed and honored

Whole fruit, warmed and honored, with no added sweetener at all. The peaches carry the sweetness, and the blackberry sauce brings a deep, wine-dark color over the top. Simple, beautiful, and complete.

This is mostly color and fiber. Peaches and blackberries bring polyphenols, the plant compounds studied for feeding a healthier gut community, and the blackberries in particular are dense with the deep-pigment antioxidants that give them their color, while staying lower in sugar than sweeter fruits. It is gentle food, easy on a body that has been working hard.

Find peaches that were never chilled too cold, the late-summer, farmers-market kind, so they stay tender. Spoon the warm fruit into a bowl, look at the purple sauce pooling, and take the first bite slowly.

Ingredients

• 4 peaches, sliced
• 1/4 cup blackberries
• 1/4 tsp lemon juice (omit for interstitial cystitis)

Method

Heat the oven to 350 F.

Lay half of the peach slices in the bottom of an 8x8 baking dish.

Puree the blackberries with the lemon juice until smooth. Pour half of the puree over the peaches, layer the remaining peach slices on top, and finish with the rest of the puree.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until the peaches are soft and the sauce is warmed through. Serve warm.

Air fryer variation

For a smaller batch, the air fryer works. Use an oven-safe dish or ramekin that fits the basket, set it to 350 F, and cook for about 8 to 10 minutes until the fruit is soft. This is an untested conversion, so check the first batch and adjust the time.

A closing note

This is the kind of treat that reminds you healing food can be beautiful and plain at once. Make the bowl pretty, and let the fruit speak for itself.

*Adapted from acleanplate.com*