I bought a large container of blueberries recently, even though I know better than to do this during the middle of Colorado winter. Sure enough, they were super sour. I didn’t want them to go to waste, so I found a creative solution. We made Blueberry Applesauce! It was delicious. The apples pared down the sour flavor of the blueberries. Plus, my older daughter has been boycotting blueberries for over a year. I have a feeling she got a hold of some sour ones a while back, and hasn’t trusted one since.

This is a great way to expose little ones who are unsure about new fruits (or fruits they used to love and will no longer tolerate within a ten foot radius). The four year old loves applesauce, so pairing the blueberries with something familiar and loved made them a little less distasteful. That being said, she was still wary. She insisted she didn’t want any until both the toddler and I were eating ours. She decided to take a teeny bite and exclaimed, “this tastes just like regular applesauce”! I consider that a win. Even though I could pick up on the blueberry flavor, I didn’t push the point.

Another idea to touch on here is that less-than-ripe fruit can put a kid off fruit for a LONG time. That’s okay. Make sure to keep them in rotation, especially when they are in season and delicious. If you know the fruit is sour, talk about it. Mention how these are a little different than the perfect, juicy berries from summer. Offer a yogurt to dip them in to dilute the flavor. Make funny sour faces as you eat them. Cook them down in a little water to make pancake syrup. Bake them in pancakes or muffins. Serve them blended with yogurt or applesauce (recipe below). Freeze them to use in smoothies. I love freezing fruit that turns out less than ideal, because we usually end up forgetting about it in the bottom of the fridge until it is moldy. This way, you can use them at your leisure, and the flavor is diluted with milk and other fruit and veggies.

This is also a great recipe to use if your child likes to have applesauce every day. This will help create flexibility in their diet without causing too much turmoil.

Hope this helps save your sour blueberries from the compost pile!

Blueberry Applesauce

Ingredients

1/2 cup fresh blueberries

1 cup applesauce, unsweetened

Instructions

1. Blend blueberries and applesauce together in small food processor until smooth, or use immersion blender.
2. If mixture is too thick, add more applesauce. Too thin, add more blueberries.
3. Enjoy!