Succulent Strawberries

Passionately hued, sweet, and bursting with juiciness, fresh strawberries are in season from April through July. There are countless ways to eat them: dropped over waffles; mixed into smoothies, shortcakes, cheesecakes, pies, mousse, ice cream, and Jell-O; bathed in champagne; folded into muffins and breads; and even tossed on a pizza or blended into cool soup. Tennis fans devour tons of them with cream at Wimbledon, families flock to summer strawberry festivals, and homemade strawberry jam can’t be beat. With more than 600 varieties, including wild crops, these delectable berries have been prized since ancient Roman times.

And as if the glorious flavor weren’t enough, strawberries are extremely rich in nutrients and antioxidants that help protect against heart disease, cancer, and inflammation.

But strawberries are false fruits, meaning that the true fruits of the plant are actually the small seeds, and the red part we like so much is considered false because it comes from the base of the flower rather than the ovary. Strawberries grow on runners, and their name comes from their straying habit.

“Strawberries bring a number of elements to cuisine. They herald spring and are the first seasonal fruit to come out here in the South,” says Chef Linton Hopkins, executive chef of Restaurant Eugene in Atlanta. That’s something to celebrate, he insists, “because we’ve been eating root vegetables and hard fruit like apples and pears all winter.

“Strawberries have a wonderful balance of sweet to sour, which plays off many foods,” he adds. “They also pair wonderfully with the first fresh goat cheese of the year. I use them in both savory and sweet preparations.

Berries Battle Disease

Chef Scott Garrett, executive chef at the Blue on Blue restaurant at the Avalon Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, says, “The strawberry is just sweet enough to stand up to a little bit of pickling without becoming too tart. So I’ve been pickling strawberries and adding them to a foie gras dish for a perfect balance of acid and sugar that stands up to the heaviness of the foie.”

These ruby gems rank among the top 10 fruits and vegetables in antioxidant capacity. One cup of fresh strawberries contains 160% of the daily value for vitamin C—more than an orange—and the berries are also rich in potassium, folate, and fiber. “At only 50 calories, this is a great nutritional bang for your buck,” says Michelle Dudash, RD, of Chef Dudash Nutrition in Phoenix.

The potent antioxidants in strawberries, such as vitamin C, anthocyanins, ellagic acid, quercetin, and kaempferol, appear to have protective effects against certain types of cancer. Quercetin, kaempferol, and anthocyanins have all been shown to inhibit the abnormal clumping of the blood particles that cause clotting, so consuming the flavonoids in strawberries may help reduce the risk of stroke.

Research also indicates that eating strawberries helps to lower other markers of cardiovascular disease, such as levels of homocysteine (an amino acid in the blood that may damage the inner lining of arteries) and blood pressure.

Dudash, a chef as well as a dietitian, says strawberries are simple to enjoy throughout the day. “You can eat them right out of the strainer—after they’ve been washed, of course. They’re delicious with creamy Greek vanilla yogurt and toasted almonds in the morning. For lunch, add sliced strawberries to a spinach salad with feta. For dessert, melt dark chocolate chips for another antioxidant boost and dip away,” she suggests.

Fresh, Frozen, and Freeze Dried

Because we’re often rushed, it’s nice to know that a report from the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry indicates that chilled, cut-up fruit can retain its nutrients for about six days. So if you need to prepare fresh strawberries ahead of time, you’re not sacrificing their nutritional benefit.

One cup of fresh strawberries is equal to about 2⁄3 cup frozen. Read the nutrition label and make sure frozen strawberries are not doused with sugar. Luckily, frozen berries retain virtually all of their vitamin C, potassium, and fiber, and they’re a convenient frosty addition to fruit smoothies.

As with frozen strawberries, check the label on dried fruits, making sure there’s no added sugar. Dudash warns that sugar-free dried fruit can be difficult to find, and some dried fruit may have been exposed to heat, which diminishes the amount of vitamin C. But manufacturers may fortify the dried fruit with vitamins that are lost during processing, and the dried fruit still offers the benefit of fiber.

“Freeze-dried fruit usually does not have added sugar, so this tends to be a better nutritional bet than dried,” says Dudash. She explains that most of the studies on strawberries involve freeze-dried berries, and the results show that they still contain high levels of the antioxidants.

If you love nothing more than strawberry jam slathered on a piece of fresh bread, enjoy it, but don’t expect to count it as a serving of fruit. Dudash says that although the main ingredient of most strawberry jams is strawberries, by weight, the jam still contains a lot of added sugar or other fruit juice concentrate, diluting the amount of actual strawberries and, therefore, the nutrients.

Cooking the strawberries will destroy some of the vitamin C content. “The fiber remains in the strawberries,” Dudash says. “But a tablespoon of jam has only 0.3 grams of fiber per serving, so you’d have to eat larger-than-normal portions of it to get any measurable amount of fiber.”

Choosing Berries

If you want to pick the best-tasting berry, give it a whiff. Aroma is an excellent indication of flavor. Some say it really doesn’t matter if the strawberries are large or small, but there’s disagreement on this point. (Inarguably, if you’re fortunate enough to find wild strawberries, their taste is superior to commercially grown.)

“I choose strawberries that have the best flavor and degree of ripeness, which means they are locally grown and in season,” says Hopkins. “Looking at the seeds are not a real consideration for me, but noting the size and shape are. I like smaller strawberries, which are packed with flavor and red all the way through.”

— Michele Deppe

Should You Buy Organic?

Nonorganic strawberries have earned a place on the Environmental Working Group’s “Dirty Dozen List” as one of the riskiest fruits to eat because they’re often heavily sprayed with pesticides.

“The nutritional benefit of eating any conventionally grown produce outweighs the risk of not eating produce at all,” says Michelle Dudash, RD, of Chef Dudash Nutrition. “If you’re able to work organic foods into your budget, I highly recommend using the Dirty Dozen List as a guide.”

She says to be sure to quickly wash your strawberries in a water bath with a splash of white vinegar to help remove any residue. Don’t soak them because you can dilute their flavor by doing so.

And if you don’t buy organic, look for locally grown strawberries whenever possible, since regional farmers may spray their produce less than do farmers who ship their products a great distance.