Sieve Lickin' Blueberry Sauce

Generally I’m a fruit purist, I like it fresh, and raw, unadorned with sugar or other stuff. But with blueberries, unless I’ve just plucked them from a bush on a walk in Norway, I prefer them cooked, or pureed in a smoothie, or mixed in yogurt with honey and wheat puffs.

I saw Ina Garten make a blueberry sauce to go with a lemon glazed pound cake so I had this sauce on my list of things to try. Blueberries are a super food, and included in Dave Grotto’s book, 101 Foods that Could Save Your Life. Little boo had asked for French toast earlier in the week, my dad had bought a half pint of blueberries when he took big boo to the store on grandpa day, and we got a lemon in our produce share this week. It was all coming together, French Toast with fresh blueberry sauce for Saturday’s big breakfast.

Blueberry Sauce Recipe

½ pint fresh or frozen blueberries
3 heaping soup spoons of sugar (sorry, I’m not really a recipe girl)
Juice from half a small lemon (yes, if a seed drops in the pan you should scoop it out, cooking citrus seeds makes your dish taste bitter).

Directions
Rinse blueberries and remove any shriveled or moldy ones. Preheat small sauce pan on medium, add blueberries, sugar and lemon juice to the pan. Stir to combine and keep stirring until sugar is dissolved. Let the sauce bubble for a while removing some of the moisture and allowing the sauce to thicken, maybe 5-10 minutes. Remove from heat, and serve as a topping for pancakes, waffles, French toast, toast or English muffins. Here is Ina’s recipe. Mine was thicker and more like preserves than sauce because I didn’t use water. She strains hers, I don’t recommend straining if you use my recipe.

I strained the sauce, but it was so thick the blueberries got all stuck in the mesh. It was so tasty, and so chock full of nutrients I couldn’t see all that sauce stuck to the sieve go to waste, so I licked it. I didn’t even call the boys in to help me; I just stood over the sink licking every chewy sweet blueberry skin off that sieve! It took a lot of will power for me not to get a spoon out and eat all the sauce before I served breakfast. It was that good! I thought about having hubby come in and take a picture of me, but I had bed head and pjs on. It would have been a great shot. Now I’m sorry my vanity won in that decision.

Here’s why your family should eat blueberries.
They contain several health promoting phytochemicals
Like cranberries they contain compounds that prevent bacteria responsible for bladder infections from taking hold in the bladder wall.
They are also known to support memory and cognitive function, promote heart health, and can be effective inhibitors of cancer.
Plus they taste great.
And they’re blue. Blue food has loads of kid appeal!
Or crazy purple when cooked. Purple food is pretty cool too.

Kid Appeal Tip Sometimes kids are reluctant to try even sweet treats if they are confused by them. Little boo was expecting syrup on his French toast, so he declared, “I don’t yike blueberry sauce,” as I put a dollop on his plate. While the rest of the family inhaled our toast, he didn’t take a single bite. I finally got him to dip his finger in it and try it by telling him it was sweet with sugar and blueberries. Once he had a lick he exclaimed “It IS yummy. I eat it now.”

Kid Appeal Tip 2 Let your kids watch as the blueberries come up to heat and start staining the juice purple. It’s a neat experiment to watch them turn such a vivid deep purple. Kids are more likely to eat food they’ve helped prepare.

Too see other big breakfast recipes we enjoy check these out: Steel-cut oatmeal, whole grain oat waffles, Apples and Oatmeal (from LifeasMOM).

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I love to hear from you in the comments. What was the last thing you ate that made you lick the bowl?