Summer's Perfect Pair: Peaches & Blueberries

Ever bitten into a dessert that makes you believe in flavour soulmates? Peaches and blueberries are the dynamic duo your taste buds have been waiting for!

Do you ever combine fruit, vegetables, herbs, or spices together so that they complement each other well? I think about strawberries and rhubarb, apples and cranberries, apricots and ginger, or raspberries and basil, just to name a few. All of those are terrific, but I especially love to put peaches and blueberries together (with a hint of lemon) as one of my absolute favorite combinations of fruit.

I look forward to late July days when the first blueberries become ripe in our area here in Vernon, British Columbia, Canada. It's also about this time that the earliest varieties of peaches are ready for harvest. When combined, it's a flavour explosion. They play so well together!

Harvesting Friendship & Berries

A friend of mine and I try to head to a nearby blueberry patch to pick together. If you can go with someone you have fun with, bonus, and have a wonderful time catching up together while picking those delicious shiny berries. Fresh is best, but frozen will work in this recipe, too.

Fresh peaches truly add the extra tastiness to this recipe. Picking your own is an extra special sensory experience, but I don't mind them already picked. However you can get them, go for it. Feel free to use frozen instead of fresh if that's what you're working with. Yay for peaches!

Creating Cool Comfort Food

I wanted to make a peach and blueberry cobbler using gluten-free ingredients (since I'm wheat sensitive) and the slow cooker to keep the oven off and the house cool. I found a few slow cooker recipes online, but since mine is quite different, there isn't one in particular to credit. I think what I created

The gluten-free flour I used was purchased at a locally owned specialty food store along with Canadian hemp hearts and gluten-free Canadian oats to make up the bulk of the dry ingredients. You could use regular wheat flour instead if you prefer. I also added... well, you'll just have to look at the recipe to find out!

Feel free to let me know how else you use peaches and blueberries, separately or together. Would you make this recipe, and if you did, did you like it? Do you have a story to share about any of these fruits? You are welcome to comment.

Now, I'm going back to take another bite of my cobbler. Ah yes, blueberries and peaches really do play well together. Yum. Ciao!

Slow Cooker GF Lemon Peach and Blueberry Cobbler

Keep the house cool and your taste buds happy by using the slow cooker. Tart, sweet, creamy, and crumbly: flavours and textures you want! You could use wheat instead of gluten-free flour and a nut or coconut milk instead of whipping cream to make it dairy-free. Serve for dessert or even breakfast!

Servings: 8

Ingredients

• 4 1/2 cups sliced peaches (fresh or frozen)

• 1 1/2 cups blueberries (fresh or frozen)

• 1 Tbsp gluten-free flour

• 1 cup gluten-free flour

• 1/4 cup gluten-free quick oats

• 1/4 cup hemp hearts

• 1 tsp ground cardamom

• 1/4 cup maple sugar or brown sugar

• 1 tsp baking powder

• 1 egg

• 1/4 cup liquid honey

• 3 Tbsp lemon extra virgin olive oil (or uninfused EVOO)

• 2/3 cup whipping cream (or nut/coconut milk for dairy-free)

  
  

Instructions

1. Gently toss fruit with 1 Tbsp of flour. Set aside.

2. Combine remaining flour, oats, hemp hearts, sugar, and baking powder. Set aside.

3. Beat egg slightly then add the liquid honey and mix until combined. Beat in the oil and whipping cream until combined.

4. Hand stir in flour blend until just combined and a biscuit-like texture forms.

5. Grease the bottom and sides of the slow cooker with coconut oil or butter. Place fruit mixture on the bottom.

6. Cover all the fruit with the wet flour blend like a biscuit topping.

7. Turn the slow cooker on high and cook for 2 to 2 1/2 hours. Tip: drape a kitchen towel over the top and sides to seal in the moisture and brown the topping.

8. Enjoy hot or cold with dairy-free or dairy cream, ice cream or yogurt, or on its own.

Your Flavour Pairing Story

Our culinary combinations often reveal something deeper about our approach to food and life. My story includes annual traditions around berry picking that nourish both body and friendship, adapting recipes to accommodate health needs without sacrificing flavor, and finding joy in seasonal abundance even when nature throws challenges our way.

What's your flavour pairing story? Do you have favorite fruit combinations that bring you joy? Have you discovered creative ways to adapt traditional recipes to suit dietary needs or keep your kitchen cool in summer? Do you have special food traditions that connect you with friends or family members?

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