When you have a large crop of blueberries from the garden or farmstand, you don't have time to casually include them in complicated recipes or to frantically figure out how to use them up before they go bad without getting sick of them. You want to make the most of your harvest and to actually enjoy it.
Here at Plant to Plate, we like to keep things simple! Here are some of my favorite ways to use or preserve blueberries:
- Add them to oatmeal along with almond butter.
- Bake them with graham flour and lemon juice or lemon balm to make blueberry crumble.
- Top a flatbread with them along with feta and peppermint.
- Top a flatbread with a mixture of blueberries and peaches on top of cream cheese. Sprinkle with either nutmeg or basil.
- Top a baked or steamed sweet potato with blueberries, banana slices, and almond butter.
- Top toast, crackers, or crostini with blueberries, almonds, and cream cheese.
- Add them to a quickbread.
- Add them to muffins, scones, bagels, and other baked goods, alone or with lemon zest, lemon balm, or lemon verbena.
- Add them to a galette, alone or with plum.
- Add them to pancakes.
- Pair them with strawberries as a standalone dish or in baked goods. Strawberries and blueberries can also be frozen in a bag together.
- Pair them with basil in a variety of dishes.
- Pair them with lemon verbena in a variety of dishes.
- Toss them with other berries like strawberries or blackberries. Add lime juice to the bowl if desired.
- Toss them with corn and feta.
- Make a Simple Salad. A few ideas for Simple Salad combinations with blueberries are as follows:
- Use them as Walls of an Interesting Salad. (Wondering why I capitalized those letters? Read more about Interesting Salads here!)
- Add them to other salads.
- Make a smoothie with them along with banana, dragonfruit, and mango.
- Add them to other smoothies for a tasty antioxidant boost.
- Make a jelly or jam with them, alone or with other berries, lemon verbena, and/or lemon balm.
- Make an infused water with them or add them to other infused water blends.
- Freeze them. Blueberries can be frozen whole or puréed.
- Dry the berries and the leaves for later use.
- Make a tea with the leaves or add them to tea blends.
- Add the dried berries to tea blends.
- Make a tincture with the leaves. The suggested herb:solvent ratio for a blueberry leaf tincture is 1:5 in 40% alcohol.
- Add the leaves and berries to an infused vinegar, especially with lemon balm.
- Dry the leaves to save them for later. See our How to Dry Your Herbs articles here for more information.
Further Reading
Growing blueberries? Check out these quick facts like its best growing conditions, companion plants, and expected yields.
Blueberries are also featured in these articles: