The Kiwi To Our Hearts

 

The Kiwi, also known as the Chinese gooseberry is a small fruit packed with a huge amount of flavour. And it’s not just packed with flavour, they are loaded with vitamins helping to keep our bodies in tip-top shape but we’ll get to that shortly…

Despite the name, kiwifruit did not originate in New Zealand. They actually originated in China but can now be found all over the world including Italy, Chile, the USA and obviously New Zealand (they can’t just own the name for nothing!). They also come in all sorts of colours including green, gold and red

Now back to the health benefits! Kiwifruit is packed with nutrients such as vitamin C, vitamin K, vitamin E, folate, and potassium and these have great benefits for the body. For example, Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant that protects the body by removing free radicals. What are free radicals I hear you ask? Well, they are unstable atoms that, when they build up in our bodies, can promote a state known as oxidative stress, which has been linked to many chronic diseases. Studies show that consuming more vitamin C can increase your blood antioxidant levels by up to 30%.

So now you know what a kiwi is. You also know where it came from and how healthy it is. Job done…. Ok, we couldn’t just leave you with that, you need to know how to eat the thing! Let’s find out how:

 

Just like an Apple

Yes, just bite into it (after washing it of course!). One of the best ways to enjoy a kiwi is by eating it with its skin. There is no problem at all with eating the skin of a kiwi, in fact, it’s more healthy than eating a kiwi without the skin. Kiwi skin is packed with nutrition – it’s where most of the vitamin C content is and it even triples your fibre intake when compared with eating kiwi skinless.

Nobody likes a bruised apple and the same can be said for a bruised kiwi. To select the kiwi to your hear make sure that it doesn’t have any blemishes and that it gives slightly to thumb pressure as this ensures its ripeness.

 

Spoon it out or peel it

If you don’t fancy eating the skin, you can either spoon it out or peel it.

To spoon it out, first, slice the kiwi lengthwise into two halves. Grab hold of that spoon and begin to scoop out that sweet inner flesh one half at a time.

Another way to tackle the kiwi is to go the traditional route and grab hold of your paring knife. Slice the fruit and then run the knife around the fruit, just under the skin as this will just loosen the flesh. After that, just pinch the base of the skin and the kiwi half should slide right out.

Once you’ve removed the skin, you can either eat it as is or chop it up and add it as an ingredient to some of your favourite recipes.

Smoothie

As the famous saying goes, “ if you can’t eat it, drink it”. A kiwi smoothie in the morning is a great way to start your day. All you need is some kiwi (obviously), a banana, some Greek yoghurt and some spinach and once you blend it all, you got yourself a morning energiser. If you want to keep things tropical you can also add frozen pineapple or mango.

 

Freeze it

Another great way to eat kiwi is by freezing it. Everybody loves a frozen treat and everybody loves kiwi so it’s obviously a perfect match! All you need to do is to insert a bamboo skewer through the skin on one side of the fruit, then place it atop parchment paper on a cookie sheet, and pop it into the freezer. These kiwi-pops are a much healthier alternative to those sugary commercial ice pops.

 

Dried

Last but by no means least, our favourite way... You guessed it, you can eat kiwi dried. Dried kiwis make for an excellent snack when you don’t have the time to eat it on the go or you would like to store it for a long time. Dried kiwis are packed with the same nutrients as fresh kiwi so you won’t be missing out on all its healthy goodness. Even better, we’ve done all the work for you and dried them ourselves – you can get it here:

 

Let us know your favourite way to eat kiwi by sending us a message or tagging us on the socials.