Delicious Ways to Make Use of Overripe Fruit

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Do you have some fruit sitting on your countertop that is in less than perfect condition? Here are some suggestions on how to make the most of that overripe fruit!

Do you have some fruit sitting on your countertop that is in less than perfect condition? Here are some suggestions on how to make the most of that overripe fruit!

Delicious Ways to Make Use of Overripe Fruit

It sometimes happens that fruit ripens too quickly or at least quicker than you expected. Of course, you don’t want to throw it out or have to give it to your chickens so soon because you paid good money for that fruit! Did you know that in the US, food waste is measured to be about 30-40% of the food supply. Is that crazy or what?

So I thought in today’s blog post, I would share with you a few practical suggestions on what to do when you have overripe fruit. Hopefully, you find something useful here for something that is currently sitting on your countertop!

–Here are more Waste Not Want Not suggestions!

banana bread

Make Quick Bread or Muffins

Fruits such as bananas and peaches are terrific in for baking in bread and muffins. Berries are also terrific. Another possibility is to mix certain fruits such as cranberries, oranges, bananas, strawberries, or whatever combinations you like.

I have so many muffin and bread recipes that any of these overripe fruits would be perfect in, but here are some of my favorites:

yogurt

Add To Yogurt

Adding overripe fruit to plain yogurt makes it truly delicious. The sweetness of the overripe fruit and the tartness of plain yogurt combine beautifully. You can use pieces of the fruits or make fruit purees to add to your yogurt.

For another interesting idea, you can freeze the yogurt and fruit to make an amazing frozen yogurt dessert.

Here are some homemade yogurt recipes that you can make to go with your overripe fruit:

Raspberry Smoothie

Make Milkshakes or Smoothies

Overripe bananas are great for a banana milkshake. I also like the combination of orange juice, bananas, and ice cubes or cream cubes; all blended together. I’m unsure how I discovered the orange banana milkshake, but I like it!

Overripe fruit can be placed in the freezer and then used later in the blender or food processor, along with some kind of liquid to make a smoothie.

Here are some other smoothie recipes that work great with overripe fruit:

Fruits

Make Fruit Salad

If I have overripe kiwifruit, I like to combine it with bananas to make a great fruit salad. Any fruit can be added to a fruit salad, but I really like the combination of kiwifruit and banana. Other great additions are grapes, peaches, apricots, and oranges.

Just make sure that your overripe fruit isn’t too mushy to be used in a fruit salad. If it is, you’d be better off using it in one of the things mentioned above or in pies.

juice

Juice The Fruits

Another use for overripe fruits is juice. If you don’t like the seeds, you can strain them and add water to your fruit to make a drink. The amount of water that you need depends on how sweet you want to make the drink.

Even citrus fruits that seem overripe can still be juiced for later use. I like to place my citrus in ice cube trays and then freeze for later. You can read about it in my Freezing Orange Juice post.

frozen grapes

Freeze Your Fruit

Overripe fruit often tastes fantastic when it’s frozen. There are many fruits that, when frozen and then blended, taste similar to ice cream or sorbet. I’ve also tested and love frozen bananas, apricots, plums, grapes, and kiwifruit. Frozen grapes, in particular, are a favorite snack on hot summer days.

Add your frozen fruit to your blender or food processor with a little liquid (coconut milk is our favorite), plus some honey or maple syrup, possibly a bit of lemon zest depending on the fruits used (or vanilla, or cinnamon!) and blend into an “ice cream”.

Here’s my recipe for Raspberry Sherbert, perfect for any overripe frozen fruit!

Fruity Tea

Make Tea

With the intense flavor that often comes from overripe fruit, you can dry the fruits and make them into delicious fruity teas. You won’t even know that the fruit was overripe, just that it tastes so good in the tea!

Use this recipe for Fruity Loose Tea for inspiration for a new tea creation with your fruit.

Gummy Bears

Make Gummies

My kids absolutely love gummies, and using overripe fruit in them is perfect because you usually only need small amounts for the recipe, and the strength of the flavor of the fruit really adds a lot to the gummies!

Here are a couple of gummy recipes that we make:

jam

Make Your Own Jams/Jellies.Sauces

A final suggestion for overripe fruit is making jams and purees with it. An overripe mango can be terrific for a mango puree and a good topping for pancakes. Overripe apricots and peaches can make excellent jams. If they’re really overripe, you may need to add little or no sugar.

Here are some James, jellies, and sauces that we make and that you can make with your overripe fruit:


Many people might think that overripe fruit needs to be tossed out. The truth, though, is that with a little bit of creativity, you can find many uses for it. It may be that overripe fruit will be the perfect thing you need to make the bread, muffin, yogurt, jam, juice, and milkshakes!

Trying for No Food Waste?

Meal Planning Made Simple

How do you use overripe fruit in your home? Which of these ideas is your favorite?

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Me and KadyMerissa has been blogging about and living the simple life since 2009 and has internationally published 2 books on the topic. You can read about Merissa’s journey from penniless to the 100-acre farm on the About Page. You can send her a message any time from the Contact Page.


 

This article on How to Use Overripe Fruit was originally published on Little House Living in August 2020. It has been updated as of June 2023.

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8 Comments

  1. i love cobblers so i put leftover fruit in the cobbler bag. then when i make cobbler i add the friit from the bag. my cobbler maybe mostly peach but there will be other fruits in it also. i hate to waste food. you can make pancake syrup with left over outdated fruits. you have great ideas, thanks

  2. What a great list!! We usually make smoothies, chia seed jam, or, especially right now, fruit popsicles.

  3. I’m glad you did this article! It gave me ideas.

    Conventional wisdom says you are not to use overripe fruit for jams and jellies, but I am so GLAD you suggested it, because I have to confess that the BEST strawberry jam I made ever was when a vendor abandoned his flats of overripe strawberries and I picked up 8 flats… that’s 64 lbs… for free! My processing was different because I generously cut away any fuzzy areas… seriously. Some of them were furry. I only kept the parts completely free of mold, brown spots or soft bits, and many of the strawberries were still firm and perfect. But the ones that were overripe and I cut in half had the best flavor by far, sweet, rich and deep. Not all of the strawberries became jam because we ran out of jars (I think we had about 2 dozen of mixed sizes), but the jam lasted for my 3 kids for about 4 years, and it was a favorite. I also froze strawberries and made 2 fresh strawberry pies (the kind made with strawberry jello).

    I love it when your articles are a bit different like this! thank you.

    1. Yes, I can understand that you should not use bruised, moldy, or damaged fruits for canning, but unless it was a fruit whose ph level was highly affected by the ripeness (which I’ve not heard of yet), I can’t imagine it would make a difference. I’m glad you enjoyed this article!

  4. Hi, Merissa. I’ve got a question. How can I use up nutshells? I live in town In a smallish apartment, if that helps. I’d appreciate any suggestions. Thanks!

  5. How about over ripe figs ?? I do not make preserves but wondered about using
    for baking. I love fig Newtons but just don’t want to go there haha.
    I also de-seeded cherries, by hand, they are in ref. but wondering how they should be cooked to add to desserts ? Kind of crazy questions here, just thought you may have suggestion 🙂

  6. My sympathy about the hailstorms! I live in the Mojave Desert, so we have very different weather problems. We were lucky to have abnormally cool weather for most of the late spring, which was nice because my tomatoes set a good bit of fruit, but this weekend the heat is here! It’s supposed to hit 105° today.
    This year I got a bumper crop of mulberries from our fruiting mulberry tree, and also a good crop of apricots. We ate a lot straight off the trees, but I made mulberry jam twice, and a mulberry – strawberry cake twice also. And then I made apricot lemon preserves, and with some bruised windfall apricots I made apricot butter out of the Ball Blue Book. We have a small vegetable garden. Radishes have gone to seed, but we have onions, mint, and basil, and we are just starting to have ripe cherry tomatoes. And the squash, melon, and thyme seeds I planned have all come up. And…we have purslane! I used to think it was a weed; it grows like one here. But it’s a good hot-weather green. It’s a succulent so it doesn’t bolt like kale etc. And it tastes really good.
    I hope you don’t get discouraged and give up on your blog…we live in very different environments, but I enjoy comparing notes! I’m gonna have to try that blueberry zucchini bread once I start getting some zucchini.