Sugar-free apricot parfait

Servings: 2

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 40 minutes

Total time: 50 minutes (+ 2 hours chilling)

Ingredients

• 1 large onion, sliced into half moons

• 6 ripe apricots, stoned and sliced

• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

• Pinch of sea salt

• 200g vanilla soy yogurt (Sojade) (or any yogurt your your choice)

• Fresh mint leaves to serve (optional)

Method

1. Warm the olive oil in a pan and cook the onion with the salt, low and slow, until soft and sweet.

2. Add the apricots with a finger of water. Simmer very gently for 30 minutes until everything is tender.

3. Blend until silky, then chill in the fridge.

4. To serve, spoon the vanilla yogurt into two glasses and layer the chilled apricot cream on top. Finish with mint if you like.

The secret to this parfait is an onion. Cooked slowly and patiently, onions become honeyed, and folded into ripe apricots they create a chilled cream that tastes indulgent without a grain of added sugar. Layered over cool vanilla soy yogurt, it is proof that when sweetness comes from whole food, gently cooked, the body receives it as nourishment rather than a spike. A summer dessert that fits.

Yin–Yang Balance

The long cooked onion carries the warming, settling yang; the apricot, yogurt and mint carry summer's cooling yin. A chilled dish built on slow heat. Balance you can taste.

Nutrition Facts (approx., per serving)

Calories: 250 kcal
Protein: 5 g
Fat: 14 g
Carbohydrates: 24 g (of which sugars 19 g, all naturally occurring)
Fibre: 4 g

Rich in: beta carotene, potassium and gut friendly fermented cultures

Notes & Variations

The apricot purée keeps for three days in the fridge, so the parfait assembles in a minute when the sweet urge whispers. A pinch of ground fennel deepens the sweetness further. Peaches or nectarines work beautifully when apricots are past their best.