Poached Quince

Quince turns a lovely rose color when it's cooked slowly. Today, I cooked it a little too quickly and it started to turn mushy. So, I removed the larger slices that were still holding their shape and left smaller slices in the liquid to simmer for about an hour...I then added the larger slices back into the liquid.

Ideally, all the quince slices would have cooked down in the liquid for the entire time and turned rosy too. As it turned out, the liquid turned rosy from the quince I left in, and the bigger quince pieces remained a lighter color. (Bummer.)

We ate this with vanilla hemp milk ice cream--Living Harvest Tempt Vanilla Bean to be exact. (I must say it is quite good.) The quince is tart, so some may like to add more sweetness to the cooking liquid, but I like it that way. And, it balanced out the sweetness of the hemp ice cream nicely. Poached quince is also good with soy yogurt and granola.

Here's what I used:

(Wait until you have all the other ingredients warming up in a sauce pan, before you peel and core the quince.)

3 large quince
3 cups water
3/4 cup light agave (or more to taste)
1/2 vanilla pod, sliced down the middle
15-20 cardamom pods
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice



Add all ingredients (except quince) in a saucepan and bring to slow simmer. (I scraped the vanilla seeds out of the pod and into the liquid, but you could also leave the pod in tact if you prefer.) As the sauce is heating, peel, core, and slice the quince, sliding the slices into the liquid as you cut them. Quince are quite tough, so be sure you've removed all the hard and fibrous bits around the core.

Simmer slowly and gently for 1 hour. When the quince is tender and the liquid has turned rosy, remove from heat and strain out the cardamom pods. Store refridgerated in the cooking liquid for up to a week.



And last but certainly not least.... Happy World Go Vegan Week everyone!