Spiced Red Wine Poached Pears are a delicious, easy and light winter dessert for your holiday meal. Vegan & Gluten-Free!
Merry Christmas, dear friends! We hope you are having the time of your life and get to enjoy the holiday season. We have been taking some time off to spend quality time with the family, detoxing from the online world.
But we’re taking the time today to share with you an easy dessert idea, that you can wipe up with minimal effort and maximum presentation. This elegant dessert of Spiced Red Wine Poached Pears will be the talk of the table! And no one has to know it took you just minutes to prep and a good half hour of low-effort cooking.
These poached pears basically cook themselves!
The ingredients for spiced red wine poached pears
All you really need to make this fabulous looking dessert is just a couple of basic ingredients: firm pears, red wine, sugar, spices, and yogurt or cream to serve them with. We went with plain plant-based coconut yogurt and let the spiced red wine reduction add flavor to it.
How to choose the right pear to poach
To make this dish work you will need pears that are firm and not too sweet. Avoid any type that is soft or bruises easily. Choose perfectly ripe pears. Overripe pears will be soggy, and underripe pears will not poach well. We recommend using varieties like Bosc or Anjou.
Which wine to choose for poaching pears
We always go by the rule: if you wouldn’t drink it, then don’t cook with it. Wine doesn’t have to be expensive, but you’ll want it to be good-tasting, not sour or tart. For this recipe we chose merlot, but cabernet sauvignon will work just as well. While cooking, we will be infusing the wine with sugar and spices and reducing it in thickness. You’ll want the red wine reduction to be delicious, so don’t use bad wine.
Let’s talk spices
The recipe will make a spiced red wine reduction that should almost taste like mulled wine, but sweeter. So for the recipe, we used cinnamon, vanilla, star anise, and sugar.
Don’t be afraid to experiment with spices, but keep it simple.
Ready to cook? Here’s the recipe:
Spiced Red Wine Poached Pears
Spiced Red Wine Poached Pears are a delicious, easy and light winter dessert for your holiday meal. Vegan & Gluten-Free!
Ingredients
- 4 pears (firm variety)
- 2 cups red wine (such as merlot)
- 1/3 cup sugar, granulated
- 1 vanilla pod
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 2 star anise
- 4 tbsp coconut yogurt
Instructions
- Pour wine into a cooking pot, add sugar, halved vanilla pod, cinnamon sticks, and star anise. Cook on medium heat, stirring regularly, until the sugar dissolves, about 2 minutes.
- Peel pears leaving the stems intact. If your pear does not stand upright, cut a bit of the bottom off to level it.
- Place peeled pears into the cooking wine and cook on low heat until soft, about 30 minutes. While cooking, flip them around regularly, so they coat with the wine reduction evenly.
- Once cooked, removed the pears from the pot and set them aside.
- Strain the wine of the spices, return the wine to the pot and continue cooking so the wine reduces to a syrup-like thickness, about 15 minutes.
- Drizzle some of the wine reduction over the pears and place in the refrigerator to cool for at least 4 hours, or overnight.
- Serve with a spoonful of coconut yogurt (or other plant-based yogurts of cream) and a drizzle of the spiced red wine reduction.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 4 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 284Total Fat: 0gSaturated Fat: 0gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 15mgCarbohydrates: 50gFiber: 6gSugar: 37gProtein: 1g
Nutrition data is automatically calculated using Nutritionix and may not be accurate.
This recipe is sponsored by Hofer Slovenija. If you are from Slovenia, do head over to Hofer’s Instagram account for even more delicious recipes!
If you like this recipe, you can let us know in the comments below or on social media using #vibrantplate and tag us @vibrantplate. We’re always happy to read your feedback and LOVE seeing your take on our recipes.
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