The 9 Best Fruits And Veggies To Buy This Summer

It’s almost too easy to be healthy in the summer. The hotter temps encourage us to drink more water and stay hydrated; sunny days inspire even the biggest couch potatoes to opt outside for a few hours; and the local farmers’ market is overflowing with fresh, fragrant produce that’s so flavorful it barely needs to be prepared.

In fact, it’s pretty easy to embrace a plant-based or even raw diet during the summer months. Unlike in the winter, when most fresh foods are root vegetables and bitter greens, warm weather produce ranges deeply in color, flavor, texture, and type—which makes eating your fruits and veggies is hardly boring! Keep scrolling for some of the best of summer’s harvest.

Vegetables:

• Rhubarb A leafy green with bright red stems, rhubarb has an earthy-tart taste. Usually it’s prepared like a fruit, cooked with sugar or baked into a pie with fruit like strawberries.
• Zucchini Spiralizers, your favorite veggie is back in season! Although zucchini can be found year-round in warmer areas, it’s in full abundance in the summer.
• Kohlrabi A bit of an intimidating-looking veggie, kohlrabi is a root vegetable that’s a sort of cross between cabbage and a broccoli stem.
• Arugula Also known as rocket, arugula is a slightly spicy and bitter cruciferous veggie that’s perfect for throwing into salads and topping pizzas.
• Tomatoes Sure, they’re a classic—but don’t underestimate the humble tomato. Loaded with lycopene and vitamin C, they’re a veritable superfood!

Fruits:

• Kiwi Peel back their fuzzy brown skin and bright green flesh will be revealed. One kiwi fruit contains 85 percent of the daily recommended value of vitamin C—that’s more than in an entire orange!
• Passion fruit If you’ve never experimented with a passion fruit, you might not be sure what to expect from the wrinkly, aubergine fruits. Cut through the tough exterior to reveal a gelatinous, bright yellow inside complete with edible seeds. Yes, they’re a little slimy (much like the texture of a chia pudding) but passion fruit are loaded with incredible tropical flavor and make an excellent addition to any smoothie!
• Peaches Summer is stone fruit season—and juicy, luscious peaches are the stars of the show. But they don’t just taste good; peaches contain lutein, a powerful antioxidant that protects eyesight.
• Cherries Despite their inherent sweetness, cherries are a low glycemic food loaded with fiber and antioxidants—which means they won’t spike your blood sugar. In fact, eating tart cherries has been proven to reduce concentration of fats in the blood, and even correlated with weight loss.

What's your favorite summer fruit? Share with us below!