Compote is one of the easiest dessert recipes you’ll ever come across. It’s also one of the healthiest. This simple dessert recipe, known as compote or “fruit soup,” includes dried apricots, dried plums, raisins and lemon juice. This chilled stewed fruit is naturally sweet and refreshing, a wonderful make-ahead dessert that goes well with almost any meal. Compote is dairy free, gluten free, and filled with healthy fiber. What a treat!
Not long after I started this blog, I wrote about a traditional Shabbat dinner cooked with my friends Etti and Bella Hadar. Etti had a family a memoir written by her late uncle, Dov Shimon Levin. As a soldier in the Jewish Infantry Brigade; he fought the Nazis during World War II. In his memoir, he wrote a detailed account of his life in the Pinsk region of Poland prior to the war. Being a lover of Ashkenazi cuisine, Uncle Dov wrote some amazing descriptions of the foods he enjoyed as a child. Etti and I pieced together a menu from the memoirs and recreated a traditional Polish Shabbat dinner using their family recipes. One of those recipes was for a dish he called marak perot – which is Hebrew for “fruit soup,” more widely known as compote.
Although most people call this dish compote, I love the term fruit soup… because it’s so accurate! The fruit is slowly simmered on the stovetop, just like a soup or stew. Once the fruit becomes tender and the juices thicken, the compote is chilled. It makes for a very refreshing dessert, a light and lovely way to end a heavy meal.
The compote recipe that appears here is from the Levin family memoirs. Once you understand the basic concept, feel free to improvise on the dish. For example, you can add your own favorite dried fruits and spices to change things up. Compote can also be pureed for a sauce-like texture.
Have you ever made compote before? What is your favorite way to prepare it?
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Compote
Ingredients
- 3 apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
- 2 cups dried plums
- 1 cup dried apricots
- 3/4 cup raisins
- 1/4 cup sugar (you may omit or use your favorite sweetener to taste if desired – sugar helps to thicken the juices)
- 1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, or more to taste
NOTES
Instructions
- Place apples, dried plums, dried apricots and raisins in a pot and cover 4 cups of water. Bring to a boil, stir in sugar unitl dissolved.
- Reduce heat to medium low and cover. Simmer for 1 ½ hours, stirring occasionally, until the water becomes a thick syrup and the prunes begin to dissolve. Remove the lid for the last 10-15 minutes of cooking so the liquid reduces.
- Remove fruit from heat and let it slowly return to room temperature. Squeeze the fresh lemon juice in, adding more to taste if desired. The lemon juice brightens up the flavor tremendously.Put the fruit in the refrigerator until it is fully chilled, at least 2 hours. Serve by ¾ cup portions in glass compote dishes.
Helen Burton says
My sisters Mother-in-law had a recipe called Compote Chai. It included some sort of alcoholic beverage added to a compote. I lost the recipe long ago. Have you ever heard of this?
Stav says
My mum/grandma and great grandma used pretty much the same recipe as yours, with the addition of loads of cinnamon. I don’t think I’ve ever tasted it without cinnamon (put a few cinnamon sticks during the cooking process)
Also my Polish great grandmother called it compote, whereas my mum and grandma call it ‘liftan’
Joyce Myers says
Compote…a cure all for matzoh over kill
Susan Eichler says
I just read through your polish shabbat recipes. My mother used to make the the calf jello , which I never knew what it was made of.She only made it when she made dinner parties. I did like it, thank- you for reminding me.
Miriam Ganiel says
My grandmother made this a lot when we lived in Israel
Faleen Fedol says
Looks like what my grandmother called compote
Michael Walker says
Fruit Compot in UK 🙂
Beth Nutik Baradyn says
tsimmes
Pat Papageorge Kemp says
Fruit soup! Great for lent. Mama also added raisins.
Clara Rapoport Koss says
compote????
Laura Campbell says
Love all your recipes! One question : should we put the raisins in with all of the other fruit to cook? Many thanks.
Tori Avey says
Laura– yes! Thank you for that, I have clarified the recipe.
Tamara Hansen Reese says
This food was funny to me because while I converted to Judaism after college, I had grown up eating this food and was surpised to see it served at a Seder table. My family called it Norwegian Fruit Soup commonly served at holidays in addition to Glogg 😉
Helen Wolf Jambor says
compote, I make it every Passover.
Susan Colen Shulman says
Fruit Compote and my grandma always served it with heavy cream and called it dessert. As far as I was concerned, fruit wasn’t dessert…chocolate cake was. I have since come to appreciate fruit compote but it took decades for that to occur.
Marlynn Strauss-Chetkof says
Compote.
Madeline Etkin says
compote at my house,
Darla Devnich says
fruit soup
Anne Levin says
every Passover we have prunes and apricots for dessert at our sedar. I never thought of it as anything other than it was our special Passover dessert. I am going to try it with apples – not so sure on the raisins – but thanks for the memory since I DID NOT have it this year 🙂
Anita Costanzo says
Tzimmes
Alicia Elena Di Paolo says
My Italian grandmother made it and she called it compota de ciruelas and then she would top it off with a dollop of crème fraîche.