Three 3-ingredient recipes with hive ingredients
A few simple snacks with ingredients made by the bees.
Cooking with honey is a creative process. Today, I have a few no-bake, minimal ingredient recipes that incorporate ingredients from the hive beyond honey. Plus, combining the health support of hive ingredients with certain fruits can help make compounds more bioavailable—so great flavor and great health benefits.
Sorbet All Day
1 cup frozen strawberries
1 frozen banana (sliced)
1 tsp pollen
Blend the frozen fruit in a food processor until it forms a ball. (You might need to add a tablespoon of water.) Sprinkle pollen on top.
The reason I call this “Sorbet All Day” is because there’s no wrong time of the day for it. It’s a quick breakfast, anytime snack, or refreshing dessert. Every time I make it I can’t believe how simple the ingredients are in relation to the flavor and consistency. This time of year I like to buy strawberries in bulk from local farms and freeze them. My latest sorbet is from strawberries I froze 1 year ago. I’m late at getting to local farms, so I hope I can still get some!
Sweetness, antioxidants, fiber, and a heart-healthy friend, strawberries pack so many benefits into their tiny red package. In just 1 cup of strawberries—the amount in this recipe—they provide 1.7 grams of fiber. According to ZOE Science and Nutrition, high-fiber whole foods like strawberries are associated with “lower cholesterol, lower blood pressure, and a decreased risk of heart disease.” Combining strawberries with pollen, another substance associated with lowering cholesterol, magnifies the benefits.
Vitamin P: Pollen
While it may be a happy accident, I remember noticing an interesting pattern during my first year of beekeeping. When fall came around, the honey bees pressed beautiful orange and yellow pollen into the comb. I was tickled to see them decorating for Halloween. Then in the spring, deep red pollen stored in cells in between nectar that glistened in the su…
Sweet Bee Smoothie
2 cups kefir (or your preferred cultured yogurt)
½ cup frozen blueberries
1 tbsp honey
Blend all three ingredients in a blender and enjoy.
Whenever I get the chance to incorporate honey into a recipe, I prioritize using it without heat to preserve as many beneficial properties as possible. This smoothie is already sweet from the blueberries, but the pop of honey gives it an extra dimension of flavor, plus all the health benefits of honey too. We can also thank the bees not only for the honey, but for pollinating the blueberries.
Blueberries are associated with diverse health benefits, from cognition to heart health, reducing disease risk and improving microbiomes. ADVANCES IN NUTRITION published research in 2019 that found anthocynanins, which come in high concentrations in blueberries, commonly increase in the large intestine and “could interact with the microbiota to elicit anti-inflammatory or other responses that contribute to cardioprotective benefits.” Along the lines of improving gut health, this smoothie combines blueberries with the gut microbiota benefits of kefir. According to NUTRIENTS, regular consumption of kefir helps increase a particular species, Actinobacteria. Actinobacteria are not just found in humans, but in extreme environmental conditions. Some research is being done to see connections between Actinobacteria and cancer prevention and treatment.
Honey nutrition: How does honey compare with other sweeteners?
In addition to honey, brown sugar, and pure cane sugar, let’s also look at maple syrup, agave syrup, and stevia. I won’t go into the nutritional profiles of aspartame, Saccharin, and Splenda. Did you know all three of these were discovered by accident?
Immunity Spritz
2 cups sparkling water
½ lemon, juiced
1 ½ tbsp propolis-infused honey
Add all ingredients to your preferred drinking vessel and stir with a spoon until honey dissolves. Tip: To speed up incorporating the honey, use sparkling water at room temperature. Add ice after, if preferred.
I’ll admit, this technically has 5 ingredients. The propolis-infused honey is actually 3 ingredients. To make propolis-infused honey, blend ½ tbsp of propolis tincture with 1 tbsp honey. Making a propolis tincture is not complicated and generally includes vodka (the fifth ingredient). I plan to share step-by-step propolis tincture instructions in a few weeks, but there are plenty of guides already in the wilds of search engines. I’ll have raw propolis available for sale for the first time this year, and I’ll make sure the tincture recipe is up before then.
Propolis for immunity and well-being
Propolis is one of the substances that honey bees create that’s easily harvested from the hive. Honey bees make propolis from plant resins, often sourced from trees. They use propolis to insulate the hive and manage pests. Every crack gets sealed with propolis, preventing wind, rain, and pests from entering. If an unfortunate mouse or other small critte…
Let me know if you try any of these recipes. Please share them.