Recipes to beat disease: 2 fruity dishes with bananas

Healthy desserts don't have to be tasteless to be good for you. Here are two delicious fruit dishes that will dazzle your taste buds without ruining your diet:

While the avocado may come as a surprise in this dessert salad, its smooth, silky texture and rich flavour are a nice counterpoint to the fruit. Prepare this shortly before serving, or the fruit — especially the banana — will become mushy as the acid in the lime juice starts to break it down.

Preparation time: 15 minutes plus chilling
Serves: 4

Ingredients:

• 50 ml (1/4 c) fresh lime juice
• 30 ml (2 tbsp) sugar
• 50 g (1/4 c) fresh mint leaves, minced
• 6 kiwi, peeled, quartered lengthwise and cut crosswise into thirds
• 2 bananas, halved lengthwise and thickly sliced
• 1 mango, peeled and cut into 2.5 cm (1 in) chunks
• 1 avocado, peeled and cut into 2.5 cm (1 in) chunks

Method:

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the lime juice, sugar and mint.
2. Add the kiwi, bananas, mango and avocado; toss well.
3. Refrigerate for up to one hour before serving.

Nutritional information per serving:

• 267 Calories
• 8.6 g Fat
• 1.4 g Saturated Fat
• 3 g Protein
• 51 g Carbohydrate
• 6.7 g Fibre
• 0 mg Cholesterol
• 14 mg Sodium

Made with rice milk instead of cow's milk, and egg whites instead of whole eggs, this sweet, mildly spiced banana bread pudding is rich tasting without being high in fat. Soothing to both the body and spirit, the pudding is a good source of potassium (for blood pressure control), folate (for prevention of birth defects) and selenium (for thyroid function).

Ingredients:

• 175 g (6 oz) Italian semolina bread, cut into 2.5 cm (1 in) pieces
• 500 g (1 lb) very ripe bananas
• 50 g (1/4 c) firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 625 ml (2 1/2 c) rice milk
• 3 large egg whites
• 2 ml (1/2 tsp) vanilla extract
• 1 ml (1/4 tsp) grated nutmeg
• 1 ml (1/4 tsp) salt

Method:

1. 1. Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F). Toast the bread cubes for seven minutes, or until crisp. Remove from the oven and reduce the oven temperature to 180°C (350°F).
2. In a large bowl, mash the bananas with a potato masher or a fork. Stir in the brown sugar until combined. Whisk in the rice milk, egg whites, vanilla, ­nutmeg and salt.
3. Place the toasted bread cubes in a 22 x 22-centimetre (nine x nine-inch) glass baking dish. Pour the banana mixture over the bread.
4. Bake for 35 minutes, or until the pudding is puffed and set. Cool to room temperature before serving.

Nutritional information per serving:

• 325 Calories
• 3.1 g Fat
• 0.5 g Saturated Fat
• 8 g Protein
• 68 g Carbohydrate
• 2.5 g Fibre
• 0 mg Cholesterol
• 495 mg Sodium

See, desserts can be tasty and healthy! Try making these up on a regular basis to add something sweet to your daily diet.