A simple lingonberry sauce recipe and its nutrients

Lingonberries are berries from the Vaccinium vitis-idaea plant which is from the same genus as other similar plants such as the cranberry, blueberry and bilberry. They are native to boreal forests throughout the Northern Hemisphere from Eurasia to North America.¹

Here, in Sweden, lingonberries grow wild and are widely used in dishes. The first time I tried them was as a sauce, or jam, accompanying a traditional meal of Swedish meatballs, mashed potato and cucumbers. I liked it so much that when I saw there were lingonberries growing near the forest behind my house I wanted to make some myself.

As it is coming up to the end of October, there weren’t as many berries as there were earlier in the harvest season, but I still couldn’t resist trying to make a jam/sauce! The recipe method is exactly the same, no matter how many berries you have.

There seems to be at least two ways of creating this condiment - a cooked version and a raw version. This method below will be the raw, non-cooked version, rårörde lingon.

Ingredients

• 2 parts fresh lingonberries
• ~ 1 part sugar or honey (one can put more or less - sweeten to your liking)

Method

1. Pick the amount of fresh lingonberries desired to make the sauce, then wash and drain the berries.


2. Combine the lingonberries and sugar in a bowl until the sugar dissolves.


3. Eat the sauce immediately or cover the bowl and leave for longer so that the sugar pulls the lingonberries’ natural flavour molecules out and into the sugary “syrup“.

Lingonberries have a high concentration of a natural preservative, benzoic acid, as well as other acidic compounds. This prevents it from easily undergoing fermentation by lactic acid bacteria. If left in the sugar for a longer time, the lingonberries won’t ferment in the same way as other vegetables will, but the sugar will pull these acidic molecules into the syrup giving it a nice balanced sweet and tart flavour.^2,3

Nutrients

Lingonberries are considered a rich source of nutrients and bioactive compounds. The intake of these berries have been associated with anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, anti-cancer and antioxidant effects. Lingonberries have one of the highest content of antioxidants among berries.^1,4,5

Essential nutrients that exist in 100g of raw lingonberries^1,5 in considerable quantities include (percentages are of RDI for a 31-50 year old female according to the Nutrient Journal running Global average): 32.8% chromium, 14.8% vitamin C, 6.1% iron, 5.9% zinc and 4.8% copper. See the lingonberry’s full nutrient profile at Nutrient Journal.

Essential nutrients that exist in white sugar are basically limited to just sucrose, but if you use honey, more beneficial nutrients can be taken advantage of. Essential nutrients in 100g of honey in considerable quantities include: 620% chromium, 39% copper, 33.33% vitamin K, 29.7% manganese, 17.6% potassium and 13% vitamin B6 (pyridoxine). See honey’s full nutrient profile at Nutrient Journal.

References