Spiced Poached Pears in Red Wine and Orange Juice (Paleo, GF)
Spiced Poached Pears in Red wine and Orange Juice, a healthy holiday recipe full of spices, wine, and orange juice.
This Spiced Poached Pears in Red wine and Orange Juice recipe is a French holiday recipe that my mother makes every single Thanksgiving and Christmas. Cooked in this way, the pears are sweet, tart, and full of holiday spices…It tastes like the pears have been cooked in an orange infused mulled wine. And I couldn’t imagine a holiday without them!
They are super light, which makes them a great healthy dessert option. They are also a great side dish, as they pair well with meat. And they only take 15 minutes to make!
This Spiced Poached Pears in Red wine and Orange Juice recipe is always such a crowd pleaser. They are sophisticated and elegant, and because of this everyone always think they must be super complicated to make, but they aren’t! The hardest part is probably peeling the pears!
All you have to do is peel and quarter your pears (and remove the core), then cook them in orange juice and spices for 10 minutes.
Then add your red wine and cook them for 5 more minutes.
Boom! In 15 minutes you have a French dessert or side dish that packs a holiday flavor punch.
And honestly, my family and I don’t only make these during the holidays… because they are too delicious to only have twice a year.
Now normally this recipe tends to be more wine-heavy and less orange juice heavy, but this is my mom’s recipe and I really love them this way. If you want to add more wine to yours, just reduce the amount of orange juice and increase the amount of wine. You can even cook them in the wine the whole time. It’s delicious both ways.
I wrote in this recipe that you can add 1- 1 1/2 cups of red wine, it really is up to you and how much wine flavor your want. My mom tends to just pour in her ingredients without measuring, so it’s always different every year.
Its fun to make them differently each time. Add more or less of a certain spice and more or less OJ or wine…. it’s literally always delicious!
Enjoy!
Spiced Poached Pears in Red wine and Orange Juice (paleo, GF)
Ingredients
- 2 cups orange juice ( this came from the juice of 6 small oranges for me)
- 4 pears (peeled, quartered, and with the core removed)
- 1/8 tsp orange zest
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp whole cloves
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 1/8 tsp nutmeg
- 1- 1 1/2 cups french red wine
Instructions
- Using any method of your choice, (juicer, handheld juicer, manual juicer), juice oranges until you have 2 cups of orange juice.
- Put the quartered pears into a large pan. Make sure most, if not all, of the pears are touching the bottom of the pan.
- Pour the orange juice on top of the pears. The pears should be sticking out a little, but mostly covered in juice. Add the orange zest to the pan.
- Top the pears with 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp whole cloves, 1/4 tsp ground cloves, and 1/8 tsp nutmeg. Mix.
- Heat the pears over medium-high heat until the orange juice boils, then lower the heat to medium and cook for 10 minutes.
- Then add your red wine to the pan, mix, and cook for 5 more minutes. They are done when you can easily put a knife through a pear.
Nutrition
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2 Comments on “Spiced Poached Pears in Red Wine and Orange Juice (Paleo, GF)”
These look amazing! Any chance they can be made ahead of time? I know you said they only take 15 minutes but when the stove is covered in gravy and such it would be nice to avoid one more dish.
Yes you totally can make these ahead of time and store them in the fridge in a tupperware. 🙂