Healthy Sugar-Free Kompot Recipe For Kids

Kompot (compot or homemade juice) is one of many easy drinks to make for kids at home, ensuring that all the ingredients you use are the best quality. 

Article Content: 

• Is Kompot Healthy Or Not?
• What Are The Health Benefits Of Kompot?
• Does Heat Treatment Impact The Vitamins In Kompot?
• Should You Boil Apples With Or Without The Peel?
• 3 Ways To Remove Pesticides From Fruits And Vegetables.
• How To Make Kompot (Recipe)

Kompot is one of the favorite drinks in Eastern European countries, such as Ukraine, Russia, Belorussia, etc. However, it was first made in France back in the 18th century. 

Kompot is usually made by cooking one or several different kinds of fruits and berries together with sugar in a large amount of water. So, most traditional kompot recipes include lots of sugar as an additional sweetener. But the question is: “Is it really healthy?” Of course not! 

In our article, you will find a sugar-free kompot recipe because we are deeply convinced that too much sugar is harmful to all of us, especially for kids. We are not going to use any syrups or sweeteners – only fruits and berries to sweeten the drink naturally.

Is Kompot Healthy Or Not?

A sugar-free kompot, which was not subjected to extended cooking, is a healthy drink for kids as it contains many vitamins and minerals.

However, I would like to emphasize the importance of giving your kids simple, pure water because it is essential to their health [1]. Never substitute drinking water with any fruit drinks as they are totally different liquids. Our body reacts to juice as if it were food rather than water. So, to my mind, when your kid drinks only fruit drinks and refuses to drink water, this stops being healthy.

I give kompot to my kid to drink after food or to simply enjoy along with some cookies, as kompot drinks are good sugar-free drinks for kids. They are also suitable toddler drinks. But I won’t substitute water with any fruit drinks.

What Are the Health Benefits Of Kompot?

To make healthy drinks for kids, you can use various fruits (such as apples, apricots, pears, peaches, plums, oranges, etc.) and berries (such as grapes, cherries, sweet cherries, blackcurrants, redcurrants, strawberries, raspberries, cranberries, etc.). These are all high in beneficial nutrients like vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. 

As my favorite IMMUNE-BOOSTING kompot for my three-year-old toddler contains apples, raspberries, strawberries, and cranberries, I will now let you know about the health benefits of these fruits and berries.

Apples are an excellent source of potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, iron, iodine, as well as the following vitamins: C, K, A, E, B1, B2, and B6. They also contain polyphenols which can have numerous benefits for our health [2]. 

Raspberries have a lot of necessary nutrients such as C, K, E, and B vitamins, as well as the following minerals: magnesium, copper, iron, and potassium [3]. 

Strawberries are rich in vitamin C, manganese, folate (vitamin B9), and potassium. This berry also provides (in smaller amounts) minerals such as iron, copper, magnesium, and phosphorus, as well as vitamins B6, K, and E [4]. 

Cranberries are an incredibly healthy superfood and are a good source of C, A, E, and К vitamins, calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, and zinc. They also contain a wide range of vital B vitamins (B1, B2, B3, B6, etc.) [5].

Does Heat Treatment Impact The Vitamins In Kompot?

During heat treatment, some vitamins are destroyed. For example, vitamin C is sensitive to heat. B vitamins are similarly heat-sensitive. Up to 60% of thiamine, niacin and other B vitamins may be lost when fruit is simmered and its juices are released. However, the liquid in which the fruits were boiled can conserve 100% of minerals and up to 70-90% of B vitamins [6]. 

It is important to simmer kompot for no longer than 5 minutes (ideally 1-2 minutes) with the pot covered so that the fruit drink doesn’t lose its health properties.

It is also necessary to add berries and fruits to water that has been brought to a boil. After that, you should wait for 1-2 minutes for the water to boil together with the fruits under a lid. Then keep the kompot at a simmer for 1-2 minutes more, remove from the heat, and let it cool for several hours. Using this method, you will lose only a small amount of vitamins.

Should You Boil Apples With Or Without The Peel?

There are a lot of studies proving that it is the fruit peel that contains the majority of vitamins and useful substances in apples. Therefore, it seems logical to just wash an apple and add it unpeeled to the boiled water. But it is not as simple as that. 

Few people have their own garden, where they can grow organic fruit, avoiding pesticides or the wax coatings used to extend product shelf-life. Personally, I buy organic apples at the supermarket, but I am not sure how many times they have been treated (yes, organic products are also treated) or what kind of wax the farmer used to cover them (farmers often add a wax coating to extend shelf-life).

So, here is my way out of the situation: I peel the apples. I know that I lose all the vitamins the apple peel contains. But, at the same time, I know I can get rid of all the chemicals and wax that apples have been treated with.

Fortunately, there are other proven ways to remove wax, pesticides, and other chemicals.

3 Ways To Remove Pesticides From Fruits And Vegetables:

1. Soaking in Himalayan salt water or sea salt for 20 minutes [7]. 
2. Using bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) to clean your fruits. Add 1 teaspoon of soda to 2 cups of water, soak produce for 12-15 minutes in the solution, and then rinse with water. A recent study about apples found that baking soda may clean the fruit better than other washing methods [8]. 
3. Vinegar is the third way to remove pesticides from fruits and berries. Soak your produce in vinegar and water for 20 minutes. You need to use 1 part vinegar to 4 parts water (10 ml of vinegar mixed with 40 ml of water). Vinegar will kill many types of bacteria that may be found on produce as well. Be careful when soaking porous fruits, such as berries, in vinegar solution, as it may affect their thin skin.

To remove wax from apples, you should wash them with a soft brush in warm water. After that, add a tablespoon of vinegar and a tablespoon of baking soda. This solution may help dissolve the wax and chemicals [9]. 

You can choose any of these ways to wash your fruits and vegetables. It will help you avoid all the chemicals that are harmful to our children, as they are more vulnerable to pesticide toxicity than adults. 

Now that we’ve looked at some of the ways we can properly and safely clean our fruits and berries, we can move on to our homemade juice recipe.

How To Make Kompot

Ingredients for IMMUNE-BOOSTING Kompot:

• 4 cups of water (brought to a boil)
• 1 sweet organic peeled apple (fresh)
• ¾ cup of organic sweet raspberries (fresh or frozen)
• 1 cup of organic sweet strawberries (fresh or frozen)
• ½ cup of organic cranberries (fresh or frozen)

You can always use the berries which you like most: blueberries, blackberries, cherries, etc. 

How To Make Kompot (Compot):

1. Bring 4 cups of water to a boil.
2. Wash and peel an apple. Slice the apple as shown in the photo.
3. Wash all your berries in the baking soda solution for 12-15 min and then rinse with water.
4. When the water starts to boil, carefully add the apple and berries, cover with a lid, and bring water back to a boil. Then keep kompot at a simmer for 2-5 min more.
5. When that time has passed, remove the kompot from the heat and let it cool for 3-6 hours.
6. Let the kompot cool completely, strain the juice, and refrigerate for 3-5 days. Some people prefer to keep the fruits and do not strain the juice. Others even like to eat the boiled fruit and berries. All of these options are fine, just find the one that works best for you.
7. You can drink it warm as a tea or have it as a cold drink by adding some ice.

Here I shared with you one recipe for delicious and healthy homemade juice, perfect for your kids. You can always experiment with ingredients according to your personal tastes and fruit seasonality.

As for me, I also love the combination of peach, apricot, and pear in my kompot. The drink will become transparently white in color but it tastes wonderful! So now you are free to create your own homemade juice – maybe even together with your toddler!

Remember, however, to follow this principle: NO SUGAR in your kompot drink! Fruits and berries are already sweet enough!

If you are interested in how exactly sugar affects our children’s health you are welcome to read our next article!