Chef Geoffrey Zakarian Shares ‘Healthy’ Homemade Fruit Rollup Recipe Ahead of New Cookbook Release

Fruit rollups don’t just have to be store-bought, according to chef Geoffrey Zakarian.

The celebrity chef, 67, is giving First for Women an exclusive sneak peek at his upcoming cookbook, Original Food: Recapturing the Joy of Eating — which will hit shelves on Tuesday, October 27 — including his recipe for Strawberry Bastegh (Armenian Fruit Rollups).

Speaking exclusively with First for Women, Zakarian explains his cookbook is “a return to original untouched food,” and that the Strawberry Bastegh is actually “an old recipe that my aunts used to make.”

As for the inspiration behind the dish, the Food Network personality says, “Leftover fruit and poverty!” noting, “That’s a powerful inspirational tool.”

“It’s so simple and uses overripe and often discarded food,” he adds of the “healthy” and “yummy” treat.

While Zakarian’s recipe calls for strawberries, he notes readers can feel free to substitute that for any other fruit “high in natural pectin,” including peaches, pears and apples.

Strawberry Bastegh (Armenian Fruit Rollups)

Ingredients:

8 oz strawberries, stems removed

1 tbsp fresh lemon or lime juice

3 tbsp coconut sugar

1 tsp vanilla bean paste (optional)

Pinch of kosher salt

Instructions:

1. Place the strawberries in a blender or food processor and puree them for about a minute until very smooth with no chunks left.
2. Place the strawberry puree in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the lemon or lime juice and coconut sugar, and bring to a bubble. Lower the heat to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until the puree is thick and jam-like. Turn off the heat, add the vanilla bean paste and salt, and start to combine.
3. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees and line a sheet pan with a Silpat mat or a piece of parchment paper.
4. Use an offset spatula to spread the strawberry mixture on the sheet pan to an even thickness of about 1/8 inch, forming a rectangle about 6 by 8 inches. The puree will lose some of its thickness in the oven as it dehydrates, so make sure that none of the jam is so thin that it’s transparent.
5. Cook in the oven for 3 to 4 hours, until the fruit leather no longer feels sticky to the touch. It may still be tacky on the surface. Remove from the oven and let it cool completely. Transfer to a cutting board lined with wax paper and use a pizza cutter to cut it into strips about 1 1/4 inch thick or 2- to 3- inch squares. Store the rollups in an airtight container, separated by wax paper.