The Go-To Fruits You Should Know To Substitute For Apricots

Starting the day with a fruit shake or topping your smoothie bowl with fresh fruits is a great way to fuel up before you hit the grind. If you haven't already tried them, apricots — sweet and somewhat tart fruits that look like little suns — make for a wonderful mouthful of juicy freshness. Besides being high in antioxidants, they are a good source of fiber and can result in several health benefits, including heart and eye health, skin protection, and better digestion, per Healthline.

While fresh apricots taste great on their own, you can add them to a fruit salad, make a salad dressing from their juice, or whip up a dessert — like a fresh apricot pie recipe — to end the day on a sweet note. The possibilities for these orange-fleshed fruits are endless, but what do you do when a recipe calls for apricots, your local green grocer is out of them, and dried ones just won't do? Here are some other fruits that you can use instead.

The closest and most easily available alternatives to apricots are fresh or canned peaches and nectarines. Although they have different levels of sweetness and tartness, these summer fruits will still taste scrumptious in your tart, crumble, or other apricot recipes. Remember that white nectarines and peaches are sweeter than their yellow varieties and that their sweetness intensifies as they ripen, so you may want to balance the sugar in the recipe accordingly. Finally, keep in mind that peaches and nectarines are juicer than apricots, so you may need to adjust the liquid in your recipe.

More niche options include the apricot-plum hybrids known as apriums (which have a more apricot-forward flavor) and plumcots or pluots, boasting an intense plum flavor. And if none of these are available to you, Culinary Clue lists applesauce, persimmon puree, and mango puree as substitutes for when you need apricot nectar. Ultimately, you needn't scrap your apricot recipe if you don't have the fruits on hand: All you need is determination and a bit of ingenuity to come up with, who knows, an even better tasting dish using a clever alternative!