Ambrosia Grapes

Last night we went over to a friend's house for dinner. She is from Texas, but is South Indian by descent. Her parents were in town and she wanted people to come over and eat a dinner of South Indian food. As I've mentioned before, being veg*n is a great reason to step outside of your food boundaries. The beauty of South Indian food is that much of it is already vegan! Everything we ate last night was delicious!!

We offered to bring something if it was needed and were told a dessert would be helpful. Awesome, I love desserts! However, I had no idea what to bring that would go well with our dinner, especially given that I had a short amount of time to cook. In thinking it over, I decided that a fruit-based dessert would work well (also because some other friends were making a wacky cake because they are awesome). Fruit pizza would have been good, but I just didn't have the time. Instead, I ran to the store to pick up some red grapes and some vegan sour cream. With brown sugar at home, that's really all I needed for ambrosia grapes.

I feel silly calling this a recipe, as the ingredient list has all of three things, but it is a perfect summer dessert. It is light and chilled and not overwhelmingly sweet. To be honest, I'm not sure why it's called ambrosia grapes. That's what my mom called it, so that's what I call it.* No matter what you call it, this is a delicious, quick, and easy summer dessert.

Ambrosia Grapes
Ingredients
6 oz. vegan sour cream
2 lb. red seedless grapes (or a mix of red and green)
brown sugar to taste

Directions
1. Remove grapes from stems and rinse, then pat dry.
2. Mix together the sour cream and brown sugar until you like the level of sweetness. You'll be looking at at least 1/4 cup, likely a bit more.
3. Combine grapes and sour cream mixture in a large bowl.
4. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Helpful Hints

• I know it seems odd to dry the grapes, but not doing so leaves too much water on them, which thins the sour cream mixture and makes it not as delicious. You can certainly rinse them and let them air dry. 
• I don't really have any other helpful things to say, this is just that simple. Here's a fun story though! Last night some friends brought their 11 year-old to the party. He's a cool kid and he asked about the grapes. I told him they were called Ambrosia Grapes, we chatted a bit more, then he moved on. Later, when it was time for dessert, he takes some grapes, puts a couple in his mouth, and then wanders away singing "am-broooooooooo-siaaaaaaaa!" I think it's safe to say that he liked them. 

*Last night, I learned that there's a southern dessert called ambrosia fruit salad, but that one uses whipped topping, fruit cocktail, mini-marshmallows, and coconut flakes, among other things. Sounds decent, but certainly richer and more involved than this recipe.

The post "Ambrosia Grapes" originally appeared on Maggie's LesVegan Kitchen.