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This is a guest post by Katrina Robinson.

It can be difficult finding great vegetarian recipes that are not only chocked full with antioxidants but also taste fabulous. What’s so special about antioxidants, you might ask. Antioxidants such as Vitamin C and Vitamin A help to prevent and slow the oxidative damage that is done to your body. When your body uses oxygen, the body’s cells produce free radicals, which can lead to heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. Antioxidants help to prevent and repair damage that has been or could be done by these free radicals. So you can see why they’re so important! But now the trick is to find recipes that also taste great…well, I’ve found two fantastic recipes that taste fantastic and are filled with antioxidants! These recipes are for those who aren’t all raw. Not all the ingredients are vegan but they’re a great example of how to pack a lot of nutritional value into a recipe. Check them out below!

Baked Apples with Walnuts and Dried Fruit

You’ll need the following for this recipe:

• 6 medium Golden Delicious apples
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• ½ cup of dried cranberries (raisins work, too)
• ½ cup apricot preserves
• 1 ½ cup apple cider
• ¼ cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly coat a shallow baking dish with cooking spray.
2. Core all of your apples, creating a 1-inch-wide hole. Peel the upper third of the apples. Score the flesh about ¼-inch deep around the circumference where the peeled and unpeeled portions meet. Now cut a shallow crater around the top of the hole. This will help to hold the preserves that will go there. Set apples aside.
3. Put walnuts, dried cranberries, and coconut in a food processor and chop. Add lemon zest, maple syrup, nutmeg, and cinnamon and pulse several times to combine the ingredients.
4. Put the apples in the baking dish and press ¼ cup of the filling into each cavity. Spoon a tablespoon of preserves into the crater you created in each apple.
5. Combine the butter and apple cider in a saucepan and keep over low heat until the butter has melted. Now remove it from the stove and stir in the vanilla. Pour the liquid all over the apples.
6. Cover the apples with aluminum foil and bake on your oven’s center rack for thirty minutes. Remove the foil and baste the apples, then continue to bake (uncovered) for twenty to thirty-five more minutes, basting every ten minutes, until the apples are tender.
7. Serve and enjoy!

Vegan Spicy Beet Soup

You’ll need the following for this recipe:

• 6 medium beets (with skin; greens and stems removed)
• 2 cups water
• 1 ½ cup vegan vegetable bouillon broth
• 1 cup red wine
• 1 white onion, coarsely chopped
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• ½ cup vegan soy sour cream
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 cups beet greens and stems, chopped
• 2 medium chipotle chilies in adobo sauce

1. Put the beets, vegetables bouillon broth, and wine into a large soup pot and add water.
2. Bring to a boil and simmer, covered, for forty-five minutes to one hour.
3. Remove beets with a slotted spoon. Reserve the cooking liquid in the soup pot.
4. Once beets have cooled, coarsely chop. Set aside ½ cup of ½-inch diced beets for garnish.
5. Heat olive oil in saucepan over medium heat.
6. Add onion and brown sugar.
7. Saute for two minutes until sugar is dissolved.
8. Add the onion and brown sugar mixture, the chopped beets, lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, soy sour cream, and chilies to the beet liquid in your soup pot.
9. Stir the mixture together and add to a blender in batches, mixing it until it’s smooth.

These are just two vegetarian recipes that are full of antioxidants and are downright tasty, too! Katrina Robinson is a freelance writer who blogs about a wide array of topics, from health to beauty to colon cleansing.