Cherries make such a great snack, it's easy to forget that they can also be fun to cook with. The plump, little fruit is full of nutrients like vitamin C and potassium. It's also just the right amount of sweet and sour, and you can use it to punch up anything from salads to smoothies.
Right now were at the tail end of cherry season (which lasts from May through August), so now's the time to make the most of the fruit. If you're buying them fresh with the pit in, you don't need a cherry pitter to clean them out—set them on the top of a wine bottle and stick a straw through the center for an easy, DIY method. If you'd rather not do the pitting yourself, you can buy them frozen, let them defrost, and use them as if they were fresh. And since they're available frozen all year long, you can continue cooking with them even when they aren't in season.
Now that you know the basics, put your cherries to work in these 17 recipes. They include all the sweet and savory dishes you could want for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and beyond.
