Eating healthily and seasonally

[Breathmiller]

My youngest son and I have a terrible sweet tooth and he was talking non stop about cakes and chocolate today. We decided that what we talk about encourages us to want it so we started talking about what healthy foods were seasonal just now to also be more in tune with nature and help with the environment re food miles from growing to our plate.

So we looked up what is in season for the UK at this time of year as inspiration. i.e - what we feed our minds with = we are more likely to want to eat. Which worked because we raided the fridge and fruit bowl and had a really tasty late breakfast

It made me think that a thread to inspire might be a good idea?

This is what the vegetarian Society has for November...

November
Apples, Beetroot, Brussels Sprouts, Butternut Squash, Cabbage, Carrots, Cauliflower, Celeriac, Celery, Chestnuts, Chicory, Cranberries, Elderberries, Jerusalem Artichokes, Kale, Leeks, Onions, Parsnips, Pears, Potatoes, Pumpkin, Swede, Swiss Chard, Turnips, Watercress, Wild Mushrooms, Winter Squash.

So for lunch I'm going to roast some beetroot, onions, and carrots and maybe some diced potatoes because i have these all in at the moment. I'll also add in garlic and rosemary from the garden.

I love butternut squash so will buy one and make butternut squash soup.

I've been really craving cauliflower cheese so will add that to the list.

Any other ideas to use our locally grown (as much as we can get locally) UK seasonal foods?

I wont be doing it exclusively but want to up my intake of veg for health and local for the environment.

Shameless bump to add in curried parsnip and apple soup to my list

Our local farmshops do weekly veg box delivery of their own produce. Have a dibble online and see what's around, yes may be a tad more spenny but few lorry miles and no airmiles and supporting local businesses = win/win.

You can make chutneys with windfall apples from the common or hedgerows. Or just stewed apple for wintertime pies.

Spiced red cabbage keeps really well portioned into tubs in the freezer. That uses red cabbage, apples and onions. Delia's recipe good as is JO.

I made a really nice pasta sauce with blended cauliflower and a bit of garlic. I added oat milk too. It took ten minutes to cook the cauliflower and it was lovely and creamy. Both my kids loved it. I added some pan fried some cauliflower but to add crunch to it as well.

Beetroot brownies are amazing as well, there are quite a few recipes on Pinterest

Good idea for a thread OP. This is the best time of year for produce (in the UK) IMHO - I love everything on your list except mushrooms!

We had a stew at the weekend with leeks, onions, carrots and potatoes (as well as meat I mean). And I made some toffee apples so they were quite seasonal!

For dinner tonight we're having spicy root vegetable casserole with carrots, parsnips, pots and lentils.

I've got a celeriac in the fridge as well so I might make some soup with that (with apple and a bit of Greek yogurt) or save it for another stew.

I love cooking at this time of year.

@PrivateSpidey your celeriac soup sounds amazing, could you share the recipe please?

Ooh I've not made celeriac soup for years. Would love your recipe too @PrivateSpidey.

Our wee bowl of roast veggies was delicously warming. Had some parsnips too so threw them in. Everyone tucked in.

I tried a veg box years ago but couldn't quite get on with the odd number of things that didnt quite make a meal for our family. I always seemed to have to buy an extra potato or something and it wasn't the best quality. It was a very long time ago though and when we lived elsewhere so I might check it out again.

Apple chutney is a good idea, I might check if anyone I know has a glut. I live very rurally and usually get offered bags of apples galore but haven't this year funnily enough.

I was paid in plums a few months ago and made spiced plum chutney for the first time. Its so delicious. I would like to make some apple chutney too.

And I love the idea of a baked apple with cinnamon and yoghurt as a warm dessert. I'd forgotten about that, my mum used to make them a lot. Could have raisins in it too and flaked almonds.

My mum also used to make the most delicious pear sponge and it's become a family favourite with us. So i might make that as a treat at the weekend. Just pears on the base like a crumble but with a sponge topping. Like Eve's pudding but with pears.

Loving all the ideas.

@rarejuicegoose Yes!! Beetroot brownies. I made a huge beetroot and chocolate cake once for a birthday cake. The kids faces were a treat when i told them the secret ingredient after they had tucked in to a couple of pieces

One of our favourite soups is a 'pot-o-kale' as my granny called it.
Onions, leeks, carrots, potatoes, turnip (Scottish turnip not swede) and kale or dark leafy green cabbage. Keep everything chunky. So its biggish chunks in liquid rather than a whizzed soup.
My granny made it with 'bully beef' or boiling beef that we would eat afterwards.

But I'm veggie so we just use veg stock. I saute in a little oil then just cook for ages, always better the next day too.

Also known as "Goodness in a bowl" in this house

Instead of chutney, I tend to make apple-pear butter and don’t use much sugar at all. I use a 6qt slow cooker and only use a quarter cup of sugar for the whole batch. Lots of cloves, cinnamon, and other spices. When it’s done cooking, I blend with an immersion blender to smoothen it out.

I made Eve's pudding last week - delicious and I hadn't had it for years! And a quince pie, even more delicious if you can find any - wouldn't say it's exactly healthy, though!
I did make a red cabbage/apple coleslaw to use up half a leftover cabbage. The other half was braised with apples and a splash of port and served with chicken/sausages. So several meals out of one cabbage that had been reduced to 20p.

@JingsMaBucket that sounds amazing. Do you use it like an apple sauce? I feel that would go well with a Sunday Roast.

@katy1213 even better when its a bargain. Red cabbage isn't something i tend to buy or cook with apart from rarely as a home made coleslaw in the summer but I love it at Christmas so I'm not sure why. I might go buy some and look up recipes.

I'm also thinking chestnuts added to the roast veggies i had today would be good too. I tend to think of them as a Christmas treat too but why not more often? I have to admit i usually cheat and get the cooked packaged ones so I might get brave and try to find ones locally to cook myself.

'Find' as in buy raw ones at a shop I meant. Not sure about foraging for them as I believe not all kinds are edible

Yes you want sweet chestnuts not horse.

Great thread, OP - thank you.

I've mentioned it a couple of times recently - if you've never had it, do try Leek, Carrot and Potato Pie from Traid Craft - just google. It's a delicious winter warmer.

Celeriac gratin is also very nice.

There was a pudding thread the other day where a poster suggested chocolate rice pud with pears - genius!

I was paid in plums

This cheered me right up!

I've been given two butternut squash and I don't really like them. Has anyone good a nice recipe that might use them without really tasting of squash?

Thank you!

You could out them in a macaroni cheese/risotto with some full flavour/smoky sausages (if you eat meat) Lego? Chuck a bit of sage in? Or you could use blue cheese/strong cheese if you don't eat/want meat?

Hmm, re the celeriac soup, I think I originally used a recipe from Delicious food magazine, but I just sort of make it up now.

Basically, peel and chop your celeriac and apple. Soften a diced onion in some oil, add the celeriac and apple and "sweat" (yuck - hate that phrase) for a few minutes. Add some veg stock, bit of nutmeg, possibly some thyme if you have it, seasonings. Simmer 20-30 mins, blend and add a swirl of yogurt. That's about it I think.

The pot o kale sounds great breath! The phrase "bully beef" always makes me laugh, and reminds me of my grandma as well!

All these pies also sound amazing. I think they're nutritious, even if they're not healthy as such (that's my logic anyway!).

@legomadx2
Would the soup be too squashy? (love the idea of squashy soup)

I make mine with loads of fresh ginger and fresh coriander so it might mask the taste a bit? You could always 'dilute' it with carrots, red lentils and potatoes too so it's not just all butternut squash.

@PrivateSpidey
My granny was great. At lunchtime (well dinner time she called it) my grandad would come in and we'd have the pot'o'kale first then the same flat soup plate filled with the beef and floury potatoes and mashed turnip. So essentially the same ingredients but served up in different ways. I'd sit with my grandad eating it with too much English mustard til we sneezed!
I loved it. (Probably also something to do with the 4 courses of home made cakes she'd serve afterwards. )

We've been lucky this year, collecting lots of sweet chestnuts, blackberries, hazelnuts and apples. Flipping heck, chestnuts are such a fiddle to prepare, not sure I'll bother again. They are very easy to tell from horse chestnuts though. I really wouldn't worry, go foraging!

Cauliflower cheese soup is a huge favourite here, so filling and comforting.

I live in Cornwall and buy most of my food from the local food hub. All the stuff is locally grown and you get four seasonal veggies per week - and there are loads of them.

It has changed the way I cook - before I used to decide what to make and then buy the ingredients. Now it's the other way round.

I am a new convert to celeriac and I also love roasted cauliflower!

I like the idea of cheesy cauliflower soup. I make a vegan version of broccoli soup with Engivita so I could make a cauli one.

Apple-pear butter sounds interesting. A swap for the butternut squash could be pumpkin.

Another one who uses red cabbage in both coleslaw (my dcs love it) and red cabbage and apple: good with red wine, spices and red onion too. Cauliflower and celeriac both make excellent cheesy mash as a side dish or as a pie topping; freezes well. Chopped, roasted hazelnuts are really delicious sprinkled over pancakes or on top of yoghurt or fruit. There's a really nice Hemsley and Hemsley recipe for pear crumble with five spice which is delicious. The kale soup sounds delicious, a bit like calde verde. Apples and onions cooked up together in butter, savoy cabbage braised with caraway or nigella seeds.

@RaymondStopThat
Do you have a recipe for your cheese cauliflower soup?