November and the trees are bare, the days are cold and dark and the food needs to be warming, comforting and something delicious to come home too. Bowls of steaming soups and stews to wrap your cold hands around.
Knowing what food is in season during November and what to cook up will help make it a delicious month.
Brussels Sprouts
These tiny little cabbage like vegetables probably take you right back to childhood, over boiled and looking a little tired and grey….
You can learn to love your brussels sprouts, honestly! Pan fry them with lardons and a sprinkling of freshly chopped sage and serve alongside roast chicken dinner. Quarter them and add them to zesty, spicy stir fry. Or try our delicious Italian sprout and bacon pasta dish. Warm, comforting and oh so good.
Cabbage
Essentially a super food, cabbage is a great source of manganese, folate, magnesium, selenium and iron amongst other nutrients. So all the more reason to throw it into your November dinners.
Delicious simply stir fried with rapeseed oil, garlic, nutmeg and black pepper and served alongside pretty much anything. It’s also delicious as a pizza topping, alongside blue cheese and walnuts. Or go raw and shred up a lovely autumn coleslaw to serve alongside a homemade burger.
Celeriac
This ugly chunky vegetable tastes delicious mashed in with potatoes, or with swedes and carrots. It’s yummy cut into chips or wedges and roasted with a spicy mayonnaise dip. Celeriac can be eaten raw – just shred it into salads or coleslaw. It does discolour so you need to dress with a zingy lemon dressing.
Chestnuts
You can’t beat a paper bag of steaming hot roast chestnuts. It’s the best way to eat them.
Jerusalem artichokes
These knobbly little vegetables are delicious scrubbed and roasted whole alongside potatoes. They taste amazing stirred into smoked bacon with mushrooms and a sprinkling of sage.
Kale
Our favourite way to eat kale is finely shredded and gently sautéed in butter with garlic then used to top pizza with a crumbling of blue cheese. And if you want the kids to actually eat kale, then try out these delicious kale chips – think crispy seaweed, very moreish! Look out for purple kale too, delicious and so pretty.
Leeks
Fab to have in at this time of year, use them to flavour soups and casseroles.
Parsnips
Totally delicious roasted alongside potatoes for Sunday lunch. Yummy in casseroles and stews like our thrifty Lancashire hotpot. Or delicious mashed with lots of olive oil, parmesan cheese and black pepper served with grilled chicken breasts.
Pumpkins
We love this added to warming autumn casseroles and stews. It’s delicious sliced and spiced in Thai red curry with prawns and sweet potatoes. We like wedges of squash roasted to eat instead of potatoes. And it’s delicious made into roast pumpkin soup or a simple and speedy pasta dish with rosemary and garlic.
Swede
Perfect mashed with carrots for Sunday dinner, a good bulking vegetable for filling out stews or casseroles but our favourite recipe has to be oven baked swede chips and mustard mayonnaise from Abel & Cole.
Apples
Perfect just as they are, munched alongside a piece of cheese. Ideal in autumn apple coleslaw or tossed into salads. Perfect in pies or crumbles, maybe mixed in with blackberries. And completely delicious sautéed in butter with cinnamon and served on top of american style pancakes with ice-cream. You’ll just love our apple & blackberry puff recipe.
Pomegranate
Pomegranate’s always feel like a Christmassy fruit to me. We used to eat these when we were little kids, sat for what seemed like hours picking out the jewel red seeds with a cocktail stick. I like to use these flecked into autumn/winter salads, rice dishes or added to the top of a trifle for a festive ‘look’.
Satsumas
Now’s the time to buy satsumas, they’re piled high in the shops and most of the supermarkets are selling them really cheaply by the bagful. Delicious eaten just as they are or popped into mini fruit salad pots or fruit kebabs.
Have a delicious November!
