January Seasonal Recipe: Brussels Sprout Salad

Brussels sprouts are not just for Christmas and if you try this salad you'll see why! I grabbed a couple of bargain bags of sprouts post-Christmas and this 10p pack is going a long way.

This salad is best served warm and would go nicely with a vinegarette, or is also delicious on its own.

Brussels Sprout Salad (Serves 2)

Ingredients:

2 handfuls Brussels sprouts

1 leek

Small pack pancetta

2 cloves garlic

2 tbsp olive oil

Juice of 1 lemon

Salt and pepper to season

1. Cut the ends of off the sprouts and peel off the outer leaves

2. Slice the leek and peel the garlic

3. Pop all of the above, plus lemon juice and seasoning into the food processor and blitz until everything is shredded

4. Heat the olive oil in a non-stick pan, then add the pancetta

5. Cook for 2 minutes, then add the contents of the food processor and cook for another 4 minutes on a medium to high heat, stirring often until everything is tender

6. Serve warm with fresh bread

September Seasonal Recipe: Apple and Blackberry Crumble

The blackberries are ripening beautifully here in The Cotswolds (and especially in my 'jungle garden'), which is the perfect excuse to make an apple and blackberry crumble.

Ingredients

2 cooking apples

400g blackberries

50g caster sugar

Topping:

150g plain flour

75g caster sugar

75g butter

1 tsp cinnamon

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180℃/350℉/Gas Mark 4
2. Peel, core and slice the apples and then wash and drain the blackberries
3. Pour the fruit into an ovenproof baking dish and sprinkle the caster sugar over the top
4. Sift in the flour and sugar into a clean bowl
5. Add the butter to the bowl and rub until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs
6. Bake in the centre of the pre-heated oven for 40 minutes or until lightly golden

Apple and blackberry crumble is a classic, but if you want to branch out further into the blackberry realm then Pinterest is full of inspiration as always. How about coconut, blackberry and lime ice cream here or some blackberry lemonade here or if you're feeling really out there, blackberry glazed salmon here.

August Seasonal Recipe: Blackcurrant Cupcakes

It's blackcurrant season, so go forth and pick fruit! Then bring it home and make these delicious cupcakes...

Blackcurrant Cupcakes (12 servings)

Ingredients:
110g plain flour
110g caster sugar
65g caster sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
125g blackcurrants

For the icing:
100g butter
200g icing sugar
Handful of blackcurrants

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200℃/400℉/gas mark 6 and line a muffin tin with 12 paper cases
2. Cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy
3. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well between each addition
5. Sift in the flour and baking powder and stir to combine
6. Spoon into the cases and bake for 20 minutes until golden
7. To make the icing, beat the butter and icing sugar with an electric whisk, then add the blackcurrants by pressing through a sieve using a metal spoon
8. Spread the icing over the cupcakes when cool and decorate with a few blackcurrants to finish

Simply pop in a tin and take to work to be everybody's favourite colleague!

PS If you still have blackcurrants left over, check out these ideas

July Seasonal Recipe: Stewed Rhubarb and Meringue

The best deals are usually on seasonal food as it's in abundance and as a result, I've picked up some bargains on rhubarb over the past couple of weeks.

Forced rhubarb is in season early in the year and is perfect for mini rhubarb crumbles but the season for the field grown variety is around April to September, so is perfect for more summery deserts like this one.

This week, I've kept it simple, by just stewing the rhubarb and serving with shop-bought meringues, ideal if you have guests and you're in a hurry. For a thrifty, out of season version, used tinned rhubarb.

Rhubarb Meringues
Serves 4

Ingredients
Rhubarb (approx 400g)
50g water
50g orange juice
Sugar, to sweeten to taste (2-4 teaspoons usually does the trick!)
4 x meringue nests

1. Chop the rhubarb into bite-sized pieces and place in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the liquid water and orange juice and a couple of teaspoons of sugar.

2. Bring to the boil, then turn down to simmer gently for 5-10 minutes, or until the rhubarb is tender. Taste to ensure the rhubarb is sufficiently sweet, then serve over the meringue with cream, yoghurt or ice cream.

For more ideas on how to use your seasonal rhubarb, see here for Delia's suggestions (doesn't the rhubarb ice cream look amazing?) or here for Delicious Magazine's ideas (the cheesecake is next on my agenda when I have a new kitchen!)

Happy seasonal cooking!

July's Seasonal Recipe: Blueberry Muffins

More muffins to follow on from June's seasonal muffin recipe, but this time with yummy seasonal blueberries. This recipe is from Nigella- see here for the original.

Blueberry Muffins
Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients
280g self-raising flour
60g caster sugar
2 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
4 tbsp butter, melted
175ml milk
1 pack of blueberries (use Value/Basics ones as you can't taste any difference in muffins)
Pinch of salt

1. Wash and drain the blueberries, roll in a light coating of flour wrap in a tea towel and set aside to dry completely.

2. Preheat the oven to 210℃/425℉/Gas Mark 7. Line a muffin tin with 12 cases.


3. Sift the flour, salt, sugar and baking powder into a large bowl.


4. In a separate bowl beat the eggs, then add the melted butter and the milk.


5. Add the liquid ingredients into the flour mix and stir 10-15 times- do not over-stir or the muffins will become tough.


6. Fold in the blueberries and spoon into the muffin cases bake in the centre of the pre-heated oven for 15-20 minutes until golden and well-risen.

7. Remove and leave to cool for as long as you can resist!

May's Seasonal Recipe: Healthy Asparagus Carbonara

This month's seasonal food is one of my favourite vegetables- asparagus. Here I'm adapting a Slimming World recipe to make a delicious, healthy and vegetarian-friendly asparagus carbonara.

Asparagus Carbonara

Serves 2

Ingredients

200g asparagus, chopped into 2cm pieces

150g spaghetti

1 egg

100g fat free natural yoghurt

1 garlic clove, chopped

3 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

Salt and pepper to season

1. Heat a pan of water and once boiling, add the spaghetti, return to the boil and then turn down to simmer gently

2. Meanwhile cook the chopped asparagus, by either boiling (3 mins) or steaming (3-4 mins)

3. Drain and set aside the asparagus

4. In a small bowl, beat the egg lightly with a fork and then add the garlic, parsley and seasoning, whisking with the fork until well combined. Set aside

5. Once the spaghetti is cooked, drain and then add to a large, lightly oiled non stick frying pan. Add the drained asparagus.

6. Stir and cook the spaghetti and asparagus on a low to medium heat for 2-3 minutes

7. Add the sauce and gently heat for 2-3 minutes until the spaghetti is well-coated (do not allow to boil or the eggs will scramble!)

8. Remove from the heat and serve

This is such a quick and easy dinner- my favourite kind of meal!

April's Seasonal Recipe: Spinach and Ricotta Pie

This month's seasonal ingredient has the added bonus of also being a superfood (even though I think 'superfood' may just be a made up term for marketing purposes, but hey, it makes me feel good!)

Spinach and Ricotta Pie

Ingredients

Ready-rolled shortcrust pastry (or home made if you're more virtuous than me!)

Spinach- either a large bag of fresh (250g) or 8-10 balls of frozen

1 tub of ricotta (usually 90g)

1 small onion

2 cloves of garlic

Salt, pepper and nutmeg to season

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180℃/360℉/Gas Mark 4.

2. Grease the base and sides of an oven-proof dish

3. Roll out your pastry- I need to roll out a sheet like this a little thinner in order to cover the base of my dish and get a lid out of it- line the pie dish with the pastry

4. Chop the onion into small chunks and the garlic finely, fry gently until translucent, set aside

5. Then boil the spinach for 3-4 minutes and drain thoroughly. Return the spinach to the pan and mix with the onions, garlic and ricotta, then season to taste.

6. Fill your pie dish with the tasty filling

7. Cover with the pastry lid on and fold the sides over and press down with a fork

8. Brush the lid with beaten egg (and use the leftover egg to make scrambled eggs!)

9. Cook in the centre of the pre-heated oven for 25 minutes

We had our pie with roasted baby new potatoes (also seasonal) and roasted carrots- delicious!

Other seasonal food for April includes: cabbage, cauliflower, celeriac, crab, cucumber, kale, new potatoes, pepper, purple sprouting broccoli, salmon, sorrel, spinach, spring greens and watercress. There's a handy guide on the BBC Good Food website for more ideas.

Happy seasonal cooking!

March's Seasonal Recipe: Mini Rhubarb Crumbles

This month's seasonal veg (which is actually also a fruit!) is forced rhubarb. It's a bit of a cheat as it's force grown and so whilst not actually 'in season' as such, it's usually prevalent in March to make up for the lack of other seasonal produce.

I initially intended to make this healthy desert from Tesco's Real Food magazine:

But then I decided it would be much more fun to make mini rhubarb crumbles, particularly as the weather seems to have given up on its recent attempt at spring.

Recipe
Makes 5 mini crumbles

200g forced rhubarb (around 4 stalks)
75g plain flour
35g caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling over rhubarb
35g butter

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180℃/360℉/Gas Mark 5
2. Cut the rhubarb into chunks of approx 5cm (here I cut them to fit the base of these ramekins, which came from those delicious Gü puddings- heavenly, but so not thrifty)
3. Sprinkle a bit of caster sugar over the top of the rhubarb and set aside
4. Measure out the flour and sugar and then rub the butter in until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs
5. Pour the crumble mix over the top of the rhubarb
6. Bake in the centre of the pre-heated oven for approximately 20-25 minutes, until the rhubarb is soft and the topping is lightly golden

Serve whilst warm with ice cream or custard.

February's Seasonal Recipe: Cauliflower Cheese

This month's seasonal food recipe is Cauliflower Cheese. My mum always used to cook this on the hob with packet cheese sauce when she was in a hurry after work and I can't say the dish has really inspired me (sorry Mum!) until now. The oven baked, home-made sauce variety is much more tasty. Maybe I should send Mum the recipe?

Recipe
Serves 4 as a main dish

Ingredients:
1 large cauliflower (leaves cut off and cut into chunks)
500ml milk (I used skimmed made from powder- thriftier and less fatty)
4 tbsp plain flour
50g cheese

Method:
1. Pre-heat the oven to 220℃/fan 200℃/gas mark 7
2. Boil the cauliflower for 5-6 minutes, until soft when poked with a fork
3. Drain and set aside
4. Heat the milk, butter and flour in the pan and whisk until the sauce has thickened (approx 2-3 minutes), stir in approximately half of the cheese
5. Tip the cauliflower into the saucepan and stir to coat in the cheese sauce
6. Pour the cauliflower into an oven proof dish and sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top
7. Bake in the oven for approximately 20 minutes until the top is golden (if you get impatient- stick under the grill for a minute or two!)

I served mine with a baked potato and roasted leeks (another seasonal veg for Feb). A winter warmer!

January's Seasonal Recipe: Fish and Leek Pie

One of the thriftiest, healthiest and tastiest ways to shop and eat is to use seasonal produce. We're lucky enough to have a couple of cheap, independent greengrocers in Cirencester that sell fresh, local produce that is tastier and usually cheaper than the supermarket. I always assumed that the greengrocer would be more expensive until I actually went in and I have now become an even bigger fan of the greengrocer!

The vegetables that are in season this month are:

Brussel sprouts
Green cabbage
Savoy cabbage
Carrots
Cauliflower
Leeks
Celeriac
Parsnips
Purple sprouting broccoli
Kale
Chard
Leeks
Swede

So this month's seasonal special is Fish and Leek Pie

Feeds two adults and two children (or in our case two adults and one for later!)

Ingredients:
300g mixed fish fillets, skinless (this recipe is using a bag of frozen fish pie mix)
1 large swede
1 large leek
1 onion
100ml milk (I used skimmed milk powder- cheaper and you can't taste the difference in a pie!) + 25ml for mash
Salt and Pepper to season
Optional: cheese for grating

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (gas mark 4)
2. Chop the leek chunks approx 1cm wide and roughly chop the onion
3. Put the chopped leek and onion into an oven proof dish with the fish
4. If using milk powder make up 100ml (if not just measure out as usual) and pour over the fish and vegetables, season with salt and pepper
5. Pop this into the oven and put on a pan of water to heat
6. Peel the swede and chop into smallish chunks
7. Boil the swede for 15 minutes, or until soft
8. Mash with the extra 25ml milk for a creamy texture
9. Take the fish mix out of the oven and spread the mashed swede over the top. Sprinkle with a little grated cheese
10. Return to the oven for 20 minutes

It looks a bit lonely here as I forgot to take a photo in 'whole pie' form, but we actually had ours with some lovely stir fried cabbage to boost the seasonal veg count, yum!

Eat Seasonably is a great tool for checking what's in season, when. Why not download a copy of their Eat Seasonably Calendar to stick on your fridge?