Foods For The Season

Cannot believe it is December already!  2012 has been a very exciting and eventful year. We set off with the purpose to inspire vegetarians, border line vegetarians and carnivores to eat dishes without meat products and to learn and teach that meat-free cooking can be delicious, full of flavour and most importantly, not miss the meat one bit!  And looking back over the year we feel we have accomplished just that.

You may be a vegetarian or you may not be a full-time vegetarian, but there is definitely something to be said for cooking with fresh, seasonal ingredients that give dishes full, bright and exciting flavors and the best part… that are nutritious!

I know majority of ua know what some of the season’s veggies and fruits are best enjoyed at certain points of the year, but sometimes our palet just knows and we don’t pay much attention to it. We just start to crave guacamole as soon as the season starts to turn warm, we love cherries and crave salads in the summer and lastly start to crave the root vegetables as soon as the temperature starts to change to be a little cooler.

I thought a good topic to focus on would be the winter seasonal veggies and fruit and mention a few from the other seasons as well.

You will notice that when something isn’t “in season” in the grocery store, it will normally be priced higher than it normally would at the time of the year that it is ripe and in demand at that particular season.

So what are the seasonal ingredients for winter?

Vegetables: Sweet potato, fennel, carrot, pineapple, olives, okra, kale, broccoli, celery root, leek, onion, turnip, pumpkin, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts

Fruits: Kiwifruit, pears, apple, navel oranges, lemon, mandarins

There are many more that fall under the winter season, but how about the other seasons?  

I've just focused on a few from each category:

Spring: cherries, sugar snap peas, avocado, papaya, cucumber, beans, asparagus, lettuce, corn & bananas

Summer: eggplant, squash, peaches, radish, zucchini, bell peppers, tomatoes, melons & mangoes

Fall: Figs, plums, bell peppers, cabbage, swiss chard, spinach, mushrooms, parsnip, sweet potato, apples, bananas & limes

Sometimes we lose site of that when we are buying ingredients in the grocery store, when we are inspired to make a certain dish with particular ingredients, it's good to be mindful of what ingredients are appropriate for each season, that way you will get the optimal flavour in your dish and also save a little in your wallet too.

Check out our recipe listed below for a root vegetable dish with crumbled goats cheese!

Happy Cookin!

Lyndsay & Laurie