October is when the greengrocer’s boxes change colour: orange squash, purple beetroot, the last plums and the first proper apples. Produce in season is usually at its best, and often cheaper. Here is what to look for this month, and four simple ways to cook it.
In season in October
Vegetables: butternut squash, leeks, beetroot, carrots, parsnips, swede, celery, spinach, mushrooms, potatoes.
Fruit: apples, pears, plums, damsons, blackberries, figs.
The easiest habit of all: ask your greengrocer what came in this week. They know, and they will usually tell you what is worth buying today and what to leave.
Four things to cook this month
1. Squash and leek soup
Roast the squash in chunks, soften the leeks in a little olive oil, then blend both with stock. Toasted pumpkin seeds on top.
2. Roast roots
Carrots, parsnips and beetroot in one tray, with whole garlic cloves, a few sprigs of thyme and a teaspoon of oil.
3. Mushrooms on toast
Fry sliced mushrooms with garlic, then finish with chopped parsley and a squeeze of lemon. Pile onto wholemeal toast.
4. Baked apples
Core the apples and fill them with oats, cinnamon and a few walnuts. Bake until soft. The apple does the sweetening, so no sugar needed.
The recipe: country minestrone with squash and radicchio
A farmhouse soup from the Veneto, in north-east Italy, from our recipe collection. Serves 4.
Ingredients
- 400g butternut squash
- 1 radicchio (or 2 heads of chicory)
- 1 potato, 1 carrot, 1 celery stick
- 100g pearl barley
- 1.2 litres vegetable stock
- 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Method
- Soften the chopped carrot and celery in the oil.
- Add the squash and potato in cubes and cook for 5 minutes.
- Pour in the hot stock and the barley. Simmer for 50 minutes.
- Add the radicchio in strips for the last 10 minutes.
- Taste, season lightly, rest for 2 minutes and finish with a drizzle of oil.
Want another soup for the colder evenings? Try our minestrone ogliastrino from Sardinia, with beans, chickpeas and lentils.
Every 80g of fruit or vegetables is one of your 5 A Day.
Sources
General information, not medical advice.
