When you walk through a farmers’ market in September, October and November, the colors tell you everything you need to know: glossy purple eggplants, crisp red and yellow apples, orange winter squash in every shape, green late season zucchini, hearty, deeply colored greens, and red beets.
Cooking with the seasons is about understanding the “why” behind flavor, nutrition, and even kitchen efficiency. It’s not just a trend. Seasonality matters and leaning into it can instantly improve your food.
1. Flavor at Its Peak
A locally grown apple or pear picked and eaten in September or October smells and tastes wildly different from one in April or May. That’s because in-season produce is harvested when it’s ripe, not when it can survive a cross-country truck ride. Ripeness means more natural sugars, deeper aromas, and a texture that doesn’t need much fussing with. The pay off to the cook is that seasonal produce does most of the flavor work for you. For example, when you roast up some freshly harvested beets their sugars concentrate.
Check out this post on Apples for Baking
2. Better Nutrition Without Trying
When fruits and vegetables are harvested at their peak, they also carry their peak nutritional value. Spinach locally harvested in the cool months of April or October is more nutrient-dense than spinach that’s been stored, shipped, and handled for weeks. Eating seasonally isn’t just delicious — it’s a natural way to get more vitamins and minerals without supplements or stress. Even if you are like me and get excited and over buy when shopping at the farm market, what you’ve bought will last longer and retain more nutritional value than produce that has been shipped across country.
3. Cooking with Ease and Efficiency
Seasonal ingredients behave better in the kitchen. Winter squash holds its shape in stews. Roasting root vegetables, such as carrots, parsnips, and leeks, concentrates their flavors. Fall apples keep their bite in pies. When you cook with what’s in season, you’re working with the ingredient instead of pushing it to taste like it is something it’s not, a seasonally fresh ingredient.
Check out my post on Roasted Root Vegetables
4. Supporting Your Community (and Wallet)
When you shop at a farm market or participate in a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) you are supporting farmers near you. Doing so not only keeps your meals fresher but also strengthens your local food system and economy. Your money goes directly to your local farmers allowing them to see better profit margins. Buying seasonally and buying locally, can, depending on your location, be less expensive. For instance in the fall, when there’s a glut of apples, you’ll see the price drop. This is a perfect time to load up on fantastically, flavorful apples and make applesauce!
Check out my post on Apple Sauce
5. Cooking Becomes More Joyful
One of the most overlooked benefits of seasonality? Variety. Cooking with what’s fresh forces you to change your repertoire. You move from height of summer corn, cucumbers, and tomatoes to rich, dark greens such as kale and collard greens in the fall. Each season pushes you to try new recipes, new techniques, and new flavor pairings.
How to Start Cooking Seasonally
Visit a farmers’ market and see what’s abundant — that’s what’s in season. While you’re there, pick up an ingredient you might not be very familiar with. Ask the farmer or a shopper purchasing the item how they like to prepare it.
Use a seasonal produce chart for your region (many are free online) so that you can plan ahead before going to the farm market or grocery store. You might look up some recipes ahead of your produce shopping so that you can get inspired to try something fresh and seasonal.
Cook one seasonal dish per week to build the habit.
Check out my post on Pumpkin Soup
Final Thought
Seasonality isn’t a restriction; it’s a gift. It’s so exciting to walk into the farm market and see fruits and vegetables that weren’t present the last time you shopped there: the first fennel bulbs, winter squash or beets with vibrant leafy greens attached for instance. By cooking with the seasons, you elevate your meals with more flavor, better nutrition, and a deeper connection to the food on your plate. Next time you’re planning dinner, let the calendar — and the market — guide you. And have fun!
What I’m drawn to now:
A friend recently asked me for a recipe with pumpkin. Truth be told, I don’t cook with pumpkin that often. I use other winter or hard squashes more frequently. So I’m offering up this butternut squash recipe in lieu of a pumpkin recipe. I first had winter hard squash cooked this way when I was in…
Another Thanksgiving favorite of mine is cranberry sauce. I’ve loved it since childhood. However, I have to admit that what I loved in childhood was the canned, jellied kind, which seemed almost magical. My mom would open both ends of the can and then push it out one end. There it would sit on the serving…
This is a lovely fall/winter salad to enjoy when the air turns chilly and the fall walnut harvest has arrived in the market. I crave it when the air turns cool and make it over and over throughout the winter months. Mache, also known as lamb’s lettuce or corn salad, is a small, soft, silken…
A gardener friend once said that if she were ever a castaway on a deserted island she would want to have a squash seed with her. One seed and she could grow a large vine and plenty of food! If you’ve ever grown zucchini in your garden you know what she meant. A healthy zucchini vine…
The first time I ever saw, touched, and tasted a fresh fig was a revelation. My knowledge of figs until then was mostly confined to Fig Newtons. I didn’t even know what a fresh fig looked like until I saw it at a health food store in Santa Cruz, CA in the late 70s. The…
I’m not very focused on baking, so when I want to bake something with apples I find myself in a quandary, as I don’t know which are the best for baking. In my experience, some apples are reduced to mush by the baking process. Others hold up but don’t taste great. Then there are those…
Seasonality Matters When you walk through a farmers’ market in September, October and November, the colors tell you everything you need to know: glossy purple eggplants, crisp red and yellow apples, orange winter squash in every shape, green late season zucchini, hearty, deeply colored greens, and red beets. How Choose Zucchini and Other Summer Squash…
Toasting nuts is a lovely way to deepen their flavor and firm their texture. They don’t actually become crispy, but they develop a firmer texture. After they are toasted, the skins become loose and you can rub them off in a towel. The tannins, which are bitter, are located under the skins. So, when you rub…
Roasted root vegetables are so simple to prepare. They add a deep, earthy heartiness to a meal. The vegetables above graced our Thanksgiving table. I recommend them as a satisfying side for roasted meats, such as turkey, ham, or beef. Our vegetarians guests found them filling and comforting, too. There is no one recipe for…
As you might imagine, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Here is a selection of my recipes that will complement any Thanksgiving table. Just click on the links to go to the relevant recipes on the blog. I start by making chicken stock. Next is the gravy base. This year I’m going to my sister-in-law’s for Thanksgiving dinner,…
Zucchini and other summer squash are very prolific. Therefore, one can never have too many delicious, quick recipes for them. This one is a family favorite. I’ve found that even finicky kids and hesitant adults are willing to try these tasty zucchini fritters; and unsurprisingly to me, they always love them. In the photo above, the fritters…
The first thing you need to know when choosing zucchini, or any other summer squash, is to look for the smallest ones; they will be the sweetest and most tender. In the photo above, there are yellow patty pans, dark green zucchini, and striped zucchini. Note that I have large and small examples of each…
Chana Blueberry Chaat
Serves 6 as a side, 12 as a small snack
Ingredients:
Directions:
Combine the chick-peas, red onion, cucumber, blueberries, scallions, and green chili in a large bowl. Add the cumin, chaat masala, salt, lime juice, tamarind chutney, and yoghurt. Stir well to combine.
Spoon the chaat on to your serving dish or dishes. Spoon on a small dollop green coriander chutney and then scatter the top with sev or other crisp. (In the photo I have served crisp Chaat Papri) Serve and enjoy.
Black soy sauce is an ingredient often used in Chinese recipes for cold noodles, such as Barbara Tropp’s Tangy Cold Noodles. Its Chinese name, according to Tropp, translates to “old-head” soy. Black soy sauce is aged longer than other soy sauces.
Toward the end of the fermentation process, molasses is added, resulting in a darker, more caramel-hued soy sauce. Black soy sauce is also used to season red meats and any dish in which you want a darker, fuller color.
You can find black soy sauce in Asian markets. Store it away from light and heat. I doubt you will use it often, but it is indispensable for the dark color and slight molasses flavor it adds to dishes. It may become sludgy towards the end of it’s life, but the flavor remains intact.
]]>Here is my interpretation of one of her most well-known dishes, Orchid’s Tangy Cool Noodles.
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Tangy Cold Noodles
Ingredients:
- 1 pound long, thin noodles, fresh Chinese or dried Italian type
- 3 1/2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
- 3 1/2 tablespoons black soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons Chinese black vinegar or balsamic vinegar
- 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1/2-1 tablespoon hot chili oil
- 1/4 cup thinly sliced scallion rings
Optional garnish:
- scallion rings
- chopped cilantro, basil, or mint (alone or in any combination)
Directions:
Combine the sauce ingredients.
Cook and drain the noodles. Toss the warm noodles with the sauce and the scallions.
Taste and correct the seasonings if needed.
These noodles are best made in advance. The flavors meld and develop over time. Leave them out at room temperature for several hours if you want to serve them that day. Place them overnight in the refrigerator if you want to use them in the next day or two. Toss them occasionally to distribute the seasonings.
Serve at room temperature or slightly chilled.
Toasted, peeled walnuts are wonderful in salads or added to your baked goods. The one trick, however, is to keep an eye on the nuts as they are toasting. They can quickly go from toasted and tasty to overly browned and bitter.
Toasted, Peeled Walnuts
Preheat your oven to 350.
Place your walnuts on a baking sheet in a single layer.
Place the baking sheet in your oven. Cook the walnuts for 8-10 minutes. They will become fragrant and lightly browned. Cool them slightly.
Place the toasted walnuts on a clean dish towel.
Draw the towel up, around the walnuts.
Rub the walnuts in the towel to loosen their skins.
Open the towel. Separate the peeled walnuts from the skins.
They won’t be perfect. In the picture above, the toasted, rubbed walnuts are on the left. Untoasted walnuts are on the right. The process is a bit tedious, but your efforts will feel worthwhile when you taste them!
]]>This year, MM was the event leader and as such was in charge of arriving at the campsite in advance on Friday night and providing a welcome dinner. Chili and cornbread, warm and waiting, were enthusiastically downed by the scouts after they set up camp.
We made the chili the night before, and I suggest you do the same. It is fine to eat the day you make it, but, as with other stew-type dishes, the flavors meld and develop with a night of rest.
The Boy Scouts are always looking to keep their costs down. So we went to our local supermarket and used their grocery brand products: beans, chili powder, grated cheese, meat. Just days before we made this chili, our friend Ronda came over for dinner. She commented that when she makes her chili she uses both ground meat and meat chunks. I thought that sounded like a nice textural twist, so that’s what we did for this chili. The result: plain, straightforward ingredients that cook up into a deeply flavorful chili.
In the photo above, you can see both the ground meat and whole chunks. Note that I used two types of beans: pinto and Great Northern, another little twist to add some depth of flavor, texture, and visual contrast. Feel free to use whatever beans are your favorite or that you have on hand.
]]>Boy Scout Beef Chili
Serves 8
Ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 1/2 pounds beef chuck, cut into 1- 1 1/2″ pieces
- 1 1/2 pounds ground beef
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 jalapeño, minced, with or without seeds
- 1/4 cup chili powder
- 2 cups whole, canned tomatoes
- 1 cup tomato paste, standard (not Italian double thick)
- 2 cans pinto beans, 15 ounce, with liquid
- 1 can Great Northern beans, 15 ounce, with liquid
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- Grated Cheddar cheese for serving
In a large, heavy-bottomed pot, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the cubed chuck in two or three batches. You want to add a single layer of the meat with space between the pieces. Cook the meat, turning frequently, until browned. Remove the browned meat to a bowl and reserve. Continue with the rest of the cubed chuck. When you’ve completed browning all of the chuck, next add the ground meat to the pot and cook, stirring often, until brown.
With the browned ground meat in the pan, add the onion and cook until translucent. Next add the garlic and optional jalapeño. Sauté until the garlic is translucent. Add the reserved chuck. Lower the heat and add the chili powder. Stir and sauté for several minutes in order to cook the chili powder.
Add the tomatoes and tomato paste. Break the whole tomatoes up with a spoon when they are in the pot. The pieces will break down as the chili cooks. Add a 1/4 cup of water to the tomato paste can. Swirl the water in the can to mix with the paste left in the can. Add the the water to the chili. Add an additional 1/4 cup of water to the chili. Add the cocoa. Stir the chili well to incorporate the paste and cocoa into the chili. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer. Simmer for an hour. Add additional water if needed while the chili simmers.
Add the beans with their water to the chili. Once again bring the chili to a boil and then return to a simmer. Continue cooking for another 30 minutes.
Add the salt and pepper. Check to see the chuck is well cooked. It should be firm but tender. Correct seasoning.
Again, this chili improves with age. So I suggest you serve it the following day. We served it with grated cheddar cheese. The scouts love to add cheese to the top, with cornbread on the side. It’s delicious served fireside at a scout campout!
There is no one recipe for roasted root vegetables. The combinations are limited only to what is available to you and your personal taste. This Thanksgiving I used carrots, parsnips, turnips, onions, sweet potatoes, Kabocha squash, and fennel. Squash isn’t a root vegetable, but it is similarly a storage organ for carbohydrates and therefore roasts well alongside the root vegetables. And yes, fennel is an above-ground bulb. But it, too, cooks up beautifully when roasted and it adds another dimension of sweet flavor to the mix that I find intriguing. Other suggestions include garlic, shallots, leeks, rutabaga, celery root, beets, radishes, and potatoes.
Plan 2/3 to 1 pound of raw vegetables per person. Leftovers reheat well. Roasted vegetables also make a great addition to soup or a tasty addition to an omelette.
]]>Roasted Root Vegetables
Ingredients:
Serves 6-8
- 1 pound carrots
- 1 pound parsnips
- 1 pound turnips
- 1 pound Kabocha squash
- 1/2 pound sweet potatoes
- 1/2 pound red onions
- 1/2 pound fennel
- Olive oil
- Salt & pepper
- 2-3 sprigs rosemary
Directions:
Preheat your oven to 400. Peel the carrots, parsnips, turnips, squash, sweet potato, and onions. Cut them into 1″ pieces. Slice the fennel horizontally into 1/3″ slices. Place all of the vegetables into a large bowl. Sprinkle with olive oil and salt and pepper. Toss well to coat the vegetables. Remove the rosemary leaves from the stalks. Toss the rosemary with the vegetables. Spread the mix out in a single layer on a baking sheet.
Bake 45 minutes to one hour. The vegetables should be soft all the way through when pierced with a knife.
The vegetables can be done ahead and reheated in a low oven just before serving.
I start by making chicken stock. Next is the gravy base. This year I’m going to my sister-in-law’s for Thanksgiving dinner, but I have a double batch of my basic cranberry sauce in the fridge that I’ve dipped into. I just love cranberry sauce, and I put it on everything! Also, don’t forget to calibrate your thermometer so you’ll be all set for roasting the bird. These are the things I do in advance.
Are you looking for more dishes that you can prepare in advance? Shrimp butter on endive leaves would be the perfect welcoming nibble as your guests arrive. For the rest of your menu, you might want to consider making pumpkin soup (as a first course), baked winter squash, or Ibu’s Curried squash (as sides).
Steamed artichokes with a simple dipping sauce make a lovely first course option following the shrimp butter. And for years I’ve served an iceberg wedge salad. The dressing can be made several days in advance. You will need to assemble the salad itself right before you serve it. Another seasonal, and simpler, salad would be radishes with fennel and mint.
On Thanksgiving day you will be roasting your turkey. I do stuff the turkey before roasting it. I think the stuffing tastes best when it is cooked inside the bird. But here I offer a you vegetarian, mushroom stuffing that is cooked outside the bird, of course. For non-vegetarians, I would eliminate the vegetable stock and combine the mushroom stock with chicken stock instead. Then I would stuff the bird with as much of the stuffing as will fit. Remember that the stuffing will swell as it cooks, so you need to leave some room for it to expand. Bake any stuffing that will not fit into the bird in the oven as directed.
I know green beans are a favorite this time of year, but for a change why not consider zucchini with mint?
Happy Thanksgiving, and bon appétit!
]]>In the photo above I’m showing you several of my favorites that are currently in my fridge and pantry: sherry vinegar; a sweet and sour, late harvest Zinfandel vinegar; virgin olive oil; and walnut oil. All of these I find highlight my fall and winter salads well. Taste a variety of your local offerings, and your efforts will be rewarded.
]]>Zucchini and other summer squash are very prolific. Therefore, one can never have too many delicious, quick recipes for them. This one is a family favorite. I’ve found that even finicky kids and hesitant adults are willing to try these tasty zucchini fritters; and unsurprisingly to me, they always love them.
In the photo above, the fritters are served with a tomato chutney I happened to have on hand. But these versatile fritters are good plain, or with applesauce, sour cream, or an Asian soy- or fish sauce-based dipping sauce.
Many recipes for zucchini fritters instruct you to fry them in a generous amount of oil. I find a good spray of oil on the bottom of the pan works just as well and results in a less greasy fritter.
Zucchini Fritters
Serves 4, makes 12-14 fritters
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 pounds zucchini, 3 cups grated
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, plus additional for seasoning as needed
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup ricotta cheese
- 3 Tablespoons flour
- 2 Tablespoons cornmeal
- 3 Tablespoons minced scallion
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
- vegetable oil for sautéing the fritters
Directions:
Grate the zucchini using a box grater or food processor. Toss the grated zucchini with the 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, place in a colander, and allow to rest and drain for 10 minutes or more.
Squeeze the grated zucchini in your hands or a clean dish towel to remove the excess liquid.
Combine the zucchini with all of the remaining ingredients except for the vegetable oil. Stir to mix well.
Heat a large, flat-bottomed skillet or griddle pan over medium heat. Spray or wipe the heated skillet with a thin coating of vegetable oil. Scoop up generous portions of the fritter batter with a tablespoon and shape the batter into a 2-3 inch patty. Drop the patty into the hot skillet. Press with the back of a spoon to flatten the fritter into a small pancake. Fry until the bottom is nicely browned. Flip the fritter over and cook the second side until browned as well. Remove from the pan.
Serve with a sour cream sauce, tomato sauce, apple sauce, or whatever strikes your fancy.
Fritters are best eaten within 30 minutes of being made, but my family also enjoys them reheated as leftovers. They make a great after school snack.
Fritters can be frozen. Reheat in the microwave or defrost and heat in a low skillet or oven.
