Winter Fruit and Vegetables

Rustle up some lovely warming dishes, with winter fruit and vegetables.

By December the soft, tender fruits and vegetables are long gone. Winter greens and fine root vegetables are the stalwarts of the winter months, while the only home-grown fruit around consists of apples and pears. While I try to avoid buying imports whenever I can, I do make an exception during winter, when all the beautiful citrus fruit starts to arrive.

SERVING WINTER FRUIT AND VEGETABLES

Most of the suggestions made for autumn fruit and vegetables will also work well right through the winter. Winter fruit and vegetables need cooking, and when it’s really cold I make soup on an almost daily basis, and put a small flask of it into the kids’ lunch boxes. Salads need flavour and colour to tempt me towards cold food at this time of year, and I add chopped fruit, citrus segments and nuts to make them more enticing. I also stew fruit, adding spices or orange juice, and serving them alone, or with a crumble topping. If I’m short of time, I pile up a bowl of mixed fruit, and add one or two exotics like kumquats, fresh dates or lychees. Whatever way you choose to serve winter fruit and vegetables, make sure you eat plenty of them, every day. At this time of year, when bugs are about and we need our immune systems to be in top shape, it’s more important than ever to have five portions of fruit and vegetables a day.

WINTER FRUIT IN SEASON NOV TO FEB

For suggestions for apples and pears, and many other fruits which remain available into the early part of winter, see autumn fruit and vegetables. Listed below are the newcomers of the season, which are always so welcome.
  • Citrus fruit Many different varieties, but they all have in common their brightly coloured skins, juicy segmented flesh and high Vitamin C content. Oranges, lemons and limes are available all year round, but with winter come the soft citrus fruits, satsumas, mandarins, tangerines, clementines, ortaniques and many other varieties. Buy firm-skinned fruit with clear skin. They keep in a cool place for 7-10 days. We can get through bowlfuls of soft citrus just as they are, but if you want to cook with them, then add them to other stewed fruits, use the juice or chopped flesh in soups, make them into cakes, or add to meat dishes. Citrus is good with lamb in tagine-style Moroccan dishes, and is also a good partner for duck.
  • Cranberries The quintessential Christmas fruit, you can keep cranberries for up to 2 months in the fridge. They’re rock-hard and sour uncooked, but the skin pops open as you simmer them, and sugar or honey draws out their full fruity flavour. As well as making cranberry sauce to serve with turkey, you can mix them with other fruit to make mousses or crumbles. They go particularly well with oranges.
  • Dates You might be lucky and find fresh dates in winter, although they’re really an autumn treat. They’re lighter and less sticky than boxed dates, and as sweetly satisfying as a bit of chocolate eaten just as they are. With any type of date, a little goes a long way. You can use them chopped in salads, or mixed into cottage cheese as a sandwich filling. They’re also good in cakes and tea breads.

    WINTER VEGETABLES IN SEASON DEC TO FEB

    Pumpkin is still available until it disappears at the end of November, so make the most of it in fresh pumpkin recipes. All the vegetables that are such staples through the winter – carrots, potatoes, parsnips, plus less common varieties, like Jerusalem artichokes – first come into season in autumn, and are covered in autumn fruit and vegetables.



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