Eat by the Seasons: The Tastiest, Freshest Produce.
The Seasonal Vegan is a book of simple affordable recipes that make use of local seasonal produce. Each recipe is geared to seasonal crops, with year-round menus. Illustrated with beautiful colour images, these recipes let you enjoy wholesome affordable meals.
Each of the 70 recipes in this book (by a Welsh-speaking veggie cook and writer) focuses on fresh local produce).
Before cooking, read up on food safety for people and pets (many foods are unsafe near animal friends). Bin allium scraps (onion, leeks, garlic, shallots, chives) and citrus/tomato/rhubarb scraps, as acids could harm compost creatures. It’s okay to put them in food waste bins (made into biogas).
Before recycling cans, rinse then remove lids (pop ring-pulls over holes). Then use your fingers/thumb to ‘pinch’ inner rims together, to avoid wildlife getting trapped.
Recipes include:
- Pancakes with Blueberry Compote
- Potato Salad with Watercress Pesto
- Summer Berry & Coconut Milk Ice Lollies
The Scottish Vegan Cookbook (seasonal recipes)
The Scottish Vegan Cookbook offers seasonal recipes from over the border including:
- Haggis!
- Neeps and tatties
- Scotch Broth
- Spring in your step veggie burger
- Very berry and beet smoothie
- Broad bean soup with bannocks
- Braised celeriac and haricot beans
- Sticky toffee pear and ginger pudding
The First Mess (eat well through the seasons)
The First Mess is a highly-reviewed cookbook packed with wholesome recipes to eat through the seasons. What makes this book different is that it uses real locally-sourced organic ingredients to create recipes, using seasonal finds from your weekly veg box.
The author is a Canadian who grew up in a family that ran organic box schemes. She trained as a chef, and also writes and photographs well. So all combined, you end up with a smashing book.
Recipes include:
- Beet & Mushroom Bolognese
- Fluffy Whole Grain Pancakes
- Hot Pink Beet Smoothie
- Broccoli Caesar with Smoky Tempeh Bits
- Vegetable Bean Pot Pies with Potato Crust
- Weeknight Root Vegetable Dal
- Burrito-stuffed Sweet Potatoes
- Romanesco Salad with Meyer Lemon Dressing
- Chilli Tofu Lime Bowls
- Roasted Aubergine & Olive Bolognese
- Earl Grey & Vanilla Bean Tiramisu
Laura Wright has been cooking and testing plant-based seasonal recipes for years. Her cooking blog is one of the most popular in the world, packed with recipes that use real affordable ingredients, and turn out well each time. Many of her readers are not vegan, she prefers to simply focus on good food to inspire, rather than be a ‘celebrity chef’.
A Year of Seasonal recipes from Cornwall
A Year in a Cottage Kitchen is a lovely book by a young vegan cookbook author who is fast turning into a next-generation version of Nigella Lawson. Discover 80 simple plant-based recipes, from the heart of Cornwall.
Take a seat at Maddie’s table, as she cooks delicious meals in her cosy cottage, and step inside her world as she tends to her vegetable patch, strolls along the shore to take in the sea air, and hosts supper or (when the weather allows) on the beach.
Recipes include:
- Lemon elderflower cake
- Homemade Crumpets
- Warm Butter Bean, New Potato & Tomato Salad
- Black Bean Burgers with Summer Hot Sauce
- Roasted Butternut Squash & Sausage Gnocchi
- Mushroom and Lentil Pie
- Roasted Parsnip, Rosemary & White Bean Soup
- Tear and Share ‘cheesy’ Bread
- Pear Upside Down Cake
- Homemade Apple Crumble
- Lemon and Elderflower Cake
Madeleine Olivia is a full-time content creator, who writes lovely vegan cookbooks. She lives with husband in a beautiful renovated cottage in Cornwall. Find more recipes (and home makeover tips) at her lovely website!
What to eat and when by season
Here are a few ideas to know what to buy in season. The food will be more local, it will taste nicer and be more affordable.
Spring (greens, peas and fresh herbs)
- Asparagus (it’s only in season for around 8 weeks, so be quick!) It also can make your pee smell, but don’t worry, just enjoy it while it’s here in salads and soups.
- Spinach, peas, radishes and new potatoes are all spring vegetables.
- Rhubarb (when available) is good with vegan custard and in crumbles. Or stew with a little sugar and orange zest, or use it in overnight oats.
Summer (tomatoes, courgettes, berries, salads)
- Organic tomatoes taste way nicer, so give them a go.
- Only buy organic courgettes (some ‘bad batches of seeds’ can be dangerous to health – one cookery writer almost died from eating them)
- Berry fruits are nice stewed or in crumbles.
Autumn and winter (squash, roots, brassicas)
- Pumpkin and squash soup are delicious in winter.
- Carrots and parsnips are nice stewed and mashed.
- Beetroot is an earthy veg, also good in desserts and baking
- Kale is one of the few veg that grows during our ‘hungry gap’ and is rich in calcium. Pair with less bitter greens in recipes.
- Apples and pears are are good stewed and in crumbles, to support your local farmers
