Two hands use wooden salad servers to serve an autumn bounty salad with sweetcorn and butternut squash

Autumn Bounty

We are entering into the official harvest time, when nature bestows upon us a veritable autumn bounty.

Why should we eat seasonally?

  • Eating seasonally ensures that we benefit from a variety of nutrients contained in fruit and vegetables across the annual calendar.
  • It presents us with an opportunity to ring the culinary changes and tickle our tastebuds.
  • Varying and rotating our food intake prevents us from becoming overly sensitive to any particular food group. It is even possible to develop allergies to foods eaten too often due to the introduction of the same nutritional chemistry repeatedly, causing the immune system to rebel.

Each vegetable or fruit offers its unique combination of vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients. Often the colour is an indicator of the particular treasures that fruit or vegetable holds. For instance, dark berries contain antioxidant anthocyanins; orange foods such as carrots contain beta-carotene, which converts to vitamin A which our bodies can use for immune support and skin health; green foods contain chlorophyll. Read my blog on 5 Reasons Why Green Is Good.

Vegetables in season for September and October:

  • Sweetcorn, butternut squash, beetroot, carrots, aubergine, celeriac, parsnips, swede and turnip, cabbage, celery, chard, courgettes, cucumber, cauliflower, broccoli, fennel, French beans, runner beans, potatoes, peppers, chillies, tomatoes, spinach, rocket, lettuce and salad leaves, watercress, pak choi, radishes, Jerusalem artichokes, Kohl rabi, wild mushrooms, leeks, shallots, onion, garlic

Fruit in season for September and October:

  • Apples, pears, apricots, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, plums, figs, quince

The autumn bounty of vegetables make for satisfyingly yummy robust salads. This delicious autumn salad makes for a complete meal and includes seasonal sweetcorn and butternut squash. Dress and eat while the cooked vegetables are still warm.

Autumn Salad

Serves 4:

  • 400g can of chick peas, rinsed until there is no more froth
  • A cup of sprouted mung beans (follow me on Instagram @annabrownewellbeing.com for how to sprout)
  • 2 fresh sweetcorn cobs steamed for 5-10 minutes depending on desired crunch
  • ½ medium-large butternut squash, cubed and steamed or roasted until tender
  • Handful of fine green beans trimmed, halved and steamed
  • ½ red and ½ yellow pepper chopped
  • 12 black olive stoned
  • 8 cocktail gherkins finely sliced
  • 1 tbsp capers drained
  • Handful of flat leaf parsley chopped
  • 8 basil leaves torn
  • 200g block of smoked tofu cubed

Dressing:

  • 80ml Extra virgin olive oil
  • Juice of 1 lemon juice
  • Small clove garlic crushed
  • ¼ tsp Dijon mustard
  • Maple syrup or honey to taste
  • Salt & pepper to taste