Canada is the world’s second-largest producer of cranberries, which are native to Atlantic Canada. The berries have phytochemicals that have a variety of health benefits, including defending against stomach ulcers and tooth decay. These tart red gems are too sour to eat on their own, but they’re fabulous in lemon loaf, in a glaze for ham, or as a syrup in mixed drinks.
Earthy and sweet, beets can be eaten raw (peel, then slice ‘em thin or grate them), roasted (pop them in the oven with some oil, salt and pepper), steamed, boiled or pickled. Their gorgeous purple colour is a beautiful addition to salads—just be sure to wear gloves when you’re working with them if you don’t want to end up with purple fingers.
Flavour-wise, parsnips are sort of like a cross between a potato and a carrot. While you can eat them on their own (roasted in a slow oven is the best way to bring out their sweetness), they’re really delicious paired with other fruits and vegetables—try a potato-parsnip mash, roast them alongside carrots, whiz them in a savoury apple soup, or toss them with chestnuts in a sophisticated fall salad.
Even if you’re someone who hates Brussels sprouts, you owe it to yourself to give these cruciferous nummies another try. Just back away from the boiling pot: if their cabbagey flavour is too much for you all at once, slice them thin, separate the layers, then sautee them with a generous amount of bacon fat, salt, and pepper. (Yes, you can use olive oil instead of bacon fat—but why would you?)
Pears are often overshadowed by their showier fall companions, apples—but they’re definitely worth exploring, especially if you’re all appled out. A pear poached in red wine is an easy-but-elegant dessert perfect for chilly fall nights, and if you’re into canning, pears preserved in a light sugar syrup can be a lovely treat in the depths of winter.
Sure, you can serve the traditional cabbage-and-corned-beef dinner, but cabbage is so much more versatile than just a veggie to boil and slather with butter. The humble heads pair well with Asian flavours, so consider this salad with cabbage, peanuts, shredded carrots, and a nutty, Thai-inspired dressing.
These onion relatives have a mild, delicate flavour and are endlessly versatile—as long as you clean them very, very well. Leeks’ tightly packed leaves are perfect for hiding sand, dirt and grit, so rinse them before you use them in savoury tarts, traditional cock-a-leekie soup, or a simple braise.
Often mixed up with its smaller purple cousin, the turnip, rutabaga are those big, ugly, wax-covered root veggies that loom large in our memories of Sunday dinner at Grandma’s. Rutabaga can be somewhat bitter when they’re raw, but cooked and mashed with butter, salt, pepper and a whisper of nutmeg, they can be deliciously sweet and nutty. To cook a rutabaga, peel it (you need to get rid of the wax coating and the outer peel), cut it into chunks with a sturdy knife, and steam or microwave it.
These peppery little bites are often seen in salads, but their deliciousness extends far beyond a humdrum bowl of lettuce. Try a radish sandwich: slice one very thin, spread a generous amount of unsalted butter on good-quality bread, sprinkle a little sea salt and cracked pepper, and enjoy. You can also sauté radishes with bacon for an unusual side dish.
Eggplants are about as close to eating meat as you can get and still be eating a vegetable. A staple in Mediterranean cooking, eggplants are still a little “exotic” to many cooks, perhaps owing to their reputation for being bitter. (You can solve that by salting slices or chunks about 30 minutes before cooking.) One nice way to introduce a little eggplant into your meal is to substitute eggplant slices for noodles in this yummy lasagna recipe.
Macs get all the attention, but crabapples can be just as delicious if you know what to do with them. Crabapple jelly is a classic, but you can also pickle them, bake them into a bread pudding, or roast them.
They’re pretty ubiquitous around Thanksgiving, but sweet potatoes are great additions to dinner just about any time—especially if you’re trying to avoid white potatoes. Work a roasted sweet potato into a salad with oil-rubbed kale, slices of apple, and parmesan curls, or experiment with a sweet potato hash at breakfast.
If you’ve been avoiding cooking kale because you’re sick to death of hearing about its status as a wonder food, well, get over that. Kale is great sauteed, but it’s also delicious in salads—the secret is to rub some oil into the kale leaves and let them sit for 10 minutes so they soften up. Mash in an avocado and your other favourite salad fixings, and you’ve got a super-healthy lunch.
If you use bok choy at all, you probably add it to stir fries, which is fine, but it’s also delicious in soup, chopped into dumpling filling, or braised.
These appear in stores in the fall, and, if you’re not familiar with them, it’s hard to tell what to do with them. There are two types of persimmons: hachiya persimmons are acorn-shaped and terribly astringent when not completely ripe. Fuyu persimmons are more tomato-shaped, and can be eaten even when not ripe. Go ahead and cut persimmons into slices and eat them, skin and all.
It’s the most bountiful time of the year! Take advantage of harvest time by experimenting with veggies and fruit you might not usually cook with—you’ll add new flavours and take advantage of the local produce.
So, back away from the frozen stir fry mix and check out these great in-season crops.
