Ostara In Season Ingredients and Recipe Ideas

Before I go into my in season ingredients and recipe ideas for this time of year in the lead-up to Ostara, I wanted to remind you of my 500 follower giveaway where I will be selecting one follower at random to send a care package with soy wax scented candle and beeswax candles made by me, an original illustration by me and a vintage book from my collection! Please help me spread the word about my newsletter to other like-minded souls by sharing it with your friends, who can follow and enter - as well as hopefully enjoying my posts! All details and terms and conditions are in my last newsletter - the competition closes at 8 p.m. on Saturday.

This is truly a transitional time in the kitchen. We are entering the so-called “hungry gap” as we are coming to the end of Winter produce while new Spring ingredients are just starting to get going. This time of year can have its challenges in the kitchen, but for me this encourages creativity and seeing staple ingredients in new and exciting ways, making the most of the greenery that’s arriving and embracing new season freshness. Here is my list of in season ingredients for Ostara, also illustrated above, followed by some ideas for what to make with them!

Vegetables:

Alliums: leeks, spring onions (March), wild garlic

Amaranths: spinach (March)

Brassicas: Brussels sprouts (February), cauliflower, horseradish (February), kale, kohlrabi (February), purple sprouting broccoli

Daisy family: salsify

Fungi: black truffles

Mustards: swede

Nightshades: potatoes (maincrop)

Umbellifers: celeriac, parsnips

Nettle family: wild nettles.

Fruit:

Actinidiaceae: kiwi fruit

Buckwheats: rhubarb

Bromeliads: pineapple

Citrus: blood oranges, lemons, oranges

Musaceae: bananas

Passiflora: passionfruit.

• A simple soup made from spring onions, potatoes and new season greens can be ramped up with herbs from the freezer or new season wild garlic if you can get your hands on it. I got my first of the season last week from Edinburgh Food Delivery. I rinsed the leaves then blanched them in boiling water for a few minutes to take the edge off their pungency, then drained and blitzed the leaves with a blender to make a pleasingly green purée. It’s then easy to add a spoonful to soups to stir through for a boost of early Spring flavour and goodness or add to pesto.

• At this time of year I still crave a little Winter comfort at the same time as Spring flavours and textures; a creamy pasta bake made with kale and purple sprouting broccoli provides both. You can mix blanched veg with cooked pasta, cream, a little stock, mustard, cheddar cheese and seasoning and pop it under the grill until golden and bubbling.

  

• This is a good time to forage wild nettles, the young stems and leaves being particularly flavoursome and less stingy. Make sure to forage wearing gloves, and pick from an area where dogs won’t have been able to urinate. Rinse then blanche in boiling water before blitzing in a food processor with a handful of toasted walnuts, grated parmesan, lemon juice and zest and a little olive oil for a peppy Spring pesto sauce. Stir through pasta or use as a garnish on roast veg.

• Swede – or, if you’re Scottish, turnip – is not the most glamorous of vegetables but they’re an under-rated kitchen ingredient if you ask me. I was first introduced to salt-baked vegetables at Edinburgh’s Timberyard, where root veg was transformed into something more multi-layered by salt baking. To make a salt bake, mix 120g sea salt with 360g strong white flour and two egg whites and 130ml cold water to form a dough. Knead until smooth then chill for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 160C fan and roll the dough out to about 1 cm. Put the swede, unpeeled, on the surface of the dough and wrap it around, sealing the edges with a little water. Bake for at least an hour until the dough is hard and the veg, tested with a skewer, is cooked through. Slice open the salt crust and discard it. Portion the veg and serve – tasty with the aforementioned pesto.

  

• I know not everyone is a cauliflower fan but it’s one of my favourite Winter vegetables. My Mum’s cauliflower cheese is like nothing else! I like to roast cauliflower, and it’s delicious paired with spices, particularly coriander seeds, fennel seeds or turmeric. I tend to chop my cauliflower into florets, drizzle them with olive oil and a sprinkling of spices and sea salt before roasting in a hot oven for 20 minutes or so until charred around the edges and cooked through inside. Don’t forget the stem and leaves too, simply chop and mix through with the rest. A perfect topping for soups or dahls - if they make it that far; I usually end up snacking on them before I’ve even finished making the rest of the meal.

• At this time of year, I’m usually getting a little sick of endless bowls of porridge and am craving that new-season freshness. Blood orange bircher muesli saves the day: soak 40g of oats with the juice of one blood orange overnight. In the morning, sweeten with honey to taste and stir through a tablespoon or two of yoghurt, depending on how creamy you want it. Top with sliced blood orange and a sprinkling of cacao nibs for extra flavour and texture.