Autumn Recipes
Squash Velouté with Hazelnut Crumble
In Autumn, squash (and in particular pumpkin) soup recipes abound. This one is super easy, very healthy because it does not rely on cream and yet has a nutty crumble topping that you can add to jazz it up for a dinner party. The crumble keeps for a couple of weeks in a storage box to add to other veggie soups.
It can be made vegan too with a vegan cheese for the crumble instead of the parmesan.
Vegetable Tartine
This is a sourdough tartine of either baby salt-crusted veggies OR simply roasted ones with a slight caramelised touch. Both styles make a lovely vegan lunch or starter. The detailed recipe here cooks the vegetables in a salt crust which can be used as a side dish to another meal - taking the dish to the table in the crust which you break as you serve up.
Mushroom and Spinach Tart
This tart makes great use of seasonal mushrooms - shitake ones originate from Asia but now are grown all over the world, cèpes are abundant in France in Autumn as are girolles, so use whatever is available in season near you and mix them up - white or brown button ones work too if that is all you have available locally.
Vegetable Moussaka
Sally came up with this idea after her son suggested a recipe he had tried replacing the lamb mince with mushrooms and lentils cooked with tomatoes. Excuse the amateur photo but we couldn't wait to dive in as it is so tasty and a wonderful combination of textures too.
Mushroom Strognaoff
This is a vegetarian take on the traditional Franco-Russian dish of beef stroganoff. Traditionally made with thinly sliced beef and mushrooms, we can just up the mushrooms and forget the beef. Soured cream or crème fraiche is fermented and there’s lots of fibre in mushrooms so it a very gut friendly dish. For the vegans you can replace the creme fraiche with coconut or soya cream.
Apple Chutney
Make the most of all those apples in season and stock up on your chutney which will keep for months and will definitely be ready for those winter wine and cheese platters. You can double up the recipe to make more in one batch, but I find that any more than that gets unwieldy and sometimes doesn't work out as well.
Roasted Autumn Fruit
Autumn fruits abound and make amazing desserts that are simple to throw together. Combine the fruit with some leftover wine (yes sometimes we have wine left over!) and the dessert becomes really scrumptious. Want it a little healthier? Keep the sugar low and the accompaniment light and voilà !
Poached pears
A really easy, prepare in advance and impressive dish. Healthy pears have Vitamin C, fibre and Potassium. Poaching them in wine allows the alcohol to evaporate so it’s all of the pleasure and none of the pain. Choose between red wine or sweet white wine.
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Honey & Nut Tart
This is high calorie but worth every bite and you can make little individual ones if you prefer. It needs to cool for a couple of hours so you can prepare this well in advance and make entertaining just that much easier.