Food Lover’s Market advocates eating seasonally and with autumn here, we continue our stance! There are just so many health and financial benefits to eating seasonally. Be sure to check out our previous post, Eating Seasonally in South Africa to learn more.

Autumn brings us some incredibly nutritious and delicious options. Autumn vegetables are great for creating comfort food and autumn fruit that are beneficial for our immune systems. Popular Autumn veg includes baby marrows, carrots, potatoes, and butter beans…Is anyone else thinking about veggie soup right now? For our autumn fruit lineup, we have naartjies, oranges, pineapples, and granadillas – what a burst of vitamin C! Be sure to keep an eye out for Food Lover’s Market’s killer veg combos.

Avocado Pear

Our Autumn fruit hero is the beautifully dimpled avocado pear. Food Lover’s Market supports your avo habit – we understand! Avos are an amazing source of fibre. Why is this important? A healthy gut means a healthy immune system, super important at the moment. Not only that, avos are high in copper, a mineral that supports immune function. Finally, avos contain antioxidants which…you guessed it – maintain and regulate immune function!

But it doesn’t stop there, avos are good for your little one too! Avocados are perfect first foods for babies, check out this article to learn more.

Avos come in a few varieties in South Africa, we have the green-skinned and the dark-skinned types. Green-skinned avos have a luxurious buttery-creamy taste, whereas dark-skinned avos have a delectable nutty taste. Both types are oh-so-delicious. Learn more about the differences in these 2 types of avocados here.

Eat your avos on toast, in a beautiful vitamin C packed autumn Avocado, Naartjie and Pomegranate Salad, or be bold and try our Chocolate Avocado Tart.

To top it all off, if you are a fan of both butternut and avos then we have a treat for you! Healthy and scrumptious Roasted Vegetable & Avocado Autumn Salad.

Feast away this autumn with these incredible fruit and vegetable choices!

Butternut

A real star autumn vegetable is butternut (and other squashes). Butternut is so wonderfully versatile you can’t go wrong with this showstopper. Sliced and prepared, butternut will last up to 6 days in your fridge. Unpeeled and unprepared, this beaut can last up to 2 months in a cool pantry.

High in potassium, butternut helps control your blood pressure and its fibre helps maintain your blood sugar.

Butternut is so incredible, you can serve it sweet or savoury, roasted or a soup. The sky really is the limit. Try some of our incredible butternut recipes such as our fragrant Thai Butternut Curry Soup, or an easy weekday Roast Veg Pasta. Take it easy on the weekend with a delicious chicken potjie, that contains butternut of course! Lastly, go ahead and treat yourself to a cheat day with our ridiculously divine Butternut, Caramelised Onion, and Biltong Tortilla Pizza (A healthier treat day).

AUTUMN VEGETABLES

• Aubergine – Moussaka 
• Beetroot – Carrot & Beetroot Salad 
• Broccoli – Broccoli Pesto Pasta 
• Brussels sprouts – Bacon brussel sprouts
• Cabbage – versatile ingredient, try these recipes using cabbage
• Cauliflower – from cauli-pizza, to cauli-rice or pickled cauliflower, try these cauliflower recipes
• Courgette a.k.a Baby Marrow or zucchini – chocolate zucchini bread
• Green beans – love ‘em with butter, but try these zesty green beans with salmon. 
• Kale – Roasted butternut and kale salad – be sure to massage the kale with an acid.  
• Leeks – baked seafood florentine
• Mielies – try these corn ribs, or a smoked mussel & corn quiche.
• Mushrooms –  
• Peas – pea and coriander hummus
• Parsnips – add parsnips to your mashed potato
• Spinach – All-you-need Green Smoothie
• Sweet peppers – Roasted Red Pepper & Quinoa Salad
• Turnips – use turnips instead of potatoes in a potato bake.

FRUIT

*Click below for recipe inspiration. 

• Apples – apple tarts, or fresh apple salads, explore these apple recipes. 
• Avocado – The versatile avo, browse these avo recipes. 
• Bananas – Banana bread baked oats 
• Figs – Brie & Fig Cob Bread 
• Grapes (early-Autumn) – Wine roasted grapes 
• Gooseberries – add them to a breakfast or atop this cheesecake 
• Guavas  
• Lemons – dressing, cakes, marinades and more, check out these lovely recipes using lemons. 
• Mangoes – there’s more than you think you can do with mangoes, browse these recipes. 
• Oranges – sensational citrus recipes 
• Pawpaw or Papaya– paw paw and avo salad, or paw paw breakfast boat. 
• Peaches – Peach salad dressing, or a peach smoothie 
• Pears – Chai poached pears 
• Plums – Balsamic Plum Crumble 
• Pomegranates – Avo, Naartjie & Pomegranate Salad 
• Quince 
• Spanspek – Grilled Spanspek Salad 
• Tomatoes – browse our fave tomato recipes 
• Watermelon – Watermelon pizza, watermelon salad and more; browse these watermelon recipes.