There’s an arctic chill in the air, snow is falling in our alpine areas and just like that winter is officially here.

It’s the season of hearty meals and warming soups, not to mention hot cocoa, red wine and sitting by the fire. But it’s easy to forget that fresh seasonal produce will help fight off those winter nasties and aid your body in staying fighting fit. So once again, we’re taking a look at what’s in season and available at the markets and supermarkets for winter!

WHY EAT SEASONALLY?

In our previous post about seasonal produce for Autumn, we spoke a bit about why we love eating (and cooking) with seasonal produce. There are so many great reasons to do it, but some of the main reasons are that the produce is high quality, has great flavour, superior nutritional value, and the price is better than when you’re trying to get something out of season. For more info, check out our previous blog post.

HOW WE USE SEASONAL WINTER VEGGIES

With so many amazing options out there, we make the most of a range of seasonal winter veggies in a number of our dishes. They’re flavour and nutrient-packed, and they form the base of some Dineamic favourites.

SWEET POTATO

Full of Vitamin A & C, Fibre and potassium (just to name a few), this is a readily available root vegetable that is super versatile and can be used for savoury and sweet recipes (sweet potato brownies anyone?). You’ll see sweet potato used in a number of our meals because of its nutritional benefits and versatile flavour, but we really hero it in our Sweet Potato & Coconut Curry (available as a main), our Sweet Potato, Coconut & Turmeric Soup (perfect to warm you up in winter), and most recently in our Moroccan Beef Meatballs with Sweet Potato & Broccoli (a new fave).

CAULIFLOWER

Another versatile veggie, is the humble cauliflower. A meal in itself, in recent years we’ve seen people getting creative by using it for everything from the classic cauliflower with cheese, to cauliflower pizza bases and spiced cauliflower steaks lovingly roasted to perfection. For so few calories, the nutritional content is impressive with just one serve providing 77% RDI of Vitamin C, 3g of Fibre (about 10% of your RDI) and it’s high in antioxidants.

We LOVE adding cauliflower to our rice in a number of our meals including our Thai Green Chicken Curry with Broccoli, Cauliflower & Rice.

DARK GREEN LEAFY VEGETABLES

Dark green veggies are some of the most nutrient dense vegetables going around out there. Options like Kale and Spinach are in peak season throughout winter, and both are high in Vitamin K, A and C, not to mention their substantial mix of other vitamins and minerals.

The ultimate winter meal that makes the most of winter veg has to be our Broccoli, Spinach & Kale Soup, it’s a triple threat of good things that will warm you up and give your body a health boost.

Another meal heroing dark leafy greens is the always popular Pumpkin & Kale Risotto.

WHAT’S IN SEASON FOR WINTER?

Winter is the season of robust root veggies, dark leafy greens, and vitamin-C rich produce, all ready to give your body a boost and keep things colourful.

Check out the list below for the array of fruit & veg that really come alive in the Aussie Winter.

VEGETABLES

• Avocado
• Beetroot
• Bok choy
• Broad beans
• Broccoli/ Broccolini
• Brussels sprouts
• Cabbage
• Carrots
• Cauliflower
• Celeriac
• Celery
• Chokos
• Choy sum
• Fennel
• Gai laan
• Horseradish
• Jerusalem artichokes
• Kale
• Kohlrabi
• Leeks
• Lettuce
• Mushrooms
• Okra
• Onions
• Parsnips
• Peas
• Potatoes
• Pumpkin
• Radicchio
• radish
• Shallot
• Silverbeet
• Snow Peas
• Spinach
• Spring Onion
• Swede
• Sweet potato
• Turnips
• Witlof
• Wombok

FRUIT

• Apples
• Avocado
• Banana
• Blood oranges
• Cumquat
• Custard apples
• Dates
• Feijoa
• Grapefruit
• Kiwi fruit
• Kiwifruit
• Lemon
• Lemons
• Lime
• Mandarin
• Mandarins
• Nashi
• Oranges
• Passionfruit
• Pears
• Persimmon
• Pineapple
• Pomelo
• Quince
• Rhubarb
• Strawberries
• Tamarillo
• Tangelos

Pick up some beautiful seasonal fruit and vegetables this week & tell us in the comments what your favourite Winter produce is!