We’re still working our way through home-grown courgettes (!!), tomatoes and carrots, but what else is seasonal at this time of year?
At the Diabetes Diet, we try our best to eat seasonally (it’s not always easy in Scotland), as seasonal food locally grown and produced tastes the BEST. It also helps you do your bit for the environment, by cutting down on food miles (the distance food travels to reach your plate) and it benefits your local economy. Wouldn’t you prefer to put money directly in a farmer’s pocket, than add to the vastly-inflated profits of a supermarket?
Anyway, October brings many of the benefits September does. While many fruits and vegetables are now gone for the year, there are plenty of delicious other options.
MEAT
- Pheasant
- Lamb
- Partridge
FISH
- Mussels
- Mackerel
- Oysters
VEGETABLES
- Wild mushrooms (if you’re going to pick these, please make sure you know what you’re doing!)
- Root vegetables, such as celeriac and carrots
- Kale
- Beetroot
- Cabbage
- Fennel
FRUIT
- Apples
- Damsons
Looking for some ideas for what to do with your seasonal ingredients? Puzzled about how you can make them low-carb so they fit with the way you eat? We have some suggestions for you…
Make gluten-free gravy using carrots and onions, and serve with pork and chicken.
Our carrot and almond soup recipe is an established family favourite. If you want to make it a main course, add some boiled eggs or poached chicken for added protein (and satiety). Or make yourself a delicious salad with the recipe for a Carrot and Dill version.
Love lamb? Our low-carb, gluten-free moussaka makes the most of lamb mince (making it more affordable too). Try this African stew, also.
Jovina Cooks Italian has inspired us hugely, and this Brindisi Fish Soup uses mussels and is packed with flavour. It also uses aubergines, which are seasonal in October too.
Hate cabbage? Add bacon, cheese and sour cream, and you can make anything palatable to even avowed cabbage loathers. Try this Cabbage Casserole recipe and convince the brassica haters it’s true.
Celeriac has a very distinctive taste. Make the most of it in this braised celeriac recipe. You can use it as a replacement for potatoes to accompany your roast dinner. We also have a yummy recipe for soup.
Diabetes Diet 
It’s the food that makes winter tolerable. As the runner beans finally come to an end, so far the Brussels sprouts have arrived, and some purple sprouting broccoli,albeit expensive, and herrings. Pheasants and partridges still to look forward to, along with the chestnuts to accompany the sprouts. Currently also a load of different chillies from a local grower’s greenhouses, I just polished off yet another chilli beef including bacon, peppers, garlic and tomato puree, and oyster mushrooms which are technically not autumnal but have not been available until now in my local shop.
Oh I also have some Vacherin Mont d’Or, one of my all-time favourite cheeses (think Brie with a turbocharger) which is seasonal and has arrived early this year, for later. IF I get hungry again, which currently seems unlikely.
Gosh it’s a hard life this low carbing, quite unsustainable, or so the dieticians assure me. I wonder how many of these nutritious things I should stop eating in order to fit in my “essential” 300g carbs.
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Slobbering, in an undignified dog-like way, Chris, at what you are currently eating. Spotted a great recipe today for cauliflower and chestnut soup, topped with Parmesan cheese and a little swill of truffle oil. Nope, you never suffer on low-carb!
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Hehe, lucky I didn’t mention the lamb chops or Gloucester Old Spot sausages then!
Something I’m surprised dieticians haven’t made more of (yet) – most people who eat like us are already dead! My mother (95), her mother (90), a diabetic I used to know (89), various neighbours (80 – 108 1/2), let alone the Grok family who used to live in a cave not far away millennia ago. Perhaps they’d all still be alive today if only they’d “based every meal on starchy carbohydrates and heart healthy vegetable oils”. Oh, wait . . .
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the mussels here in the US are amazing this year. Oh, I love seafood.
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Me too! Can’t beat ’em with a little white wine and garlic…
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