Seasonal Recipe Round Up: January – February
*This post was updated for January/February 2023.
We can’t think of a better way to kick-start the new year than stocking up on the freshest fruits and veggies the season has to offer! Not only is seasonal veg more readily available, it’s also packed with nutritious goodness.
Shopping seasonally takes care of the environment too, as it limits the amount of time fruit and veg has to travel by supporting local farmers. From warming pies to fruity crumbles, we love writing our meal plan based on the tastiest fruits and veggies the new season has to offer. With our roundup of slimming-friendly dishes, you’ll never be short of fresh, seasonal inspiration.
Our Family Meal Planner is the ultimate organisation companion. As well as 26 brand-new, planner-exclusive recipes and three months’ worth of meal-planning pages, you’ll also find our freezer-tracker inside.
Keeping track of your freezer is a win-win; you’ll stay on top of your budget by cutting out buying food you don’t need and reducing food waste.
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Potatoes and carrots
Potatoes and carrots are staple ingredients in any household kitchen. They’re root vegetables, so they’re readily available as fresh local produce all-year-round, and they’re also some of the most popular choices to grow at home.
There’s nothing more filling and satisfying than a bowl of Creamy Mashed Potatoes, and our version manages to keep the traditionally-indulgent recipe nice and light. Instead of using additional calorie-laden dairy products, we’ve got our creamy potato texture from using a stick blender (trust us, it really works)!
They provide the perfect gravy-soaking accompaniment to a stew or roast dinner.
Our Cowboy Pie makes the most of both potatoes and carrots, with its oh-so-fluffy mashed potato topping and tangy, BBQ-infused filling. By using low-fat sausages and other slimming-friendly swaps, you can serve up this indulgent dish for just 460 calories per serving!
Bake this family favourite in the oven until the juicy filling is piping hot and the topping is golden and crisp – delish!
Fresh root veggies aren’t just for dinner – fancy trying them for breakfast? Our Carrot Cake Baked Oats recipe gives you a nutritious boost of fresh carrots first thing in the morning, leaving you full and ready to attack the day.
Carrots are sweet flavoured and full of vitamin A, and you’ll get plenty of goodness from the freshly-grated carrot in this warming breakfast bake.
The more fresh veg you have in, the more options you have to make easy, nutritious lunches. Our Carrot, Orange and Thyme soup is simple to make and bursting with sweet flavours that’ll give your day a boost.
Even better, you can prepare this recipe by the batch-load and store any leftovers in the fridge or freezer for a grab-and-go lunch. Ideal!
Parsnips and turnips
Any parsnips and turnips that have been planted in the autumn of last year will be full of flavour in late January. As root vegetables, they’re durable even in harsh weather conditions, and they can actually taste even better if they’re picked after exposure to mild frost (yes, really)!
Even if the Christmas period is over, the season of sweetened, oven-roasted veggies doesn’t have to be. Recipes like our Honey Glazed Roast Parsnips are just as good plated up as part of a Sunday roast, Yorkshire Puddings and all!
Delicious year-round, our Cheesy Parsnip Gratin works especially well with vitamin-filled, roasted root veggies like parsnips and turnips. So silky and cheesy, it’ll take any roast dinner up a notch for only 149 calories per portion.
Spring greens and spring onions
Spring greens are young, tender plant veggies that differ from full-grown plants like cabbages, as they don’t have as much of a crunchy heart in the centre. They’re much softer and sweeter than the stodgy, hard veggies we tend to live off over the festive period, and they’re packed with healthy vitamins.
Fancy a New Year’s dose of fresh, fibrous goodness? The nutritious spring greens in our Chicken and Spring Vegetable Risotto recipe soften really nicely, so it’s packed with veggies without sacrificing any creamy indulgence. In fact, this dish is so rich, you won’t believe it’s dairy free too!
Feeling a little under the weather? It’s good to have spring onions at the ready for when the cold makes us want to get cosy with a bowlful of something hot. They’re nice and easy to prepare, so you can add a quick burst of savoury flavour to any dish.
They work really well in aromatic dishes like our Chicken Shiitake Mushroom and Chilli Broth. A hearty bowl of broth is just what the doctor ordered, especially when it’s packed with nutritious veggies and only 301 calories per serving!
An Instant Pot makes this dish so easy to prepare. All you have to do is pop the ingredients into the pot and wait for the flavours to mingle.
When it’s ready, serve the fiery broth over fluffy rice or noodles.
Spring onions are often a staple ingredient on fakeaway night. For delightful dishes like our Beef and Spring Onion Chow Mein, they’re not ready to be served until you’ve finished each bowlful with a crunchy topping of chopped spring onions.
You’ll find the full recipe on pages 188-189 of our Family Meal Planner; it’s chock-full of family-friendly winners everyone around the table will be excited to eat.
Leeks and kale
To start off the new year better than ever, you need plenty of vitamins and minerals. Superfood veggies like leeks and kale are a rich, leafy source of nutrients and fibre that’ll leave you full and satisfied.
They’re also a sustainable option throughout January and February, as they’re both in season in the UK. Why not try chopped leeks in our homely and filling Homity Pie recipe? It’s massively budget-friendly, and you can make use of your seasonal potatoes and onions too.
For a lighter dinner option, you could even serve a smaller portion of pie with a yummy Very Green Zingy Kale Salad side dish.
Our popular Chicken Bacon and Leek Cottage Pie recipe proves that pies don’t need pastry to be warming and delicious. The creamy filling combines tender chicken pieces with seasonal leeks and root veg, so it’s the perfect time of year to pop it in the oven. A glug of gravy would finish it off nicely!
Mushrooms
Whether you prefer them stuffed, coated in breadcrumbs or buried under bolognese, mushrooms carry plenty of vitamins and minerals while being lower in calories! This makes them the perfect ingredient to give slimming friendly cold-weather staples, like our Chicken, Mushroom and Leek Lasagne, a nutritious boost.
At 542 calories per serving, this hearty dish falls into our Special Occasion category, so it’s ideal when you fancy something extra satisfying.
If you like the sound of creamy mushrooms smothered in garlic, you’ll be obsessed with our Creamy Garlic Chicken recipe. It’s no surprise that it’s one of our most popular creamy dishes ever!
Combining garlicky mushrooms with low-fat cream cheese, this indulgent-tasting dinner is full of flavour and ready to go in half an hour. Don’t forget to round off those flavours with a sprinkling of paprika!
It wouldn’t be right to talk about mushrooms without mentioning Marmite Mushrooms on Toast. Rich, creamy and on the table in less than 15 minutes, we’ve used a short list of ingredients to serve up the ultimate savoury breakfast.
One of the stars of the show from our fourth cookbook, Pinch of Nom: Comfort Food (and for good reason!), we promise that you won’t regret giving it a try with your morning cuppa.
Apples and pears
From pies and salads to crumbles and chutneys, apples and pears can be used to cook a variety of delicious dishes. Super juicy and irresistibly sweet, it’s no wonder they’re a harvest favourite from autumn right through to the new year.
If your morning routine isn’t complete without porridge, chances are our Apple Pie Porridge is just right for you. Topped with moreish honey-glazed apple slices and infused with cinnamon and nutmeg, every spoonful is worth jumping out of bed for.
Thanks to their comforting, fruity sweetness, apples and pears are the ideal ingredient to make a cosy weeknight pudding. Our Pear and Ginger Crumble recipe turns fresh pears into an irresistible, oven-baked treat the whole family will love.
We’ve used brown granulated sweetener instead of sugar so that the crumble topping has all the signature sweetness, without the calories. Don’t forget custard!
Get started with seasonal cooking
Hopefully you’re now feeling a lot more inspired to make the most of this season’s fresh fruit and veg! How will you be making the most out of January and February’s fresh produce? Tell us over on our Facebook Group, where you’ll find almost 1 million members waiting to support you on your slimming journey.
If you’re still on the lookout for seasonal inspiration, you can always have a look through our PON Gallery. Thanks to our amazing Pinch of Nom community, it’s constantly being updated with photos, hints, tips and quotes you won’t want to miss.