🍂 Autumn cooking: 8 seasonal ingredients and how to make the most of them

Autumn arrives and the market changes colour: oranges, deep reds and browns everywhere. Cooking with the seasons isn't about showing off: the produce is at its best, tastes the way it should and, on top of that, it's cheaper. Here are eight ingredients that deserve a place in your menu these weeks, with easy ideas for each one.

🎃 From the garden

Pumpkin

The queen of autumn. Roasted, it's so good it hardly needs anything else: diced, with oil, salt and a pinch of paprika or cumin, at 200 °C for about 25–30 minutes. Whatever's left is the base for a soup, a risotto or a livelier lentil stew.

Tip: choose a pumpkin that feels heavy for its size and has a dry stem. Whole, it keeps for weeks in a cool, dry place.

Sweet potato

Sweet, cheap and dead easy: whole, washed and pricked with a fork, in the oven at 200 °C for 45 to 60 minutes (depending on size), until soft. In Catalonia it's a must at the «castanyada» on All Saints' Day, alongside roast chestnuts and «panellets».

Mushrooms

Saffron milk caps, button mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, shiitake… A quick sauté with garlic and parsley, over high heat and without crowding the pan, so they brown instead of stewing in their own juices.

• Cleaning: with a damp cloth or a brush; never soak them, they absorb water like a sponge.
• Safety: always buy mushrooms from a controlled source. If you pick them yourself, have an expert check them before cooking.

Cauliflower and cabbages

If you hated boiled cauliflower as a kid, give it a second chance: in florets, roasted with oil and spices until the edges char, it's unrecognisable (in a good way).

🌰 From the tree

Chestnuts

Before roasting, score the skin (a cross or a long slit): otherwise they burst. Roast at about 220 °C for 20–25 minutes and, when they come out, wrap them in a tea towel for a while so they peel more easily.

Pomegranate

The trick to getting the seeds out without dyeing half the kitchen: cut it in half and, cut side down over a bowl, tap the skin with a wooden spoon. The seeds fall out on their own. They're fantastic in salads, with yoghurt or on top of rice.

Persimmon

Watch the variety: the classic persimmon must be eaten very soft (otherwise it leaves your mouth dry and rough), while the «persimon» type is eaten firm, like an apple. Ripe, it's a dessert on its own; it's also great in smoothies.

Quince

Raw, nobody can eat it, but cooked it's gold: homemade quince paste with a good cheese is one of those simple pleasures. And roasted with a little sugar and cinnamon, it makes the whole house smell wonderful.

🧺 How to store them so they last

• Cut pumpkin: seeds removed, wrapped in cling film and in the fridge, it keeps for a few days. Roasted or puréed, it freezes very well.
• Sweet potatoes: in a cool, dry, dark place, out of the fridge (the cold spoils their texture).
• Mushrooms: in the fridge, in a paper bag or wrapped in kitchen paper; no sealed plastic bags. Best used within a couple of days.
• Raw chestnuts: in the fridge, in a paper bag, for a good week.
• Pomegranates: whole, they keep for weeks in the fridge; loose seeds, a few days in a container.

Cooking with the seasons is the easiest way to eat better without complications: the ingredient already does half the work.

Do you have a family autumn recipe? Upload it to the site: someone out there is surely wondering what to do with the pumpkin their neighbour gave them.