Autumn season, in most parts of India, announces the coming of many festivals and a time when the weather is simply perfect. It is also the time when many Indian regional dishes are cooked up as particular produce comes into season. The days are warm and the nights increasingly colder, letting us know that winter and the next year are both coming. For foodies and home cooks, autumn is a great time because it offers up a wide variety of seasonal ingredients as well as festive occasions to get the creative chef hats and aprons on and cook up a storm in the kitchen.
At the same time, autumn is also a time of season change when many fall sick due to seasonal infections, flus and even festive fatigue. So, the purpose of a home cook and wonderful kitchen is not only to produce delicious feasts for festivals like Dussehra, Halloween and Diwali, but also to build up the family’s immunity to maintain better health. Maintaining this balance can be quite the challenge for many, but if you go about it the right way, autumn can easily become the season when you can and will enjoy cooking and indulging just as much as staying healthy with panache.
Wondering how to walk this tightrope and manage to have a great cooking and feasting experience this autumn? Here are the ultimate kitchen tips you need to create the best home-cooked food during autumn season.
Video Credit: YouTube/Sanjeev Kapoor Khazana
Use Seasonal Produce
Autumn is the season when a whole variety of vegetables and fruits come into season. As the time between monsoon and winter, you are likely to get the best of both seasons plus a lot more in terms of seasonal produce. From squash, pumpkin and gourds to sweet potatoes, carrots and peas, a lot of vegetables should be a part of your kitchen, just like apples, pears and stone fruits.
Focus On Simplicity
Autumn is also the season in India when a lot of festivals take place. From Navratri, Durga Puja and Dussehra to Diwali and Chhath, these festivities offer a variety of rich foods and occasions to indulge in family engagements around feasts. So, for the rest of the duration, keep your homecooked food simple and nutritious. This will not only help balance your diet better but also ensure that your health isn’t compromised at a time when you should be enjoying yourself.
Embrace Soups And Stews
Autumn is the season when the evenings and nights get colder, which makes this the perfect time to indulge in soups and stews. Whether you make them with vegetables, lentils, mushrooms or a variety of meat and seafood, all types of soups and stews can provide you with a lot of warmth and comfort along with plenty of nutrition at a time of season change.
Get Roasting
Roasting is synonymous to autumn and winter seasons because this hassle-free method of cooking can make the most of the wide variety of vegetables in season. From pumpkins to turkeys, baby carrots to chicken, these roast dishes are packed with flavours of caramelization that make the savoury delights umami in taste and the sweet dishes like pumpkin pies simply indulgent.
Spice It Up
Since the weather is getting colder during autumn season, eating foods that are spiced with flavoursome and beneficial spices like nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves and allspice should be a part of your diet. Whether you add these whole or powdered spices to your curries and stews or to desserts and baked goodies, add them you must to get the best flavours of the season.
Make Preserves, Jams & More
While summer is the season to make pickles, autumn and winter are the perfect times to preserve seasonal fruits and vegetables by turning them into scrumptious jams, jellies, marmalades, preserves and more. In fact, you can also spice these goodies up with warm spices like cinnamon and star anise. So, get some apples, stone fruits and pumpkins and get jamming!
Highlight Your Health
Autumn season also suggests that the current year is almost over and it is now time to revisit all the health goals you set for yourself at the beginning of the year. For many homecooks, autumn means taking a step back and taking a closer look at how food has impacted your health and how to improve it before the year is out. So, to do this, make sure you get plenty of healthy food as per your doctor’s recommendations and also take a look at Ayurvedic health tips for this season in particular.