A guide to seasonal foods and produce in January.
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This post is all about winter seasonal produce and what to eat during the months of January, February, and March.
Just because it’s cold outside, it doesn’t mean that we can’t eat well when it comes to making things using seasonal foods. Winter and early spring are the best time to add colorful citrus fruits and greens to the plate.
Using seasonal produce is a great way to bring fresh food to the kitchen and dining table. Whether you look for seasonal produce at the supermarket or farmer’s market, or grow a few vegetables in an unheated greenhouse over winter, there are plenty of great foods to choose from when it comes to cooking with January seasonal produce.
Once January arrives, plenty of great citrus fruits and other types of produce are in season. Winter season citrus fruits include clementines, grapefruit, lemons, limes, mandarins, and oranges. Winter and early spring are also great times to look for sometimes rare citrus fruits, like Australian finger limes,
When it comes to other fruits and vegetables, look for avocados, beets, celery, collards, kale, leeks, parsnips, potatoes, rutabaga, and turnips.
Here are the best January seasonal produce foods to look for during the winter season.
Winter Seasonal Produce
Here is a list of winter seasonal produce to look for at your supermarket or farmer’s market or in your CSA box.
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Citrus Fruit
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Australian Finger Limes
Use the juice of this fruit to brighten up drinks and salad dressings.
Blood Oranges
Beautiful blood oranges are a seasonal treat that are perfect for making fresh juice, fruit tarts, and fruit salads to show off the reddish-orange color of the fruit.
Buddha’s Hand
Unique-looking Buddha’s Hand citrus fruit are delicious when candied and add great flavor to fresh beverages.
Clementines
Clementines are a favorite citrus fruit to use during the holidays for decorating and gift-giving. Their small size and sweet flavor also makes clementines a great citrus fruit to use for snacking.
Eureka Lemons
Eureka is a variegated lemon cultivar with colorful green and yellow skin. Use the aromatic fruit as you would any other lemon.
Grapefruit
Broiled grapefruit makes a delicious breakfast side dish. Grapefruit juice makes perfectly refreshing drink—if a little on the tart side.
Kumquats
Sweet and tart kumquats can be eaten with the peel on, making them perfect for snacking on when you have a taste for something citrusy and refreshing. Slice kumquat and remove the seeds before eating the fruit. You can also remove the peel, if you prefer.
Lemons
Lemons are one of the most versatile fruits in the kitchen, used for everything from flavoring foods to making farmer’s cheese. Acidic lemon juice is also used by some as a natural household cleaner.
Lemons are also great to use for making desserts, including lemon meringue pie, lemon pound cake, and lemon squares. Lemon ricotta cookies are also delicious to make in winter or spring.
Limes
Use limes to make delicious marinades for grilled chicken and fish. Limes can also be used to add fresh, citrusy flavors to guacamole and salsa. Fresh limeades make a refreshing drink.
Makrut limes are used to flavor Thai recipes and in other Southeast Asian cuisine. Fresh key limes, only available for a short season each year, are famously used for making creamy key lime pie.
Mandarins
Mandarins—especially seedless mandarins—are well known as a snack and lunch food. You can also use the grated peel and juice to flavor baked goods, like orange cakes and cranberry orange muffins or scones.
Meyer Lemons
Slightly sweeter than a regular lemon, Meyer lemons are great for using in lemon recipes when you want to add sweet, floral flavor. Use Meyer lemons to make marinades and salad dressings, cakes, cookies, lemon bars, pound cakes, and tarts.
Navel Oranges
Navel oranges are perhaps one of the most widely available types of citrus fruits that are commonly found in supermarkets. Use navel oranges for fresh eating, for juicing, to make marinades and salad dressings, or for baking delicious orange-flavored cakes, cookies, muffins, and scones.
Pomelos
Pomelos are large, greenish-yellow citrus fruit with thick rinds and delicious flavor. Pomelos resemble grapefruit, but the fruit is much larger and sweeter.
Once the fruit is peeled and seeded, use pomelo fruit fresh or use it in citrus recipes, similar to how you would use other citrus fruit like grapefruit, lemons, and oranges.
Satsumas
Small, sweet satsumas are the perfect size fruit to add to lunch boxes or to eat as a snack.
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Other Types of Fruit
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Avocados
Richly flavored avocados can be used for everything from making avocado toast to guacamole. Add sliced avocado to salads for a touch of buttery flavor, or use them to make delicious quick breads to use for breakfast, desserts, or snacks
Pomegranate
In many places, January marks the end of pomegranate season. Use crunchy pomegranate arils to add flavor to salads or to make delicious pomegranate juice.
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Vegetables
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Cold weather vegetables offer a variety of deep colors and flavors for the table.
Arugula
Use arugula to top pizza or blend it with other greens to make salad. You can also blend arugula with garlic, olive oil, and walnuts to make pesto.
Beets
Beets come in a variety of colors, including dark red, orange, white, and variegated. Roast beets to bring out their sweetness. They taste great alone or sliced and roasted with other root vegetables. Thinly sliced beets can be pickled and added to salads.
Celeriac
Also known as celery root, celeriac is a root vegetable that can be roasted or stewed. Once the vegetable is peeled to remove the rough outer skin, slice the vegetable for roasting or making a root vegetable gratin, or add the celeriac to a winter stew recipe.
Celery
Celery is a vegetable that prefers cooler temperatures to grow. Use fresh celery to make snacks, like crudités or ants on a log, add sliced celery to salads, or use sliced celery to flavor soups and stews.
Green Onions / Spring Onions
Winter hardy spring onions, like the Evergreen Bunching Onion, are perfect for growing in a greenhouse. Finely sliced green onions add savory, fresh flavor when sprinkled over beans, chili, nachos, party dips, salads, soups, and tacos.L
Leeks
Leeks are a cold hardy vegetable that add delicious, mild, onion-y flavor to dishes, including potato leek soup.
Parsnips
For a sweet and savory winter side dish recipe, try roasted parsnips. Parsnips also make great vegetable crisps or chips, and they are a great ingredient to add to soups and stews.
Potatoes
Potatoes usually grow best in cold, but not freezing, whether. Gardeners in mild climates may harvest potatoes near Christmas. Spring is a great time to look for small, new potatoes that taste great when cleaned and roasted in their skins.
Rutabagas
Both roasted rutabagas and mashed rutabagas make a great winter side dish for roasted chicken or beef. They also taste great as part of a vegetarian winter vegetable spread.
Spinach
Cold hardy spinach varieties may overwinter in the garden and appear as an early green to eat in spring. Fresh spinach leaves are perfect for adding to fresh salads, sautéing, or adding to omelets, casseroles, soups, smoothies and green juice, and other recipes that call for spinach.
Turnips
Use turnips to make fried turnips or a roasted turnip side dish. Or slice turnips and add them to stews and beef roasts for slow cooking.
Winter Squash
Winter squash, harvested at the end of summer or in early fall, bring brightly colored orange and yellow flesh to the winter table. Winter squash varieties that are known for having long term storage capabilities include butternut squash, kabocha squash, and red kuri squash.
Winter squash taste delicious roasted or steamed, seasoned with sweet (brown sugar, ground cinnamon, or honey) or savory (chili powder, garlic, or miso) flavors, and made into soups and stews.
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Recipes
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Here are some recipe ideas for what to make using winter seasonal ingredients, like spinach and other fresh greens.
This post was all about winter seasonal produce.
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Credits
- Photo by Brooke Lark / Unsplash
- Photos are for illustration purposes only.
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