We’ve only really got one month left to enjoy British grown peppers and chillies, so best make the most of them. As well as trying our new and special feature recipe, don’t miss other VegBox favourites like Andrew Williams’ Spicy Vegetable Lasagne with Peppers, or our Baked Autumn Omelette which you can cram with as many seasonal veggies as you like!

Honest to Goodness’ Cinnamon Roasted Seasonal Vegetables

cinnamon roasted veg

We love how simple this is, and we love the cinnamon variation on roasting whatever’s in season. Thanks to our friends at “Honest to Goodness” for the recipe!

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Read more about this ingredient.

Oh-So-Simple Jerusalem Artichokes and Sauteed Onions

sauteed with onions

This truly oh-so-simple recipe was provided by Polly B from Holymoor. How about serving this dish with rice for a substantial meal, or with hunks of bread at lunch time?

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Chilli Broad Beans and more...

This month sees the last of the broad beans. But before you dig out the hankies, here are some brand new broad bean recipes for making the most of them with. Remember that broad beans get tougher as the season goes along, so you’ll almost definitely want to pod and skin them before you eat them. See our Broad Beans page for a guide on podding and skinning…

Here are our newest recipes for finishing the broad bean season with:

• Warm Beetroot, Broad Bean and Potato Salad
• Chilli Broad Beans
• Broad Beans with Fromage Frais
• Broad Beans Quinoa

Which will you be trying?

PSB, Tenderstem and Calabrese

Broccoli is a member of the brassica family, like cabbage.

The plant produces green flower heads on thick stalks. They are picked and eaten before the flowers bloom.

There can be confusion between these different types of Broccoli so let us try to help.

Click through for the low down on each type, including their different seasons, and ideas on what to make with each of them…

nature's WD40?!

Pretty much every weekday morning right now we’re mindlessly chunking up cucumber and throwing it into the box with salad leaves, peppers, spring onions, cashews, and mushrooms for lunch. Add a bit of black pepper, a splash of balsamic or even a tin of tuna and some mayo and I can be pretty sure we’ve saved ourselves from the pot noodle for another day!

But is there more to cucumber than salad? Is there more to cucumber even than tsatsiki? Cucumber side effects? Oiling your hinges? And is it possible that it can be cooked?! Read on …

squashes in the spotlight

We are close to declaring squashes our favourite of all the ingredients we write about. Maybe it’s the sheer variety of them in all their amazing ornamental shapes, sizes and colours. Maybe it’s their versatility for cooking savoury and sweet dishes with.

We also love that they all grow on plants from the Curcurbitacea family, and so are related to courgettes, cucumbers, melons and LOOFAHS (we don’t recommend eating these)!!!

Originally native to Central and North America, many varieties have since been bred to weather colder climes.

Their seasons vary according to type.

Here’s a quick guide to the differences between Summer and Winter squashes, with recipe compilations for each.

NOT from Mars...

Kohl rabi (or kohlrabi – from the German for “cabbage turnip”!) is one of those vegetables that makes a regular appearance in veg boxes, but sits, unused, in the corner of the fridge until it slowly goes off.

Sometimes it arrives complete with its alien tentacles, sometimes it’s trimmed. If you’ve never sen one with its tentacles in tact, check out the picture, which was sent to us by Evette who lives in North Florida and has been growing her own since 2008.

Sometimes it’s green, sometimes it’s purple.

Yet this versatile vegetable is easy to cook and a useful addition to many dishes. It’s also a good source of Vitamin C, as well as magnesium and phosphorous, which are useful in the absorption of calcium. And its mild flavour and ability to absorb the flavour of other ingredients in a meal make it an ideal vegetable for bulking up recipes and sneaking in extra veggies.

Bear in mind that kohl rabi is really at its best when “al dente” so don’t over-cook it.

Read on for top tips on buying, storing and cooking, and for a selection of kohl rabi recipes, including two excellent new contributions to the database from The Nearly Naked Veg Company:

• Crunchy Thai Kohl Rabi Salad, and
• Kohl Rabi Curry.

which is which?!

Calabrese is the large headed variety that most of us call Broccoli. Actual Broccoli has individual stalks for each flower clump. It is often purple, and gets called PSB – short for Purple Sprouting Broccoli (confused yet?!).

In the picture, PSB is on the left, Calabrese is on the right.

As PSB is about to go out of season, we’ve just flagged some delicious recipes to help you make the most of it before it it’s gone:

• Sprouting Broccoli with Toasted Seasame Seeds
• Spicy Purple Sprouting Broccoli Pasta
• Cracked Bulgar Wheat With Broccoli & Cream Cheese Sauce, and
• Sicilian Vegetable Soup with PSB

asparagus casserole with mushrooms, nuts, rice and chickpeas...

Asparagus is considered a delicacy and its arrival heralds the start of spring – definitely something to be looked forward to.

When lightly steamed, its flavour is simply delicious. The motto with using asparagus is “less is more” – don’t worry about fancy recipes, enjoy it as it is.

If you are looking for a recipe, however, how about Asparagus Casserole with Mushrooms, Nuts, Rice and Chickpeas? Or maybe Cheesy Asparagus Flan? Mmmmmm!

Read on …

a little cheeky chicory...

What we are here referring to as chicory is also known as Belgian endive (pronounced “on-deev, dontchaknow!) or witloof.

Read on to discover the amazing truth about how chicory is grown, and for recipes for Caramelised Chicory and Mashed Beans and Potatoes
with Chicory and Cheese… YUM!