White Pages® News

Cold weather cooking

August 14, 2012

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When all you want is carb-heavy, hearty food, healthy winter cooking can be difficult. Add to that the difficulty of sourcing local, seasonal and fresh produce over the cold months, and it can be a challenge to get motivated in the kitchen.

These top five winter cooking tips should help keep your meals delicious and on a healthy and nutritious path – important during winter’s cold and flu season.

1.   Ramp up your root vegetables

If there is a star ingredient in winter, it has to be root vegetables – potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, beets and more. These versatile winter vegies are easy to prepare and full of vitamins.

You could try them in a traditional roast, or get a bit more creative. Check out these delicious root vegetable recipes for some ideas.

2.     Plan ahead

Winter is the perfect season for slow cooking, so plan ahead! One of the best advantages of slow cooking is the ability to put dinner on before you leave the house for the day, and then come home to the delicious smell of a wholesome ready to eat meal. Try Taste’s guide to slow cooking, with menu plans, how-to’s and recipe collections.

If you don’t have a slow cooker, enter the details of your local electrical retailer into White Pages® Business Search to get its contact details and enquire about prices.

3.     Think meat

With your favourite summer produce missing from farmers markets, winter can seem somewhat bleak. As well as embracing root vegetables, it is a great time to explore different meats and seafoods. Coastal areas are often teeming with fresh shellfish; and lamb, beef and chicken never go out of fashion.

Why not consider trying a new meat this winter? Rabbit, kangaroo and quail are all great winter meats and don’t require Heston Blumenthal style skills in the kitchen to master. Find a great collection of game recipes over at All Recipes.

4.     Embrace condiments

Anyone who watched My Kitchen Rules will remember chef Manu Feildel’s common catchcry “Where’s the sauce?” In winter, it should be on your plate to give your meals an extra dimension and to jazz up winter staples. Get experimental this winter with homemade condiments such as horseradish, spicy cranberry sauce and truffle infused olive oil. Give old recipes new flavour using a dollop of imagination and a dash of creativity.

5.     Add a helping of herbs

Jamie Oliver isn’t wrong when he says herbs can elevate a dish from dull to delicious. This winter boost the flavour of your meals with robust winter herbs including oregano, rosemary and thyme.

Keep a little kitchen garden on a sunny windowsill in your home and harvest them at mealtimes. Check out these tips for planting and tending to winter herbs from Gardening Australia – all you need is a few pots, some soil and a slightly green thumb.

Alternatively, consult your local nursery on herbs in season over winter. Simply enter its details into White Pages® Business Search to get its contact information and enquire about what you should be planting.

This year, don’t let winter freeze your creativity in the kitchen. Embrace the cold and cook seasonally – you might just find yourself wishing winter would hang around a bit longer.