When it comes to August vegetable picks, the letter of the month is “c”: cauliflower, celeriac and celery are the cream of the crop.
At $3.50 a head, cauliflower is one of the best picks. Use it whole, leaves and all, in a merguez-spiced roasted cauliflower with tahini sauce, or in Meera Sodha’s baked orzo with cauliflower and dijon mustard.
Celeriac (about $4.50) and celery (about $3 a bunch) are also in. The ugly-delicious celeriac works wonderfully in many dishes usually made with potato, such as Ottolenghi’s celeriac rosti or a “hasselback celeriac”. Meanwhile, if your fridge has been overtaken with that super-sized bunch of celery, try Sodha’s vegan take on khoresh karafs, a Persian celery and saffron stew.
Potatoes still stand in good stead, with new season dutch creams and sebagos coming from South Australia and Tasmania.
Cassie Greaves, from Greavesy’s Fruit N Veg in Terang, south-western Victoria, says to keep buying brussels sprouts, which are about $8 or $9 a kilo. Avoid green beans, though, and be wary of broccoli – they’re up in price and down in supply after wet and cold weather.
“The rain is great, but farmers need the rain at the right time,” Greaves says. “It can have a negative impact, especially on spinach if there’s too much moisture.”
Greaves’ store only buys spinach twice a week, as moisture can make the vegetables soggy and shorten the shelf life.
But the spears are almost here. Asparagus will become plentiful towards the end of August when “spring weather” begins, Greaves says.
Tony Polistina, from Forestway Fresh in Sydney’s Terrey Hills, says pumpkin, while not as cheap compared to previous months, is still good quality and value. Kent and butternut varieties are about $3 to $4 a kilo.
Beetroot and rhubarb are available, and even zucchinis and tomatoes are in decent supply at about $6 a kilo. Capsicums – red, yellow and green – have come down in price, and are now on special in supermarkets for about $4 a kilo. These tofu stuffed ones make a lovely light supper.
Pulp fiction becomes passionfruit reality
There’s a new passionfruit variety on the scene, and “they’re full of pulp, really big and with juicy flavour”, Polistina says.
The “passionfruit burst” variety is almost double the size of more common passionfruit, and are about $1 to $1.50 apiece. Regular passionfruit are also readily available. But oranges, mandarins and tangelos remain the winter headliners.
Imperial mandarins have had a bad season with a lot of dry fruit, and are on their way out. Instead, Polistina says, seedless sumo mandarins – “the big, ugly looking ones” – are beautiful, as are juicy afourers. You can find most mandarin varieties for $3 to $4 a kilo.
Greaves says blood oranges are now on shelves and will stick around for the next six to eight weeks. Combine them with rhubarb in this impressive meringue pie.
Berry prices backing down
“Traditionally there are berries this time of year, but they’ve had a really expensive season the last few months,” Polistina says.
“They’re on their way down now, so you’re going to get really good blueberries and strawberries.”
Blueberries are about $6 a punnet, so when prices come down, you can use them in this lovely halva loaf, or spiced blueberry yoghurt cake.
In the meantime custard apples are also in, alongside a steady supply of regular apples. Polistina says although pink ladies (under $4 a kilo) are a favourite, bravos should not be overlooked.
Nashi and corella pears are also in, at about $1.50 apiece.
Buy:
Apples
Avocado
Beetroot
Blood oranges
Brussel sprouts
Cabbage
Capsicum
Cauliflower
Custard apples
Mandarins
Oranges
Passion fruit
Pears
Potatoes
Pumpkin
Rhubarb
Spinach
Watch:
Asparagus
Blueberries
Broccoli and baby broccoli
Pineapples (at the end of August)
Strawberries
Avoid:
Green beans
