My Favorite Fall Foods.

photo-106

FOREVER OBSESSED. 

At even the SLIGHTEST mention of autumn and fall, everyone goes crazy. People start dusting off their pumpkin spice (overrated), get weirdly excited over layered outfits (ugh why) and the weather getting crispier (UGH WHY). While I am reluctantly saying goodbye to summer. By ‘reluctantly saying goodbye to summer’ I actually go a little bit like this:

crying-man

I mean, come on. Sunlight, high temperatures, simple outfits and salads all the time? Who would want anything else? I’d sell a kidney if it meant it could be summer all year long. To me, autumn means only one thing: WINTER IS COMING. And I HATE winter.

However. My taste buds love autumn. Here’s why.

PUMPKIN. When I tasted Lin’s spicy pumpkin soup three years ago, a love for pumpkin took a hold of me and never let me go. If you’d Manfried would let me, I’d eat this every day during autumn. My current favorite way to prepae pumpkin is to grill it with rosemary and garlic and toss those flavorful bits into a salad with field lettuce, zucchini and feta. Other favorite pumpkin recipes are pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin saag and pumpkin pie with goat cheese, rosemary and walnuts.

KALE. I bought my first kale of the season a week ago and I was STOKED. Yes, weird crunchy strong green-leafs get bitches excited. I love kale in autumn. Green juice (kale, zucchini, spinach, green apple and lemon), kale smoothies (almond milk, raspberries, banana, kale and some maca powder). I am even thinking of trying my hand at some kale chips this season.

ROSEMARY. Rosemary is my autumn herb homegirl. She is EVERYTHING. I’d love to get a rosemary plant in my kitchen so it would reek of rosemary continuously as I’m cooking. The smell of rosemary makes me so happy, and dishes with rosemary to eat make me even happier. Potatoes in olive oil, sea salt and rosemary. Grilled pumpkin or pumpkin pie as mentioned. Kettle’s potato chips with rosemary and garlic. Rosemary-orange salad dressing.

CHAMPAGNE. I need bubbles to mentally prepare myself or winter. I will also need bubbles to get me THROUGH winter, but we’ll get to that in December.

CARAMEL. I actually do like pumpkin spice, but caramel lattes will always be my favorite. Nothing says Grown Up And Responsible Dietary Choices like 500 calories worth of sugar and artificial flavors pumped in my cup of coffee. I get this at coffee places every now and again, but I also have a little bottle of syrup I occasionally pour a shot of into my Nespresso. Now…speaking of caramel…

TONY’S CHOCOLONELY CARAMEL AND SEASALT. When the Caramel And Sea Salt limited edition came out last year, I became slightly obsessed. Near the end of the Limited Editions run, I was scavenging around Rotterdam like an obsessed pirate looking for treasure. Finally, a local grocery store became my Tony’s Chocolonely dealer/supplier/provider. Whenever I showed my fix on Instagram or Twitter, people went nuts — their local stores had run out by that time. Luckily, all of our prayers were answered…The Caramel and Sea Salt limited edition became part of the Tony Chocolonely family. A story for the ages.

The obsession never went away. If I’m not eating it, I’m thinking about eating it. If it’s not in the house, I’m either thinking about buying it or actually buying it. I am praying I don’t get this obsessed over any of the new Limited Editions. But considering I’ve already ordered them, I think I’m in trouble.

“WARM” GREEN JUICE. This one time, a woman in an organic supermarket judged me for buying lemons in winter because they were “cooling fruits.” As much as it pains me to say it, Miss Nose-In-My-Business had a point. It’s not an exact science, but there is some truth in the cooling-warming foods idea: Things like cucumber, lemon and (water)melon cool you down, while ginger, spices, pepper, fennel and beets warm you up. In fall, I transition from cucumber-green apple based juices to juice with more kale, carrots, beets and grapefruits with a little ginger.

CHICK PEAS & LENTILS. Not the biggest fan of legumes, these two I find delicious. I eat more and more of them as it gets colder. Toasted chickpeas with cumin and cayenne, cooked lentils with sauteed red onion and smoked tofu add a little heat and ‘umph’ to salads or other dishes when needed. Sprouted chickpeas are great too. No, they’re not really toxic.

VEGGIE BURGERS. They have two cool burger joints in Rotterdam (Hamburg & Burgertrut) where I want to get burgers this fall. They have great veggie burgers in both of these places as well as organic meat burgers at Hamburg. Also, I myself grill up a mean regular veggie burger too. A good soy-burger with caramelized onion, fresh tomato and lettuce all together in a cute sesame bun? A fast and delicious food I enjoy most as it gets colder.

BROCCOLI SOUP WITH WALNUT. The broccoli-potato soup is a recipe from the Veganomicon cookbook I borrowed from a coworker (and still need to give back, sorry Sanne!) and it’s good. I always make a variation with added chopped walnut (plus a little goat cheese if you’re okay with going non-vegan) for some extra oomph. It’s a fall favorite for me –It’s just so rich and creamy and warming, especially if you make sure to grind lots of black pepper on top of it.

So, yes. I tolerate autumn because I can eat extreme amounts of all aforementioned foods. Do you have an autumn recipe that can chance my ENTIRE stance on autumn? Let me know in the comments. Who knows, you might be responsible for my conversion to those weird autumn-minded people. Kisses!

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

8 comments

  1. Precies dit allemaal! En voor mij komen er ook nog appelcrumble en peertjes met kaneelijs (eet ik echt de hele winter want huge perenboom in de tuin) bij.

  2. Klinkt wat mij betreft als de ideale autumn-food-list, very jummy! Waar ik ook ontzettend van houd zijn heerlijke stoofschotels met kip, abrikozen, cashewnoten, kurkuma, djintan en kaneel… heerlijk al die kruidige geuren in de keuken.

  3. All of the above! Naast Tony zijn er natuurlijk ook chocolade fudge met vanille saus (of is dat kerst?), brownies, blueberry muffins, carrot cake, en al het andere waar veel verzadigd vet in zit en wat stijf staat van de suiker, haha. En voor veel mensen pepernoten, wat ik stiekem wel mis nu.