🦪 12 seasonal meals, from Tasmania to New York City
Yogurt, homemade rye bread, and local oysters!
Eating seasonally, or mostly seasonally, is rooted in context and location. What’s in season in Puerto Rico in July is very different than New York City, and very, very different than what’s in season during the cold and rainy Australian winter.
I asked three home cooks from various parts of the world to share a diary on what they are eating right now—meals shaped by season, mood, and what’s in the fridge (or what doesn’t require turning on the oven). You know I can’t resist a few diary, so I joined too!
Alicia from From The Desk of Alicia Kennedy:
Alicia is a food and culture writer based in Puerto Rico. Alicia is the author of No Meat Required: The Cultural History and Culinary Future of Plant-Based Eating.
Breakfast:
Every day begins with a bowl of Greek yogurt. Sometimes it’s local yogurt; other times it’s not. This depends on availability. Should I be making my own yogurt? Probably. I put walnuts, sliced banana, honey, and flaky salt on it. The bananas, because this is Puerto Rico, are so abundant that I keep them peeled and in a Tupperware and am never without them. I usually let my dog lick the first spoon and get myself another. Thanks to this, he’s a very regular guy, potty-wise.
Lunch:
I usually make lunch out of scraps, but we always have local greens like arugula, kale, and cabbage, whenever they’re in season, so these usually factor in somehow. Today, I use leftover chipotle black beans from tacos in a nacho situation that I top with a cucumber and celery salad I’d left marinating in the fridge with lime, salt, and olive oil. Nothing beats the taste of really fresh celery—leaves too! The cucumber, celery, and arugula are all from the same farm; that’s where we get our eggs, too.
Dinner:
Portobello mushrooms from the big mushroom company in Puerto Rico are sliced, marinated in Bachan’s barbecue sauce and olive oil, then baked until browned. They go on on baguette from Levain, which we pick up from the farmers’ market, and become a dinner sandwich when topped with some cheese, along with an arugula salad and—to be fun—a bowl of Bonilla a la Vista Potato Chips drizzled with a hot honey we make by putting chopped Calabrian chilies in a jar with honey.
Celine from What’s Cooking with Celine:
Celine delivered this missive from ‘on the road’, as she toured with her choir through the island of Lutruwita/Tasmania—a part of Australia that is renowned for its food scene. Subscribe to Celine’s newsletter here.
Breakfast:
I’ve woken up in a beautiful hotel by the bay in the town of St Helens. I eat “brekky” as we call it in Australia in the hotel restaurant—a “super bowl” of granola, yoghurt, banana, strawberry, and kiwi fruit. We were asked to pick some meals in advance as part of tour planning, and I’m grateful I selected something light and healthy to kick off a big day of travel and music.
Lunch:
After our first performance (singing to and with a group of adorable primary school kids), we make a stop at renowned Tassie winery Devil’s Corner. Their cellar door overlooks the very picturesque Freycinet Peninsula. I ordered a half dozen (giant!) freshly shucked oysters (sourced locally) and a sparkling water, infused with apple and crafted by Tassie brand “Calm & Stormy.”
Lunch consists of shared platters of octopus and smoked mussel antipasto, pumpkin and goat’s cheese arancini, “Middle Eastern-inspired” salmon, buttermilk chicken and Asian slaw on brioche milk buns, crisp fried local fish and chips, and a seasonal “winter salad,” containing pumpkin and cauliflower. Everything is delicious.
Dinner:
We drop into the town of Tribunna for another gig, this time with a local choir, and sit down for dinner in the same pub we perform at. I’ve pre-ordered again—dinner is “homemade” lasagna, with a side salad and fresh fruit (strawberries, rock melon, and watermelon) for dessert. I’m still pretty full from lunch, but I love lasagna and dislike food waste, so I eat as much as I can before rolling myself back on the bus, heading for Nipaluna/Hobart, where I will continue to sing my heart out while dining on Tassie’s finest.
Lukas Volger from Family Friend
Lukas Volger is a cookbook author and recipe developer based in New York City, and has recently been publishing a plethora of recipes on vegetarian protein.
Breakfast:
I’m a gay man of a certain age who must go to the gym first thing most mornings for my sanity, so once I get home, the first thing I “eat” is a protein shake. I really like the vegan Form Chocolate Peanut Performance Protein. Typically I add a little creatine, too. Years ago I was told by a nutritionist to do this and I blindly complied, not even knowing what creatine is. But more recently, a Substacker I admire, Annie Fenn, MD (who is also an author and renowned brain health expert), explained that creatine is produced by and beneficial for the brain, and overall a good supplement for all kinds of things beyond just gettin’ swole. So I feel good about it.
My real breakfast: I used to fry over-easy eggs, but very recently, out of nowhere I got grossed out by undercooked or runny egg yolks. So I’ve been cooking them in a new way: Crack eggs into hot olive oil, use a spatula to break the yolks, swirl and tilt the pan a little so that everything is even in the pan, and then let it mostly set up without disturbing them. After the whites are semi-firmed up, gently stir a few times. This makes the yolks kind of gelled and swirled somewhat into the whites, distinct from them. They look pretty and taste great. Today I made these fried/scrambled/swirled eggs with some sautéed shaved red onion and a giant handful of mixed herbs I’ve been growing on the roof, and served them with half an avocado and some chili crisp spooned on top.
Lunch:
Most of my work right now is doing recipe development, primarily for other people’s cookbooks and endeavors, but some of my own, too. Today is a day in the kitchen and “lunch” is grazing as I work. The main thing I’m focused on is a dairy-free cheese sauce. I’ve never been into liquid forms of cheese, so this isn’t a recipe I would make willingly. But I’m so glad that the opportunity came my way because it is damn delicious and I’m obsessed. The morning and early afternoon are spent finalizing and working on applications of said cheese sauce—mac ‘n’ cheese (in which I’m trying out new-to-me Veggie Craft pasta, which I really love and think is so much better than the chickpea pastas I’ve tried; people complain about beans and digestion, but hello, Banza farts are misery), nachos, queso dip—and while in practice I should protect my appetite as I work so that I can continue to taste and tweak without being full, the stuff is so good that I have little control. What a thrill to eat tons of “cheese” without being made sick by all the dairy! I also have a first stab on a new tempeh recipe that involves coconut water, which will eventually be for my newsletter… and it definitely needs work.
Tandem cooking and snacks:
In the background, I’m baking off a loaf of bread and cooking a tomato jam recipe from a new cookbook I’ll be featuring in my newsletter soon. Regarding the bread: Last year I wanted to make classic 100% rye bread, one of the dense, sour, and chewy kinds that you slice really thinly. (I love rye, and it always makes me think of a line in Roxane Jullapat’s terrific book Mother Grains where she calls rye “the cool aunt with fabulous hair” because it’s such a healthy and eco-friendly, soil-revitalizing grain.) So I reached out to
I’m also baking off a batch of my Cherry-Ginger Sourdough Granola and Seedy Date Crackers as part of a thank you package for a new friend who poured my husband Vincent and me a bunch of wine and let us swim in his pool while we were on vacation last week. I take a few bites here and there for quality control. I also snack on an apple, a few dates, and a kiwi as I cook (we’re big on keeping lots of fruit around). In the afternoon I make a run to Trader Joe’s for a few staples and impulsively toss a package of dark chocolate almond butter cups into my basket. I eat them feverishly, immediately upon exiting the store. They always taste so much more plasticy than I remember and it does not satisfy as a treat like I was hoping it would.
Dinner:
I saved a little of that cheese sauce because I wanted Vincent to try it when he got home from work, so while we sip on our Athletic Golden Ales, we start our dinner with more mac ‘n “cheese.” I also make turkey burgers. I’m not a strict vegetarian anymore, something happened as I got older and it just stopped working for me to not eat meat at all, and Vincent is absolutely not a vegetarian. But I try to keep the meat in check and somewhat infrequent, and I always overwhelm the plate with vegetables. I make a giant bowl of Our House Slaw, too, which is a recipe I turn to constantly and that makes me absolutely reverential for raw cabbage. I wish more people would make that recipe, because I think it’s excellent. The leftover salad and burgers get packed up for Vincent’s lunch tomorrow.
Kara Haupt from Home Food
Kara Haupt is the author and editor of this newsletter! She also writes Saltine, a newsletter about fashion, design, and interiors.
Breakfast:
I am trying to eat more whole grains, and Erin Alderson’s latest book, The Yearlong Pantry, has been a guiding light. I decide to make the amaranth porridge again, but this time I skip the stove compote.
I’ve learned that I like amaranth; its texture is more satisfying than oatmeal, and according to the bag’s nutrition facts, it’s a good source of protein and iron—two things I need as an anemic vegetarian. I stored the remaining porridge in the fridge—I’ve discovered it microwaves well, so I’ll have it for breakfast again later this week.
On the porridge, I add organic blackberries (from New Jersey/Farm to People) and a little bit of granola for crunch. The granola is one I made a few days ago—a buckwheat, seed, oat granola from Anna Jones’ The Modern Cook’s Year.
I made the porridge with milk from our CSA. The milk is usually for yogurt, but I’m a little behind on yogurt batches and have had a rotating extra half-gallon floating around in the fridge for a month now. Speaking of yogurt, I start a batch in the Instant Pot (see my recipe here). The fermentation should be completed by this evening, and then I’ll chill it in the fridge overnight and strain it the following day to make a thicker, Greek-style yogurt.
Lunch:
I have cooked white rice (shoutout Grain Sunday™️) in the fridge and Rancho Gordo Rio Zape beans I made a few days ago. I warmed them up in the microwave, and since I didn’t have eggs for breakfast, I fry an egg. I received Burlap and Barrel’s Herbs and Garlic in my latest Spice Club box, and I’ve been enjoying the mix of Mexican herbs on rice and beans. We got fresh cilantro in the CSA, too, and the first blush of Sungold cherry tomatoes has arrived in the garden. I add both to the rice bowl.
Dinner:
I hadn’t left the house yet today, so I went for a walk and then swung by the library to pick up my hold, The Bean Book. Even Steve Sando gets the library cookbook treatment.
Before I left, I asked my husband if he’d make a salad or two in the fridge with some of our fresh CSA vegetables. When I got home, he was making a fennel, apple, and green salad, and had also made a vinegary potato salad. I fold laundry while he finishes up, and then make myself a grilled cheese.
We eat dinner in the backyard, but don’t linger too long because the mosquitoes are out to get us. After dinner, I eat a couple of bites of the Norwegian Baked’s chocolate cranberry toffee knekkebrød that I picked up from Farm to People as a treat. This stuff is unbelievably good.
need to try alicia kennedy’s cucumber and celery salad!!!!! celery is so unfairly maligned, it’s one of my favorite vegetables
A great read! I can't wait for my rye Vollkornbrot recipe to be out in the world.