If you’ve ever wondered how to start eating seasonally there’s no time like the present …

This time last year me and my buddy Lauren Munday were speeding through the Norfolk countryside, heading for beautiful Fishley Hall, a stone’s throw from the North Sea, the broads and the small town of Acle. We were about to welcome guests to a weekend retreat, with Mysore self practice and food inspired by the region.  The trees were still bare, as they are now, and the sun, low in the wintry sky, was a pale, platinum yellow. We were surrounded by farmers fields, most of which looked dormant. But it would have been a mistake to think that the land was sleeping. More like stretching, yawning and gearing up for the spring.

Norfolk is a major growing area. With a microclimate in which hard frosts are rare, and a rich, fertile soil, vegetables can crop here weeks before elsewhere in the country. Norfolk is a great source of seasonal produce in the late winter and early spring. I was just as excited at the thought of writing menus based almost entirely on local produce as I would be in June or July.

On our way to the retreat centre we stocked up on purple sprouting broccoli, chard and kale from the grocer’s. Celeriac, pumpkins, early new potatoes and all sorts of store cupboar goodies from a farm shop, not to mention wild garlic and hop shoots from the hedgerows.

Thinking back to that time, it made me sad to watch the news last week with its ‘doom and gloom’ tales of empty supermarket shelves and the rationing of what seemed like basic foodstuffs to the untrained eye.

A perfect storm of extreme weather, the complexities of Brexit and the cost of fuel is part of the picture…the real story behind the current shortages is a much more complicated account than most mainstream media is prepared to explore.

Suffice to say: during winter in the northern hemisphere, huge food suppliers grow summer crops in warmer countries (mostly around the Mediterranean). The crops are usually raised under glass or plastic. A similar practice, using heated greenhouses, is common in the Netherlands and, to a much lesser extent, the UK. In more normal circumstances this method of farming ensures that tomatoes, salad leaves, cucumbers and soft fruit can be eaten all year round. You may or may not have noticed that while these items are currently in short supply, other unseasonal fruit and veg from even further afield is still around. This group includes asparagus and avocados from South America or beans and peas from East Africa.

You may also have noticed that there is plenty of more locally grown greenery about. You might not know what to do with all of it, and it’s this lack of consumer confidence that keeps people hooked on the greenhouse stuff.

The way food is produced and retailed means that the same items take centre stage on our supermarket shelves, all year round. As a result, we have almost totally lost touch with natural growing seasons.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s far from impossible to find seasonal produce on the high street or even in the big supermarkets…but because it can’t really compete with the more obvious choices (the items that never change from one month to another), seasonal fruit and veg is often sidelined or sold as a sort of trendy gimmick. As fashionable as it might be, it’s often the cheapest stuff around (which might also affect its place in the large retailer’s pecking order).

Worryingly, the UK Government doesn’t seem to have much of a grasp on which seasonal items to promote in lieu of poly-tunnel tomatoes and cucumbers.

Environment secretary Therese Coffey was actually jeered by farmers when she suggested that people might learn to enjoy turnips. A vegetable she described as a British specialism (whatever that means). As I read her speech I wondered if she’d really been unable to think of anything else. I also thought, this is someone who has never seen the comedy series Blackadder. I wasn’t alone. In the blink of an eye, clips began to circulate on social media.

Jokes aside, the “turnip” episode of Blackadder has something to say about modern attitudes to seasonal eating. In the episode in question, Edmund Blackadder is visited by his puritan aunt and uncle who eat nothing but turnips. If you cook seasonally as I do, one question you get asked more than any other is how you cope in winter. This is because the choice is usually presented as one of plenty versus austerity.

Seasonal eating can be viewed as a restrictive diet when it is really the opposite. There is far more variety in your diet over the course of a year if you eat largely seasonal produce. When producers and retailers guide you into buying the same things all the time, this becomes a restrictive diet.

Besides which, cooking and eating seasonally in winter is far from a toss up between delicate salad leaves and knobbly root vegetables. One of the most wrong – footed aspects of The Government stance is trying to drag seasonality into alignment with its jingoistic ideology. Eating Seasonally doesn’t restrict you to what’s in the back yard. There are seasonal treats from all over the world that can be grown in a more natural way than under plastic and which keep well enough to transport without flying. Winter citrus fruit is one example, Italian chicories and radicchios are another.

Talking of which, there are plenty of seasonal salads around right now. Some of them grow all year, outdoors. These include members of the chicory family as well as watercress and rocket (both of which love the cold and tend to suffer in the summer months).

If you prefer your leafy greens cooked or with a bit more bite then you’re spoilt for choice all winter long, as there are chards and perpetual spinaches in abundance. But when it comes to late winter, nothing beats the brassica.

If there is a star of the show when it comes to seasonal veg in March, then it has to be sprouting broccoli. This heritage crop is one of my favourite ingredients of the year. Just to clarify: the uniform, thick – stemmed, single – headed vegetable sold all year round as “broccoli” is actually an Italian variety known in the trade as Calabrese. It was originally cross bred for freezing but it has become one of those “all -year- round – everywhere” crops instead. You’re not be to blame if it doesn’t exactly thrill your tastebuds.

Once upon a time, all broccoli was of the tenderstem or sprouting type, with smaller florets and a dizzying array of colours – from buttermilk white to the purple kind which is at peak season right now. The purple pigmentation (caused by a natural lack of chlorophyll) is found in lots of vegetables which might grow greener when the days are longer. This is why you’ll find a flash of violet on many “greens” right now. When greens blush purple they come up slightly sweet, when in summer they would lean more toward bitterness. They’re also high in polyphenols (a nerdy way of saying that they’re good for you).

Then there is kale. In many shapes and sizes, from trendy cavolo nero, with its inky hue and palm like fronds, to the good old fashioned curly stuff. I could eat a different type of kale every night of the week and not get bored (ok, maybe I’m a bit weird).

The aforementioned turnip is also a brassica. Turnip leaves look a lot like kale or mustard greens but these types of brassica put most of their energy into forming the roots. When you see the word turnip, you might think of the white or purple type, golfball sized and slightly bitter. These are very closely related to radishes (also brassica) and It would be easy to mistake a large radish for a small turnip. Swedes: larger, sweeter and yellow fleshed are also a kind of turnip (which is why the Scottish call them “neeps”). Like most root veg, these all store quite well, which would once have made them vital, way up north, in the deepest winter months…and which is why they might have such a strong association with Presbyterianism (at least for comedy scriptwriters).

I’m not that imaginative when it comes to cooking with neeps. They make a passable mash for Christmas or Burns night, all the better for a generous heap of butter and a good twist of black pepper. This is heresy but adding one potato to the pot will enrich mashed swede and reduce it’s tendency to tasting a bit ‘waterlogged’.

I’ve had much more success with the smaller turnips which, for all Therese Coffey’s proclamations, are more common on mainland Europe than they are here. In fact the best recipes I know for small turnips are from India. They make regular appearances in the cuisines of the subcontinent, either braised with spices or grated raw and seasoned with salt, mustard seeds and curry leaves…in this way the vegetable is seasoned with its own seeds. An understated work of genius.

Last week, when news outlets were reporting that supermarkets were even running out of turnips after the Coffey announcement, I walked into my local, south – Asian run grocers and found a huge pile of them, as you always will. I cooked them with garam masala, yoghurt and tomatoes…and they were delicious. Tomatoes? Yes, tomatoes from a tin.

The store cupboard has become a much overlooked string to our bow in the age of modern growing methods…but perhaps you have more of a larder in your kitchen than you think.

All through their natural season, some varieties of plum tomato are grown expressly for canning, and poor old unsexy, tinned tomatoes might not be something you give much thought to but they are one of the most useful culinary innovations of all time. During the winter I wouldn’t really bother eating any other type of tomato. Ironically the more you cook a tomato, the more nutritious it becomes…so the tinned type, or the jars of passata…even the tube of purée lurking in your fridge will do more for your dinner than a palid salad tomato from a supermarket shelf. Perhaps you prefer the cooked tomato’s sun dried cousins, steeped in oil and just waiting to be chopped through a pile of greens or a bowl of pasta.

I wish the government had seen fit to extoll the many virtues of tinned tomatoes over those grown out of season, but hey – ho. They could also have pointed out that if you’re missing cucumbers in March, you might consider adding chopped, pickled gherkins or cornichons to the same dish. They have a similar texture (they are the same vegetable, after all) and will add piquancy as well as crunch where needed. They won’t turn to a depressing schmush at the bottom of your fridge if you neglect to eat them in a hurry, either.

If all the above has got your taste buds going it would be churlish of me not to finish off with a couple of actual recipes…so first up let’s head back to late winter’s star turn (and sorry, Theresa, but it isn’t Baldric’s Turnip Surprise). Then a reminder of why I’m never without a tin of plum tomatoes, at any time of the year…

A super – quick broccoli stir fry.

You can make this with any kind of broccoli if the sprouting type eludes you…

Don’t forget that some broccoli is sold as tender-stem, which won’t come up purple but has a similar flavour profile. Tender-stem broccoli is a cross breed of traditional sprouting broccoli with gai-lan (a Chinese type). It is easy to grow in the UK and has a decent flavour but it’s not as tasty as the purple sprouting original.

You could serve this over a pile of rice or another grain, bulk it up with a root veg like carrot (or turnip, yay!) or add a protein such as bean curd or tempeh. Or you could just snack on it standing right over the pan, it’s so simple…

If you’re not eating alliums omit the garlic and onion, you can swap in finely sliced celery.

For two ish you need:

A decent bunch of sprouting broccoli (a handful of florets per person, really)

1 clove garlic

A small chunk of ginger

1 red onion or a couple of spring onions

1 lemon or lime

2 tbs soy sauce

1 tsp runny honey or plant based syrup…agave or date works well

Fresh or dried chilli (optional)

Use as much of the broccoli as possible, especially if it is tender stemmed or sprouting. Simply remove the woody base where it has been cut and then break the upper stem, plus any leaves and florets, into bite sized pieces. Plunge into a bowl of cold water to give it all a quick wash then set aside.

Peel and chop the garlic, ginger and onion as finely as possible. Set aside.

Grate the zest of the lemon or lime then squeeze the juice over the zest, stir in the soy sauce and honey or syrup and set aside.

Cooking is lightning quick so have absolutely everything ready before you start.

Heat a little vegetable oil in a large frying pan or wok, then add the garlic, ginger and onion. Stir and fry for literally half a minute before adding a splash of water…literally fifty ml or so…go on…be brave… that’s a splash. Fry for a minute or two and don’t let anything brown…add a tiny bit more water if that looks like happening.

Next add the broccoli and the lemon / soy sauce mix. Stir everything together and, if you have a lid handy, cover the pan so that the broccoli can steam. The smaller the florets, the faster this will happen. As soon as the broccoli is cooked, this dish is ready. Garnish it with fresh or dried chilli for a kick…or mint, dill or coriander for the opposite. Sesame seeds are another great topping. It’s good hot or cold, but spread it onto a plate if you wish to let it cool before eating.

Can’t wait for tomatoes ? Make this insanely easy sauce…

Just to show what a great thing the timed tomato can be, here is one of my go – to supper dishes when I’m short on time (and really hungry). This is for pasta more than anything but it can have alternative uses, which I’ll get round to shortly.

You need :

For 200g pasta …enough for two hungry people or three as a snack…you need:

A 400g tin of peeled plum tomatoes

2 tbs olive oil

A pinch of salt, start mean, you can always add more later

½ teaspoon sugar

The following are optional:

2 garlic cloves

A sprig or two of basil, sage or oregano leaves, roughly chopped

freshly ground black pepper

A knob (50g or so) butter

If you’re doing this fast…pop a large pan of water on the hob for your pasta…and make the sauce while you wait for the water to come to a rolling boil.

Plonk a colander or sieve over a bowl and tip the entire contents of the tin of tomatoes into it. If the tomatoes are whole, squish them a bit the with your hands until most of the the juice is in the bowl below and you have a pulp.

Gently heat a medium sized pan on the hob. Add the oil. Turn the heat right down and add the garlic, if using. You can add it chopped or whole…

For the latter, just put the whole clove on a board and thump it softly with the heel of your hand. The skin will fall off easily now it is “bruised’ and it will flavour the sauce perfectly well this way.

Give the garlic literally one minute or so in the oil on its own but keep the heat gentle so it doesn’t go brown. Add a little of the tomato juice from your bowl…literally a splash. A minute later add the tomato pulp and give everything a good stir. Add the salt and sugar…you might also want to add some more of the sieved tomato juices…go easy…this gives you control over the thickness of your sauce.

Now you could add the herbs, if you have any to hand.

You can leave the sauce to ‘blip’ gently over a low ish heat while you cook the pasta.

For me this has got to be spaghetti but really, use whatever you like…

As soon as the pasta is done, drain it, not totally…you need it to be a bit damp. Two shakes of the colander will do then return it to the pan (off the heat).

At this point you could stir in a knob of butter, briskly. this is more about flavour than anything so if dairy is not your thing and you don’t use plant based butter, use olive oil.

Now add the tomato sauce and mix it in gently.

Check the seasoning and serve up immediately…I nearly always sprinkle the finished dish with a small amount of grana padano (a gentler, Italian grating cheese than Parmesan which is often available with veggie rennet) you could also use a vegan version or a very mean amount of nutrional yeast…this dish is best when I there is a suggestion of cheese, not an overt flavour.

This is all deliberately simple and of course you can add to the base. Olives are good. Roasted, chopped almonds sprinkled on the top are delicious. You can get creative, really.

And you’re not restricted to pasta by any means. You could use this sauce to dress a steamed bunch of this season’s broccoli. I’ve stirred it through warm potatoes, too. I’ve smeared it over a wedge of good bread, I’ve added beans or chickpeas and turned it into more of a soup (although this is more time consuming obviously.