Fresh Food Club - What's in season?

t’s a great week to pop a cauli in your trolley. They are firm, compact and delicious roasted.

Carrots rank highly when it comes to their versatility, value and flavour. Enjoy them raw or cooked.

Often underrated, celery is a crunchy, flavour-packed vegetable that adds fabulous texture to winter soups, casseroles and stir-fries.

Antioxidant-rich kale is a tasty and thrifty buy. Sauté chopped kale in olive oil and chopped garlic and serve as a side dish or add to your favourite juice to kick start your day with 100% of your daily requirements of vitamins A,C & K.

Fennel is a good source of fibre it also supplies potassium and folate, all for very few kilojoules. Delicious served cooked or raw, fennel teams deliciously with cheese, tomato, orange, ham, lemon, seafood, garlic, chicken stock, pasta, olive oil or lamb.

Crisp nutritious kohlrabi is a winter bulb vegetable (its German name can be translated as cabbage turnip). High in dietary fibre and vitamin C, this tasty veggie can be used in a similar way to cabbage and turnip. The attractive green or purple-skinned varieties are both delicious thinly sliced and teamed with pear in a winter slaw or add to a sol warming minestrone for extra crunch

Glossy dark green zucchinis are well priced.

Red capsicums are sweet, flavoursome and good value. Add capsicum to pizza toppings, salads, stir-fries, char-grill or stuff with a meat and vegetable filling and bake until tender

Vitamin D is essential for strong bones, muscles and overall health. Mushrooms are a source of vitamin D. Choose from button, cups and flat mushrooms and the exotic varieties which include Oyster, Shemeji and Shiitake

Top-quality globe artichokes are now in season. Boil trimmed globe artichokes until tender, then slice and combine with diced tomatoes, baby bocconcini, parsley, pepper and olive oil to serve with crusty bread.

Supplies of large, antioxidant-rich blueberries from Caboolture and Coffs Harbour are delicious eating

Red alert - strawberries are plentiful. Plump, juicy, red, ripe Queensland and Western Australian harvests are in full swing. Snack on washed strawberries as a flavoursome low kilojoule snack, make a few jars of home-made jam (it will taste better than store-bought)

Juicy, thin-skinned Leng navel oranges help to blast your body with Vitamin C.

Ruby-fleshed juicy blood oranges have a rich raspberry-like citrus flavour. Fruit with ruby-red tinged skin generally has the deepest coloured flesh, although the intensity of colour depends on variety, the fruit’s exposure to sunlight and growing conditions. Add segments to a leafy salad with olives, green onions and chopped flat-leaf parsley. Use blood orange juice in salad dressings.

Tangelos are a cross between a grapefruit and a mandarin; they are sweet, tangy and easy to peel. Fruit should feel heavy for their size, as this indicates a good juicy content.

Versatile Hass avocados combine deliciously with almost anything including lettuce, tomato, tuna, mayonnaise, citrus, alfalfa or pepper. Loaded with vitamins and minerals ad an avo to your daily intake.

Ruby red rhubarb, is a good buy this week. Rhubarb and strawberries team deliciously and this duo yields a good source of vitamin C. Stewed them together and sweetened with a little honey, maple syrup or sugar, this combination is perfect for delicious swirled through natural yoghurt or spooned over porridge.

Creamy Queensland bananas are an energy-boosting fruit that is a healthy choice for the whole family.

Looking for a low kilojoules snack, then you can’t go passed Aussie apples. Pink Lady, Fuji, Kanzi and Royal gala are still eating nicely and good value