April foods in season and what to cook with them
Marked by longer days and the fields bursting into life, April is a great month for springtime ingredients. Here are our best ideas for what to cook with the new season's produce.
Vegetables
It’s time to start digging up those spuds, with Jersey Royals appearing in most supermarkets and maincrops also starting to surface. It’s watercress season too, so spice up your early season salads by pairing its peppery tang with lettuce, rocket and spring onions. Radishes and peas are also coming into season, bringing even more flavour and colour to your cooking.
If you're foraging, don't forget wild garlic and wild nettles, while seasonal herbs like basil, chives and dill add the perfect finishing touch to dishes.
Feta and spring onion-stuffed potato skins
Asparagus, new potato and radish salad
Tracklements/loveFOOD
Meat
Lamb is a firm spring favourite, widely available in both supermarkets and butchers this month. A nice piece of pork, chicken or a leaner cut of beef are all perfect for lighter dishes. If the weather allows, get out your barbecue and add a bit of smokiness and charred flavour to meats.
Lamb chop and asparagus traybake
Roast leg of lamb with caper and herb crust
Waitrose & Partners/loveFOOD
Seafood
Once the weather warms up, light seafood dishes made with crab and crayfish are a top seasonal choice, while imported prawns and the last of the langoustines are great in a variety of shellfish recipes. Fish-wise, catches of the month include salmon, sea trout, hake and halibut, while cod is on its way out.
Pan-fried salmon with pine nut salsa verde
Ginger and preserved lemon crab spaghetti
Bacon-wrapped cod with peas, leeks and potatoes
Hake and butter beans with lemon mayonnaise
Waitrose & Partners/loveFOOD
Fruit
Greater quantities of lemons, grapefruit and oranges are now coming in from the Mediterranean rather than the Middle East. Rhubarb continues to be widely available, and is great in both sweet and savoury spring dishes. Top imported choices continue to include bananas and kiwi. And if you're already looking towards summer's berry season, start planting your own strawberries now.
Banana and chocolate ice cream
Waitrose & Partners/loveFOOD
Lead image: Kiian Oksana/Shutterstock
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