Fancy a mushroom hotpot? Six delicious veggie recipes for autumn

Georgie Mullen is the Gen Z cook that adults love. She shares recipes from her new book with Hannah Evans

https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/food-drink/article/fancy-a-mushroom-hotpot-four-delicious-veggie-recipes-for-autumn-bp0kj6mpb

https://archive.ph/Ful27



In the cycle of the seasons early autumn is often overlooked by gourmets. It’s too warm for proper hearty stews and pies yet too cold for summery salads and quiches. However, if anyone knows how to make the most of these underappreciated weeks and the produce that comes with them, it’s the 27-year-old Georgie Mullen.

The cook and dinner party host, best known by her social media handle @georgieeats, has racked up a following of almost 400,000 people who love her fuss-free approach to seasonal dining. Last month her debut book, What to Cook & When to Cook It — a celebration of each season’s highlights and new ways to use them — was published. It just so happens that early autumn is her favourite time of the culinary calendar. “I like to give ingredients that people often overlook, like celery, a bit of a makeover so that more people pick them up and put them in their baskets,” she says.

In Mullen’s shopping basket this month you’ll find squash — an autumn staple — but she won’t be buying the popular butternut kind we see in the supermarkets. “In October I love the varieties you can get at the farmers’ market,” she says. In her book she has a breakdown of each shape and colour of squash, and what to use them for. “My absolute favourite is crown prince,” she says. “It has a delicious, rich deep-orange flesh and, when you roast it, it roasts until it’s sweet. My other favourite is kabocha squash, otherwise known as delica pumpkin. This is somewhere between a pumpkin and a sweet potato. It purees really nicely. Or you could get a red kuri squash, which is great in wintry salads. It’s got a more delicate, smooth, buttery flesh. It’s for lighter dishes.”

Other vegetables that she feels should be given more attention include chard — “it’s always overlooked but it’s really sturdy and robust, and you can use it anywhere you can use spinach” — and beetroot, of which she says: “Yes, they are great roasted and drizzled with balsamic in a salad, but I love pureeing it and sitting it through a dal.” As a rule of thumb, she says to roast autumn and winter vegetables rather than steaming them. “It brings out the flavour much better.”

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