When the Kitchen Turns Towards Autumn
Seasonal comfort, easy lunches and something lovely for the cake tin
As the air chills with the approach of autumn, the rhythm of my kitchen begins to shift with it.
I make fewer salads and find myself reaching for more comforting, carbohydrate-heavy food. Let’s not pretend I don’t enjoy my carbs throughout the year, but we definitely eat less bread during the summer. Lunch is more likely to be a chopped salad with beans or lentils, eaten outside whenever the Scottish weather allows.
Once the days become cooler, everything changes.
A toasted cheese sandwich, a bowl of butternut squash soup or a generous helping of something warm from the oven suddenly feels exactly right. Preferably with a thick slice of freshly baked bread to mop up every last bit.
There is a particular sort of hunger that only arrives after a damp, blustery dog walk with Bella and Bracken. You come through the door with cold hands, muddy boots and absolutely no interest in a delicate lunch. That is when a bowl of soup, a bubbling pie or something fragrant with spice really earns its place in the kitchen.
Let the Season Lead the Way
Allowing the seasons to guide our food choices feels particularly easy here in Scotland during autumn. We have such an abundance of wonderful fruit, vegetables, fish, seafood and game.
The hedgerows are heavy with brambles. Apples and pears are ready for crumbles, cakes and chutneys. Squashes, beetroot, leeks, carrots, kale and potatoes make their way into soups, pies and slow-cooked suppers. Mussels, smoked fish and freshly landed white fish lend themselves beautifully to warming chowders and one-pot dishes.
Autumn food does not have to be complicated. Often it is simply about taking one good ingredient and treating it kindly.
Roast the squash instead of boiling it. Add an apple to a parsnip soup. Stir a spoonful of chutney through gravy. Finish cooked carrots with butter and one of your favourite spice blends. Fold sautéed kale through creamy mashed potato.
Small changes can make familiar food feel completely new.
Something New on the Website
I have been busy creating a new What’s in Season section for the Meg’s Scottish Kitchen website.
It will celebrate the best ingredients available throughout the year, with practical hints, storage advice, simple cooking ideas and suggestions for making the most of each month’s produce.
I hope it will become a useful resource for those moments when you find a beautiful local ingredient but are not quite sure what to do with it—or when you simply need a little inspiration before writing the week’s shopping list.
Roasted Butternut Squash, Apple and Sage Soup
This is everything I want from an autumn soup: silky, gently sweet and deeply comforting. Roasting the vegetables gives the soup far more flavour than boiling them, while the apple brings freshness rather than obvious sweetness.
Serves 6
Ingredients
1 large butternut squash, approximately 1.2kg
2 onions, peeled and cut into wedges
2 eating apples, peeled, cored and quartered
2 garlic cloves, left in their skins
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp ground cumin
½ tsp smoked paprika
8 fresh sage leaves
1 litre vegetable or chicken stock
100ml double cream or crème fraîche, optional
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
To serve
Toasted pumpkin seeds
A swirl of cream or good olive oil
Crispy sage leaves
Fresh bread
Method
Heat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/Gas 6.
Carefully cut the butternut squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Peel the squash and cut the flesh into roughly even pieces.
Put the squash, onions, apples and unpeeled garlic cloves into a large roasting tin. Add the olive oil, cumin, smoked paprika and sage. Season generously and toss everything together.
Roast for 35–45 minutes, turning once, until the squash is tender and beginning to caramelise around the edges.
Squeeze the softened garlic from its skins and transfer everything to a large saucepan.
Add the stock and bring gently to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
Blend until completely smooth. Add a little more stock or hot water if the soup is thicker than you like.
Stir in the cream or crème fraîche, if using, and check the seasoning. Warm gently without allowing the soup to boil.
Serve with toasted pumpkin seeds, crispy sage and a generous piece of bread.
Meg’s Kitchen Notes
There is no need to peel a thin-skinned squash such as Crown Prince or Red Kuri—the skin softens beautifully when roasted.
Replace the apple with a ripe pear for a slightly sweeter flavour.
For a vegan version, use vegetable stock and oat cream.
Add a pinch of chilli flakes or a spoonful of aromatic curry seasoning before roasting for extra warmth.
The soup freezes very well. Cool completely, portion and freeze for up to three months.
A Little Something for the Tin
The arrival of autumn always sends me back to baking.
There is something wonderfully reassuring about knowing there is a cake in the tin. Not a towering celebration cake or anything requiring hours of decoration—just a good, honest bake to enjoy with a cup of tea after a walk.
This next recipe sits somewhere between a flapjack and a fruit crumble. It is robust enough for lunchboxes, simple enough for a weekday bake and particularly good while still slightly warm.
Apple, Bramble and Oat Crumble Squares
A buttery oat base, a layer of softly spiced autumn fruit and a crumbly topping. These are delicious with tea and can also be served warm as a pudding with custard or ice cream.
Makes 12 squares
Ingredients
For the fruit filling
3 medium cooking apples, approximately 450g before peeling
200g brambles or blackberries, fresh or frozen
50g soft light brown sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp cornflour
For the oat crumble
225g plain flour
150g rolled oats
175g soft light brown sugar
½ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp fine sea salt
225g cold butter, diced
1 tsp vanilla extract
Method
Heat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/Gas 4. Grease and line a 20cm square tin, leaving enough baking parchment to help lift out the bake later.
Peel, core and dice the apples. Put them into a saucepan with the brambles, brown sugar, lemon juice and cinnamon.
Cook over a low to medium heat for 6–8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the apples begin to soften and the fruit releases some juice.
Mix the cornflour with 1 tablespoon of cold water. Stir it into the fruit and cook for another minute, until the juices thicken slightly. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.
Put the flour, oats, sugar, cinnamon and salt into a large bowl. Add the cold butter and rub it into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles chunky breadcrumbs. Stir through the vanilla.
Tip approximately two-thirds of the crumble mixture into the prepared tin. Press it down firmly and evenly with the back of a spoon.
Bake the base for 15 minutes, then remove it from the oven.
Spoon the fruit mixture over the base, leaving a narrow border around the edge. Scatter over the remaining crumble without pressing it down.
Return to the oven for 30–35 minutes, until golden brown.
Leave to cool completely in the tin before lifting out and cutting into squares.
Meg’s Kitchen Notes
Frozen brambles can be used directly from the freezer.
Replace the brambles with plums, raspberries or a spoonful of blackcurrant jam.
Add 50g chopped hazelnuts or almonds to the topping if allergies are not a concern.
The squares will keep in an airtight tin for three days.
They can be frozen individually and popped into a lunchbox while still frozen.
Easy Autumn Lunches—with a Helping Hand
Lunch does not have to be made entirely from scratch to be nourishing and delicious. A few good shortcuts can turn odds and ends into something that feels like a proper meal.
Speedy Spiced Chickpeas
Warm a tin of drained chickpeas with olive oil and a spoonful of your favourite curry or barbecue spice blend. Serve with yoghurt, chutney and chopped herbs.
Use butter beans or leftover roast vegetables instead of chickpeas.
Autumn Ploughman’s Plate
Arrange local cheese, oatcakes, apple wedges, chutney and a handful of salad leaves on a plate.
It takes minutes, requires no cooking and makes a lovely lunch when you want something simple but satisfying.
Warm Lentil and Roast Vegetable Bowl
Combine a pouch of cooked lentils with leftover roasted roots or squash. Add a handful of spinach and warm everything together. Finish with lemon juice, olive oil and scattering of mixed seeds for texture.
Add smoked mackerel, cooked sausages or leftover chicken for a more substantial meal.
Five Easy Seasonal Swaps
Replace imported berries with Scottish apples, pears, plums or frozen summer berries.
Stir finely shredded kale through mashed potato instead of serving it separately.
Swap a plain tomato sauce for roasted squash blended with garlic, stock and a little cream for a delicious pasta sauce.
Use smoked haddock or smoked mackerel to add depth to a dish without needing a long list of ingredients.
Add diced apple, pear or plum to sausage traybakes, curries and slow-cooked dishes for gentle sweetness and acidity.
What’s Happening in Meg’s Scottish Kitchen?
This week Simon and I have been busy picking grapes from our beds in the Polly tunnel, they are beautiful sweet grapes, we are making grape jelly that can be enjoyed in so many different ways. It is delicious served with a cheese and charcuterie board, stirred into a lamb or game stew for added depth and sweetness or simply slathered on buttered toast at breakfast.
The Heat & Eat freezers are filling with the sort of food we naturally crave as the evenings draw in: comforting pies, slow-cooked curries, pasta bakes and warming family favourites.
Everything is prepared in small batches, ready for the days when you want proper food without beginning from scratch.
If you fancy getting into baking but don’t know where to start then my baking mixes may be an easy way to start. They are designed to remove some of the measuring and decision-making while leaving you with the pleasure—and wonderful smell—of cooking at home.
A baking mix makes an excellent rainy-afternoon activity, while a jar of my seasoning mixes can transform roast vegetables, chicken, fish or a tin of beans into an easy supper.
And if you enjoy the recipes and stories I share here, my cookbooks contain plenty more inspiration for bringing people together over good, unfussy food.
Kitchen Noticeboard
A few things worth remembering as we head into autumn
Label and date anything going into the freezer—even if you are certain you will remember what it is. Believe me it is worth the few extra moments it takes.
If you are lucky enough to have an apple tree in your garden or you know someone who dose store apples somewhere cool and separate any bruised fruit. Bruised fruit which will spoil more quickly and cause the rest of your fruit to spoil too. Use the bruised or wind fall apples to make apple jelly or cook gently and freeze to use in pies and crumbles through the year
Wash brambles only when you are ready to use or freeze them.
Save clean vegetable peelings and herb stalks in a freezer bag for making stock for soup.
Please Pull Up a Chair
Last week, I wrote about the importance of making time to sit down and share a meal. It is something I feel deeply about, so you will certainly be hearing more from me on the subject.
Food tastes different when it is shared.
It does not need to be an elaborate dinner or a beautifully dressed table. It might simply be soup and toast, a curry from the freezer or slices of cake eaten with mugs of tea. What matters is the act of pausing, pulling up a chair and enjoying something together.
As the evenings grow darker and life begins to move indoors again, autumn offers us a natural opportunity to gather around the table and reconnect.
This month, I would love you to share a photograph of your autumn table, your latest bake or the seasonal ingredient you are most excited to cook with. Tag Meg’s Scottish Kitchen and use #PullUpAChair so that we can celebrate the simple pleasure of sharing good food with good people.
After all, some of the most memorable meals are not the grandest ones. They are the meals where everyone felt welcome.
And do tell me, What is the first dish you crave when the weather turns colder?
For me, it is difficult to beat a bowl of soup, fresh bread and the promise of cake afterwards.
With love from my kitchen in Argyll,
Meg x
Meg’s Scottish Kitchen
Where the seasons shape the table
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