This month’s Farm Kitchen letter is written by nutritionist, Hannah Neville-Green, who is part of Riverford’s team of chefs, writers, recipe creators & proud veg nerds.
A New Year often starts with a surge of noise around “quick fix” supplements and dieting fads. Yet the truth remains that real food is the most effective way to nourish your body, and filling your plate with plenty of seasonal veg is the perfect place to start. Happily, January is a surprisingly abundant time for British produce.
Cabbages, the ultimate winter staple, are plentiful and wonderfully versatile. Food trend reports are already touting 2026 as ‘the year of the cabbage’! While this feels frivolous, it does seem to reflect the desire of many to move away from Ultra Processed Foods towards simpler, whole foods our grandparents would recognise. Roast cabbage in wedges until succulent and lightly charred or try fermenting into sauerkraut to elevate meals, and give your gut a natural dose of probiotic bacteria.
Root vegetables are also going strong; celeriac, beetroot, carrots, parsnips, and potatoes are ideal for traybakes and deliver a diverse mix of fibre as well as phytonutrients with anti-inflammatory and antioxidant benefits. One particularly gut-friendly vegetable at its prime now is the Jerusalem artichoke. These knobbly tubers are rich in inulin, a prebiotic fibre that feeds our beneficial bacteria
which, in turn, ferment it into short-chain fatty acids that nourish the gut lining and support immune health. Peel and finely slice ‘chokes in a slaw, or roast with rosemary and garlic, until crisp.
When it comes to brassicas – kale, kalettes, purple sprouting broccoli, and cauliflower are still in season, offering a host of vitamins and minerals. Did you know that, gram for gram, kale contains more vitamin C than an orange? Cooking does impact vitamin C which is sensitive to heat and can leach into cooking water, but massaging olive oil and lemon juice into kale tenderises it. Throw in some roasted red peppers, toasted almonds, and blood orange segments and you have a delicious, vitamin C-packed salad. Or try my favourite way to eat kale – roasted into crispy chips with olive oil and salt.
For a delicious, healthy start to the year, no extremes or restriction are necessary. Just a quiet appreciation for the seasonal veg that bring us joy and nourishment.
Our News from the Farm posts come from Riverford. They are the digital versions of the printed letters which go out to customers, every week via Riverford’s veg boxes. Guy Singh-Watson’s weekly newsletters connect people to the farm with refreshingly honest accounts of the trials and tribulations of producing organic food, and the occasional rant about farming, ethical and business issues he feels strongly about. Riverford’s monthly Farm Kitchen letter is written by Riverford’s team of chefs, recipe and content creators: Emily, Bob, Hannah, Lewis & Freddie.
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