wellness practices for this autumn season

Autumn is the season to pull inward and gather ourselves on all levels to prepare for the winter ahead. This may look like, harvesting your garden, preserving and pickling autumnal fruits and vegetables, and beginning to embrace rugging up in the fresh brisk air or completing any unfinished tasks. Each new season brings an invitation for a new and fresh start. Autumn recipes are a great way to welcome the autumn season and boost your wellness practices at the same time.

make autumn recipes part of seasonal wellness practices

Preparing foods that reflect the beautiful qualities of autumn often include a gentle transition to heartier flavours and warmer foods. Baking and sauteeing foods become the focus, with root vegetables, broths and curries a lovely addition to your weekly menu. Shifting from cooling summer smoothies to nourishing alternatives with warming spices and minimal ice. Moving away from cool fresh fruits and opting for spicy poached rhubarb and pears. You will often find me sipping on a delicious cup of golden broth, inplace of a cup of herbal tea in autumn. I highly recommend this ritual to boost your nutrient intake and strengthen your immune system as winter approaches.

add sour ingredients to your autumn recipes

Traditional Chinese Medicine respects the importance of including more sour flavoured foods in autumn, which are known to shift energy inward and downward, just as nature does with the shedding of leaves. Examples of sour foods include; sourdough breads, sauerkraut, pickles, olives, and citrus fruits.

Autumn is the season to nourish and support our gut, for a strong immune system in winter. Given 80% of our immune systems sit within our gut, there is no better time to pay extra attention to our immunity. Cooking food at a lower heat, for a longer period of time is a lovely way to extract the most nutrition that we can from the autumn harvest. This means that autumn is the perfect time to enhance your bone broth making skills. Broths will warm you from the inside out and contains essential nutrients to heal and repair any damage that may have taken place in the festive, summer months. Enjoy your broth on rising in place of your lemon water or cup of tea/ morning coffee. Use it as the base for cooked grains, curries and soups and you won’t look back.

My top seasonal autumn picks to take advantage of while you can

• Quince
• Nashi pear
• Feijoa
• Plums
• Pomegranate
• Rhubarb
• Artichokes
• Beetroot
• Eggplant
• Sweet potato
• Parsnip
• Sage
• Rosemary