Keep your meals fresh and healthy with produce tips and insider info from the fresh food team at New World.
FRESH IN: The original Owairaka kumaras (red skins, white flesh) and the orange variety are especially good buying now, although all colours of kumara are plentiful and affordable. While red kumara (Owairaka) is the most popular and recognised variety, try changing up your selection for different tastes. Like gold kumara (Toka Toka) which has a beautiful flavour great for curries and soups, or orange kumara (beauregard) the sweetest of the varieties that we love caramelised in a roast vege salad. There is a new variety called Purple Dawn which is purple inside and out and brings a more savoury flavour that’s not quite as sweet as other varieties.
Spiced purple dawn kumara
Cabbage and cauliflower are looking robust too and very well priced. Navel oranges and grapefruit are good buying “and now is the time to enjoy New Zealand lemons which will be great buying for the next couple of months” says New World Fresh Expert Brigit Corson “meyer lemons are the most common right now. They’re your classic ‘backyard lemon tree’ variety that’s sweet and bright with minimal seeds”
LOOK FOR: “It’s looking good for the first of the new season asparagus which you’ll start to see trickling into your local New World in late August. We expect to have lots of fresh bunches available for your spring salads by mid-September” says Brigit. That’s exciting news, it being one of the harbingers of spring. Look for Australian strawberries too. Our local ones are still six or so weeks away.
MOVING ON: There has been some delays in the arrival of first of the season Californian grapes but by later this week there will be plenty around . It’s the same story for local chillies but hopefully you managed to harvest some from the garden (or you bought loads back in autumn) and have frozen them for scarcer days. “Capsicums and tomatoes are still light on supply which is normal for winter – the good news is they’ll become more plentiful over the next 4-5 weeks as we move into warmer temperatures” says Brigit.