Autumn Recipes for Fall Harvest Time

Go head over heels for my collection of irresistible recipes for autumn. Substantial salads, soothing soups, nourishing casseroles and comforting puddings, holiday treats and seasonal preserves – find everything you need for fall right here.

collage of images of 4 autum recipes - baked camembert, sausage tray bake, hunters chicken and celeriac gratin

Jump To

Autumn recipes

As the evenings start to draw in, the way we cook and eat starts to shift. The season of mists and mild fruitfulness brings with it one of the most bountiful times of year.

Late summer berries, orchard fruits and later stone fruits like plums and damson need to be harvested before they fall from the trees, and winter squash are just coming into season.

While some will keep right through the winter months if stored correctly, others have a brief window. They must be enjoyed right away or processed and preserved to be savoured later.

Blackberries starting to ripen on the bramble.

The transition towards cool weather habits starts with more substantial salads and more root vegetables and squash. The joy of fresh and fragrant apples and pears, the sudden appearance of earthy wild mushrooms and then the ripening of nuts.

As the leaves start to fall and days grow cooler, more filling recipes call to us again. Robust stews and filling puddings are warming and welcome rather than stodgy and overwhelming. Comfort food and slow cooking come to the fore.

Harvest festivals give way to Halloween, to Guy Fawkes’ Night in the UK, Thanksgiving in North America and St Andrew’s Day, as Advent comes into view and winter begins.

Here are some of my favourite recipes for autumn.

Starters

These fuss free recipes are perfect for entertaining. There’s no fiddly arranging of art-on-a-plate. Just the sort of food that your guests will love and plenty of time for you to spend time with your friends.

Soups can also fall into this category, so don’t forget to look at those too.

Rich and delicious golden brown mushrooms in a velvety cream sauce, sprinkled with parsley and ready to eat.

Creamy Garlic Mushrooms

Make the most of mushroom season. The fabulous mushrooms work as a starter with crusty bread or on croutons, but can also be incorporated into other dishes. Serve as a starter, light lunch or supper.

Toasted French bread is dipped in tasty gooey baked camembert

The Best Baked Camembert

A rich and delicious starter that is perfect for sharing and makes a big impression, despite being no effort at all to make. Enjoy it with crusty bed or raw vegetable sticks.

Soups

Autumn is when soups really come into their own. All those delicious roots and winter squash are perfect for soup making, and while not everyone is keen on summer soups, surely we all love a bowl of something rich and comforting for lunch or supper when we start to feel a nip in the air?

Soup has the great advantage of making you feel satisfied for longer, so if you are trying to lose a few pounds, it is always a good choice for a light meal.

All of these autumn recipes are easy to make and most are entirely plant based. Dress them up with a stylish garnish and they make a great starter when you’re entertaining too.

A contrasting garnish of fresh green parsley provides the finishing touch for this soup.

Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup

A delicious soup for the days when summer is just turning to autumn. The late summer harvest of red peppers and tomato brings sweetness and acidity, and I've added lentils for substance and protein.

Spiced Pumpkin, Carrot and Sweet Potato Soup

The sweeter vegetables lend themselves so well to soup, and this is no exception. A vibrant and nourishing seasonal soup with a touch of sweet, autumnal spice for a burst of energy on sluggish days.

Delicious celeriac soup, garnished and served in a colourful bowl, ready to eat.

Roasted Celeriac Soup with Apple

A deliciously subtle soup, with roasted celery root for depth of flavour and balancing sweet and tart notes from the apple. A classic combination.

Close up of yellow roasted butternut squash soup in a blue bowl.

Roast Butternut Squash Soup

As with so many autumnal vegetables, roasting brings out the best in butternuts, producing a depth of flavour that's hard to beat.

This fragrant golden soup is a perfect recipe for spring; butternut squash soup with lemon and tahini. Light and delicious.

Butternut Squash Soup with Tahini and Lemon

A light and vibrant butternut squash soup with a delicious nuttiness from the sesame paste and a sunshine twist from the lemon.

Close up of a bowl of chunky carrot lentil soup

Spiced Carrot and Lentil Soup

An easy and delicious recipe that combines sweet carrots and robust lentils with a touch of Indian spice. Simple and nutritious, frugal and suitable for vegans, it makes the perfect lunch.

A tabletop set with two blue bowls filled with golden roasted swede soup

Swede (Rutabaga) Soup

Swede, rutabaga or yellow turnip – whatever you call it, this robust winter vegetable is at its best roasted, and makes a gorgeous soup that you just have to try.

A blue bowl of golden yellow carrot and sweet potato soup

Spicy Sweet Potato and Carrot Soup

A golden vegetable soup with rich coconut milk and a kick from a touch of ginger and chilli! Warming on the coolest of days.

Curried Parsnip Soup

A classic recipe combining sweet, earthy parsnips with Indian spices for a balanced, fragrant soup.

Easy to make delicious no fat slow cooker vegetable soup

Slow Cooker Vegetable Soup (Fat Free)

Delicious vegetable soup that cooks while you get on with life. Genuinely fat free and suitable for those on doctor's orders!

Parsnip and Apple

The freshness of apple is the perfect foil for sweet parsnips in this traditional soup that is hard to resist.

Thai coconut root vegetable and red lentil soup

Thai Spiced Carrot and Coconut Soup with Lentils

A fusion of a robust European style soup with delicate Thai flavours. Warming and nourishing.

Mains

At this time of year, we’re all still active but with cooler weather, dinner sometimes needs to be more sustaining.

From robust salads that make good use of grains and autumn vegetables to filling one-pot dishes and dinner party feasts, explore these warming meals that make the most of the season.

Mostly plants

Fall for these autumn recipes with these vegetarian and vegan options, with plenty of flavour to suit everyone – even the meat enthusiasts!

A close up of mixed grain roast vegetable salad in a white and blue patterened plate.

Roasted Vegetable and Grain Salad with Goat’s Cheese

A robust, filling salad with plenty of succulent roast vegetables and nutritious grains. Full of colour, it's a feast for the eyes too.

Blue Cheese, Butternut Squash Gnocchi Bake

Blue Cheese Butternut Gnocchi Bake

An irresistible comfort-food one dish bake with soft blue cheese, sweet autumn squash and fresh spinach.

This vegan roast butternut squash salad topped with crunchy dukkah is full of colour, flavour and texture . Ideal as a meal, or a side dish.

Warm Butternut Salad with Dukkah

A satisfying salad of roast butternut squash with kale and mushrooms, with a crunchy topping of Egyptian style dukkah made with crushed nuts and spices.

Full of deep, complex flavours, this Quorn chilli makes a tempting one pot supper.

Easy Veggie Chili

I don't use a lot of meat substitutes but this rich, dark quorn chili is something special. Spicy and warming, it's great for feeding a crowd.

Tomato and Roast Vegetable Quinoa Rice Bake

An easy vegetarian dish of vegetables and grains, which is easy to make and serve for a simple meat free supper.

Mixed Grain Mushroom Risotto

Earthy mushroom flavours combine with the textures of mixed grains for a nutritious vegetarian main course. The recipe uses dried mushrooms but if you can get seasonal wild mushrooms too, it will be all the more impressive.

Roasted Vegetable Feijoada

My version of the Brazillian black bean stew, this fabulous veggie one-pot is full of subtle warming spice and bursting with flavour.

Butternut Squash Gnocchi with Harissa Onions

Light and fluffy gnocchi made with squash pair beautifully with these sticky caramelized onions, flavoured with spicy harissa.

Black Bean and Butternut Warming Chili

This delicious one pot dish is filling but light, warming but without the chili heat, as it is seasoned with smoked paprika for a mellow flavour.

Delicious vegan 5 bean chilli served in blue pottery bowls

5 Bean Chili

A hearty, spicy, vegan bean chili with a touch of cocoa for extra depth and richness. Make it in the slow cooker and come home to a delicious warming bowl of this tasty chili.

Meat mains

Warming stews and casseroles come to the fore as the evenings draw in and richer meat dishes suit cooler weather.

A lightly spiced lamb and bean one pot casserole. Peasant food at its finest!

Lamb and Bean Casserole

A warming rustic lamb stew, packed with protein and sastisfying on the coolest days.

Hunters Chicken

The pub grub favourite of chicken cooked in rich barbecue sauce and smothered in cheese. Easy and delicious.

Close up on a casserole of leftover lamb stew, with potatoes and carrots.

Old Fashioned Lamb Stew

A classic lamb stew with plenty of vegetables, made quick and easy by using the leftovers from a roast.

Slow Cooker Spanish Pork Stew

This Spanish inspired pork stew is tender, light and zesty, with peppers, orange and paprika lending it a distinctive flavour.

One Pan Sausage Traybake

Squash, peppers and onions roast alongside fat, succulent sausages to make an easy one tray dinner.

Beef Wellington With an Asian Twist

An impressive centrepiece for a dinner party, this recipe takes the classic beef Wellington and adds a twist of Asian seasoning and lighter filo to replace the puff pastry.

Diane Sauce

It's mushroom season, and this rich and creamy sauce is a classic on steak – though you should try it on all sorts of other dishes too.

More cheese, please!

Rich and filling cheese dishes for cooler days.

Easy Macaroni Cheese

An easy macaroni cheese recipe with a crunchy crumb topping and full flavoured sauce, without the need to make a roux sauce base.

Stilton Fondue with Apples and Pears

A delicious, velvety fondue made with cider and Stilton cheese, perfect for dipping apples and pears and amost anything else you love too.

Celeriac Gratin

Straddling the divide between side dishes and vegetable main meals, this delightful cheesy celery root bake is a great way to make the most of a great vegetable.

Cauliflower Cheese with Butternut Squash Sauce

Delightfully different, this dish incorporates two light vegetables with a rich cheese sauce. Gluten free.

Side dishes

It’s time to get back to your roots! Everything that grows under the ground is ready to go at this time of year, but it’s also time for all kinds of winter squash and anything that you can mash or roast.

A delicious bowl of smooth, soft celeriac mash, topped with parsley

Mashed Celeriac

Light and subtle, mashed celeriac is a traditional companion to game and darker meats, soaking up all the flavours from a rich gravy.

Mashed Swede

Rutabaga mash is sweeter than celeriac but still lighter than potato and full of flavour. A traditional companion to haggis, 'bashed neeps' are essential to a St Andrew's feast.

Butternut squash mash, glossy and tempting in a green bowl, garnished with salt, pepper and thyme.

Butternut Mash

A light and tasty alternative to mashed swede, this mash can hold its own against more acidic vegetables like tomatoes and peppers and makes a good side dish to many vegetarian meals.

Slow cooked red cabbage with cranberries

Slow Cooker Red Cabbage with Cranberries

A sweet and sour dish of vibrant red cabbage and cranberry made easy and mess free in the slow cooker. Perfect for Thanksgiving.

Hearty, earthy and delicious honey and sherry glazed vegetables.

Glazed Roast Vegetables

Delicious roast vegetables coated in a honey and sherry glaze. Use them as a side dish or toss them through pasta for a main meal.

Close up of roasted butternut squash in a roasting pan.

Roast Butternut Squash

Rich, sweet and earthy, butternut squash is good with so many dishes and roasting brings out the best in it. Use as a side dish or add to other recipes.

Roasted Celeriac

One of my favourite vegetables and one that is often overlooked. Delicate and nutty in flavour, it is especially good roasted.

A close up of a red dish containing roasted swede

Roast Swede (Rutabaga)

Roasted rutabaga is a favourite in Northern European cuisines and it is delicious with autumn and winter dishes.

A close up of cooked celery in a shallow casserole dish.

Braised Celery

Transforms the crisp crunch of celery into a mellow warm vegetable dish for autumn suppers.

Parmentier Potatoes

Pommes parmentier, the classic cubes of potato roasted with fragrant herbs for a touch of French style.

Just desserts

Now is the time to enjoy orchard fruits at their best, in crumbles and pies and so much more. Steamed puddings are comforting and filling and sorbets made with apple and blackberry are stunning.

Toffee is also a fall flavour for me, inextricably linked with Bonfire Night on 5th November.

And don’t forget that Christmas puddings need to be made well in advance, so get cooking on or before Stir Up Sunday, the last Sunday before the start of Advent when the traditional plum duff was prepared!

Fig and Apple Tarte Tatin

A spectacular variation on the classic French dish, with figs and cardamom for a fragrant finish to the rich caramel. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Apple Crumble and Lactose Free Custard

The classic autumnal dessert of sweet stewed fruit and a crunchy crumble topping is traditionally served with custard, so there's a bonus recipe for lactose free custard here.

Estivale Apple & Blackberry Steamed Pudding

Apple and Blackberry Steamed Pudding

The most homely of puddings, the steamed sponge, is perfect for fall with a topping of seasonal fruit soaking juices into that delicious sponge.

Spooning toffee dessert out of the individual glass serving.

Toffee Pots

An easy but elegant cold dessert but with a warm fall flavour. Great for entertaining.

An indivial blue ramekin dish of vegan berry and apple crumble.

Apple and Mixed Berry Crumbles

Delicious seasonal fruit topped with crunchy crumble, made in individual dishes. This recipe is vegan and can be made with frozen fruit if you don't have fresh.

Blackberry and Apple Sorbet

This striking sorbet is light but full of flavour, with a sophisticated twist of thyme. The perfect light dessert.

Close up of maple syrup being poured over ice cream.

Easy Maple Ice Cream

Maple syrup is harvested in spring but the flavour and colour still feels autumnal to me. It's perfect in this easy homemade ice.

A British classic - a steamed pudding is really easy to make in the Redmond multicooker.

Blackcurrant and Apple Steamed Pudding

Traditional and warming, with hot fruit and jam melting into the sponge pudding.

Pop a sixpence in your Christmas pudding on Stir Up Sunday

Traditional Christmas Pudding

Although you wont be eating this traditional dense fruit pudding in the fall, it should be made before the start of Advent!

Baking

Apples, vine fruits and sweet spices bring a distinctive flavour to your baking in leaf fall season. Try adding sweet root vegetables to a comforting loaf, or experiment with my bacon and sausage buns for a hearty supper – great for outdoor gatherings in cooler weather.

Apple, Almond and Polenta Cake

Lightly spiced with moist fruit and a dense crumb, this is a distinctive and elegant cake.

Dorset Apple Cake

A favourite traditional recipe, light and fruity and moist and delicious with thick cream on the side.

A close up of a stack three hight of yummy pumpkin spice blondies, on a side plate.

Easy Pumpkin Spice Blondies

Buttery, delicious blondies with a touch of sweet autumnal spice. An easy, fuss free recipe with minimal equipment for a mess free kitchen.

Ginger Cake

The easiest and best ginger cake you will ever make, with absolutely no fuss. Improves with keeping!

Soul Cakes

This traditional recipe is associated with November but is so good that you might want to make it year round.

Delicious muffins with goats cheese and apple - perfect for an easy vegetarian weekend breakfast!

Goats Cheese, Thyme and Apple Muffins

Delicious savoury muffins with a seasonal flavour that will keep you coming back for more.

The finished blondies are shown, soft in the middle and dotted with spiced fruit

Mincemeat Blondies

Easy sweet spiced vine fruit blondies that are completely effortless with this one bowl, one spoon recipe.

Beetroot Bread

Sweet, earthy beets bring a swirl of bright colour to this fabulous loaf. Makes striking sandwiches and delicious with soup too.

Root vegetable bread; here made with carrot and parsnip, a great winter loaf.

Root Vegetable Loaf

With extra flavour and nutrition from seasonal root vegetables, and a soft, dense crumb, this delicious bread is perfect with soup.

These sausage and bacon savoury bread whirls are perfect enjoyed outside by the bonfire.

Sausage and Bacon Buns

Perfect for bonfire parties and Halloween gatherings, these savoury versions of a Chelsea bun are just what you need on a chilly night.

Drinks for now, drinks for later

Autumn fruit smoothies make energizing breakfasts on the move, while the slow process of infusing hedgerow liqueurs needs to be timed to make the most of the wild harvest.

Sloe Gin

The most traditional of homemade liqueurs, sloe gin utilizes the fruit that you just can't eat to make a delicious aperitif.

Bramble Whisky

A delicious infused whisky liqueuer with all the flavours of the hedgerow. Makes a thoughtful holiday gift.

Damson Gin

Tiny tart damsons make a delicious warming liqueur that's as good in a summer cocktail as it is by the fireside in winter.

This jewel coloured juice showcases fall fruit and vegetables and with the addition of cranberries is perfect for Thanksgiving

Cranberry, Squash, Apple and Carrot Juice

Boost your energy levels as the day shortens with this vitamin packed juice drink.

A glass goblet containing blackberrt and apple smoothie garnished with mixed seeds, mint and blackberries. In the glass there are two striped straws. In the background there are fresh blackberries and apples.

Blackberry and Apple Smoothie

Those classic autumn flavours again, this time in a fresh and delicious smoothie.

Pumpkin spice smoothie with cranberries; perfect for fall

Pumpkin Spice and Cranberry Smoothie

This tart, sweet and spicy, a lively, juicy smoothie for fall. Perfect for Thanksgiving.

Turmeric Milk with Honey

A deliciously soothing hot drink for when you need to fight off a cold or just keep the chill of autumn nights at bay.

Delicious, earthy and vibrant turmeric latte recipe. Especially good served with a sprinkle of cinnamon on top!

Instant Turmeric Latte Mix

Forget instant hot chocolate drinks. This instant turmeric latte mix is easier to make and cheaper and better than commercial versions. Keep it in the cupboard and whip up your favourite hot drink in double quick time.

Preserves

Early fall is peak preserving time, so whether you are an old hand at jellies and chutneys or taking your first steps into jam making, now is a great time to get busy with these recipes.

The bounty of the wild hedgerow comes free of charge, so head out to find blackberries, crab apples, wild plums and damsons, autumn raspberries and more.