What to eat in March (and how to take it to the next level with olive oil)

One of the best things about olive oil is that it makes simple ingredients taste great. I'm a huge fan of seasonal eating and in Ireland that means A LOT of root veg and brassicas. The trick is to keep it simple. A great olive oil plus a little salt is often all you need to bring out the best in our humblest (and cheapest) seasonal varieties.

At this time of year there are still plenty of Irish root vegetables (carrots, beets and some parsnips) available. I use them for soups (see the recipe below for inspo) and stews but they often go in the oven and get served in winter salads with grains or alongside stews and gratins. For roasting I use an everyday EVOO like 1640 Picual (The Picual variety has higher levels of polyphenols so can withstand heat better with without losing it's health benefits) then finish with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar just before serving.

Brassicas like purple sprouting broccoli and kalettes (a cross between sprouts and kale) can also go in the oven for the same treatment or you can simply do them on a griddle pan til slightly charred and softened. In our house these are the (near daily) accompaniment to anything and everything. Trim the really hard bits then throw them onto a super hot griddle pan, allow to char, toss then char on the other side. When done, drizzle with your fav early harvest EVOO (I’d say Finca la Torre’s Hojiblanca) or a Picual like Eco Day or Centenarium. Plate up and sprinkle with flakey salt and a final drizzle with maybe an uplift of Olis Sole's incredible 7 year aged balsamic vinegar.

While we're not in salad season yet, I always have a few bags of leaves on hand so we can make something fresh and uncooked at some stage everyday. Anything will do and at the moment there are really nutritious varieties like purslane and cress and over March there will be more and bitter leaves like chicory coming through and these are packed with antioxidants which means not only do they taste great they offer all kinds of nutritional benefits.

Pairing winter leaves with olive oil

Salads like purslane, land cress and chicory all work well more robust varieties like Picual and Hoijiblanca and you can think about adding blood orange for some seasonal vitamin C as well as a well needed hit of colour and brightness after our dark winter months.