British seasonal food in January

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Here’s the comprehensive guide to the best British seasonal food in January. We have a few tasty fruits, vegetables, herbs, fish, meats and cheeses to enjoy at their peak right now.

Ingredients can be somewhat sparse this month, being mainly roots and greens, but it’s good for filling and hearty dishes such as casseroles, stews, soups and pies. It’s helpful to supplement your diet with imports or stored ingredients to make more varied and healthy meals, especially if you’re looking for lighter bites or vegan recipes at the moment.

Fruit in season in January

British-grown seasonal fruit

• apples (from store)
• pears (from store)
• rhubarb (very early forced)

Best imported seasonal fruit

• blood oranges
• clementines
• dates
• passion fruit
• pineapples (Caribbean)
• pomegranate
• Seville oranges
• tangerines

Nuts in season

• hazelnuts (from store)
• walnuts (from store)

Recommended seasonal fruit inspiration:

• The Last Bite: Desserts Through the Year – Anna Higham
• River Cottage Fruit Every Day – Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
• Pam the Jam: The Book of Preserves – Pam Corbin
• Jams With a Twist: 70 Deliciously Different Recipes – Kylee Newton

Vegetables in season in January

• Brussels sprouts and their tops
• cabbages (Savoy and other winter types)
• celeriac
• chicory
• Jerusalem artichokes
• kale
• leeks
• parsnips
• salsify
• scorzonera
• swedes

You can also find leafy crops grown under cover (endive, lamb’s lettuce, mustards and other winter salad leaves), stored pumpkins and winter squash, crops that can store in the ground or boxed in sand (beetroot, turnip and winter radish) and very early varieties of purple sprouting broccoli.

[Available most months in good condition: broccoli, button mushrooms, carrots, cauliflower, maincrop potatoes, onions, rocket.]

Herbs in season in January

• chervil (grown under cover)
• winter savory

[Always available: chives, coriander and parsley grown under cover; older leaves of hardy perennials like bay, rosemary, sage, thyme.]

Recommended seasonal veg inspiration:

• The Magnificent Book of Vegetables – Alice Hart
• The Complete Vegetable Cookbook – James Strawbridge
• RHS Step-by-Step Veg Patch – Lucy Chamberlain
• Abel & Cole organic fruit & veg box deliveries

Foraged / wild foods in January

A very quiet month for wild and foraged food.

• truffles (mostly imported)

[Take great care when foraging as it’s very easy to confuse edible and poisonous ingredients.]

Foraged and wild food inspiration:

• The Forager’s Calendar: A Seasonal Guide by John Wright
• Food for Free: 50th Anniversary Edition – Richard Mabey
• Wild Food: A Complete Guide for Foragers – Roger Philips
• Concise Foraging Guide – Tiffany Francis-Baker

Fish in season in January 2023

Fish stocks change from year to year and vary around different parts of the UK’s coastline, but here’s a rough guide to the latest information.

Sustainable British fish

• brill
• clams
• cockles
• dab
• flounder
• gurnard (grey, red)
• haddock
• hake
• halibut (farmed)
• mackerel
• monkfish
• mussels
• oysters
• pike
• pollock
• pouting / bib
• prawns
• sole (Dover / common, lemon, witch / Torbay)
• spider crab
• sprat / whitebait
• trout (rainbow)
• turbot (wild)

[To the best of my knowledge, the list above excludes critically endangered fish, but this can change at short notice. Visit The Good Fish Guide from the Marine Conservation Society for latest lists.]

Less sustainable fish

You should also be able to source some of these from a responsible fishmonger in January.

• cod
• halibut (wild)
• langoustines / scampi
• razor clams
• scallops (king, queen)
• seabream / black bream
• squid
• whelks

[In good condition almost all year: arctic char, herring, farmed sea bream and turbot, megrim sole, sustainably-fished monkfish, rope-grown mussels, prawns, rainbow trout.]

Recommended fish & shellfish inspiration:

• Fish & Shellfish: The Definitive Guide – Rick Stein
• Fish for Dinner: Delicious Seafood Recipes – Nathan Outlaw
• The Seafood Shack – Kirsty Scobie & Fenella Renwick
• Fish – Sophie Grigson & William Black

Meat, poultry and game in season in January

• capercaillie
• duck (wild)
• goose (wild)
• guinea fowl
• mallard
• partridge
• pheasant
• snipe (common)
• teal
• venison (fallow, red hinds, roe doe, sika)
• widgeon
• woodcock

[Always available in good condition: beef, chicken, pork, rabbit, farmed venison, wood pigeon.]

Recommended meat, poultry & game inspiration:

• Tom Kitchin’s Meat and Game
• Lidgate’s The Meat Cookbook
• Game: River Cottage Handbook No.15
• The Meat Cookbook: Know the Cuts, Master the Skills

Cheese in season in January

British-made January cheese

• Appleby’s Cheshire
• mature blue cheeses (Stilton, blue Wensleydale)

Imported seasonal cheese

• Morbier
• Munster

[Many quality mature cheeses are available year-round, especially hard cheeses.]

Recommended cheese & wine inspiration:

• A Cheesemonger’s Compendium of British & Irish Cheese – Ned Palmer
• World Cheese Book – DK & Juliet Harbutt
• Which Wine When: What to drink with the food you love – Claire Strickett
• CheeseGeek seasonal cheese subscriptions & gifts

Enjoying this guide? Try these:

• British seasonal food in December
• British seasonal food in February
• Beginner’s guide to growing your own fruit & veg

Favourite British seasonal food in January

Here at Golightly Gardens we’ve mostly been eating up lots of Christmas leftovers so far this month, including Stilton and other cheeses served with crackers, and celery and sliced pears on the side. It’s one of the simplest ways to have a quick ‘picky tea’ after a long and busy day, but it somehow feels like a feast too.

On a recent rainy evening we cooked up carrot and swede mash to go with veggie sausages, greens and onion gravy, because it’s perfect mid-week comfort food for this time of year. Looking further ahead I’m adding a few seasonal treats to my shopping list, such as blood oranges and chicory for winter salads, some parsnips to add to curried soup, and early purple sprouting broccoli if I can find any.

What’s on your shopping list this January? Do you have any favourite British seasonal ingredients this month?

Recommended general seasonal inspiration:

• The Almanac: A Seasonal Guide to 2023 – Lia Leendertz
• Home Cookery Year: Four Seasons, Over 200 Recipes – Claire Thomson
• The Modern Cook’s Year: 250 vibrant vegetable recipes – Anna Jones
• RHS Grow Your Own Veg & Fruit Bible – Carol Klein