Find inspiration and ideas for seasonal cooking for February, including lists of produce to buy, what to use up, and simple seasonal eating recipes for meal planning.
PLUS grab a free printable menu planning page to help you focus on cooking through the seasons.
This article is part of a year-long series on how to cook seasonal foods for each month as a resource for meal planning, saving money, and helping the environment.
Each month of the seasonal cooking series includes:
- What's in season for that month.
- What you may have in your freezer and pantry to use up if you preserve food.
- Favorite recipes using seasonal produce from An Oregon Cottage to help you plan to eat seasonally.
- A free printable weekly menu planner for the month with areas to record what's in season for you and what you have to use up!
You can find all the months of this seasonal eating series here.
How are doing cooking seasonally in these winter months?
Looking back over our menu, I see that we made quite a bit of roasted vegetables like cauliflower, carrots, parsnips and potatoes.
I steamed and sautéed broccoli, plus some of our frozen garden green beans and corn.
I try not to rely as much on green salads, as lettuce isn't really "in season" though other greens like spinach and kale are. We do eat some lettuce and spinach a couple times a week with in-season fruit and/or vegetables tossed in.
I actually DO have a winter lettuce that I planted in the fall still producing in the garden! It's under cover and seems to be doing okay with our freezing mornings and the snow we had in December.
Seasonal Cooking For February
How do you eat seasonally in the winter?
Like I mentioned, I like to take advantage of root vegetables and cool-weather veggies like broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower. These make up the bulk of our produce this month.
I roast them, make soups and stews, or add them to casseroles.
You can read the first section of this month for answers to the questions, "What is seasonal cooking," "Why is easting seasonal important" - and a big caution we need to take into account for eating "seasonally."
Here are tips to help you eat more seasonally and use this resource page with the free printable meal planner:
- Use the lists and recipes you find here for February to make a menu according to what you are harvesting/buying.
- Harvest from your own garden or visit farmer's markets for the produce you need.
- OR use the shopping lists when super market shopping, noting the sales in the produce aisle.
- Try new things that are in season.
- Add any new recipes you like and keep them in a binder to cycle through the following season.
It's easy to lose track of produce's seasonality since most are carried all year long in stores - use this resource article and the free printable weekly menu planning page to help:
Download the menu page, print it out, and use it to write down the seasonal foods you need to use and buy, as well as the recipes you'll make that week.
PRO TIP: Keep all of these through a year and you'll have a custom seasonal menu binder you can refer to year after year!
Note: If you're already a subscriber, you can find this in the VIP library!
February Seasonal Eating
February is pretty much a repeat of January - meaning, how creative can we get with our freezer and pantry items? (Spoiler: pretty deliciously creative, as the sample recipes show below!)
If you planted purple-sprouting broccoli, however, or have fall garden vegetables still producing in the garden, you may be getting some actual fresh garden produce now or by the end of the month!
Seasonal Produce for February Lists
In Season Fruits
- Citrus (lemon, orange, grapefruit)
- Apples (stored)
- Pears
In Season Vegetables
- Avocados
- Broccoli
- Brussels Sprouts
- Cabbage
- Carrots/Parsnips (stored)
- Cauliflower
- Celery
- Chard/Kale
- Endive (and some cut-and-come-again covered greens)
- Garlic (stored)
- Green Onions
- Leeks
- Mushrooms
- Onions (stored)
- Potatoes (stored)
- Purple-sprouting broccoli
- Radicchio
- Rutabagas
- Winter Squash (stored)
Freezer and Pantry Preserved Food Options
- Tomato products (Roasted Tomato Sauce, Addictive Tomato Chutney, canned plain tomatoes, seasoned sauce and garden salsa)
- Frozen corn and frozen green beans (or canned)
- Frozen blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries
- Pickled foods: cucumbers, beans, and asparagus
- Sauces and condiments: Plum sauce, chutneys, jams, etc.
- Oil-packed dried tomatoes
- Frozen chopped sweet & hot peppers
- Dried fruit (like my favorite plums)
- Dried herbs
Seasonal Eating Recipes For February
Easy Slow Cooker Cassoulet Recipe
This slow cooker cassoulet is one of my all-time favorites! The flavor is so good -and if you want to be more authentic, you can transfer the cassoulet to a baking dish, sprinkle with seasoned bread crumbs and broil a bit to crisp it up.
Slow Cooker Chicken with Artichokes, Dried Tomatoes & Olives (+ Instant Pot Option)
This is a super flavorful way to cook chicken and a nice slow cooker change from soups, stews, and pulled meat.
The Best Sausage and Lentil Stew Recipe
My favorite lentil anything - so good I make the full recipe to eat for lunches the next few days after. It just gets better with time.
Easy Potato And Caramelized Onion Frittata
An excellent way to use pantry potatoes and onions and a quick meatless meal for those nights you need it. Serve with a chopped seasonal salad like the one below.
Quick & Easy Chopped Salad (a Use-What-You-Have Recipe)
The photo above was taken in summer so you see peppers and summer squash, but chopped salads are a favorite in winter. Use carrots, onions, broccoli, celery as fresh ingredients and fill in with any pickled or canned produce you have. So good.
What are you looking forward to making in February?
Don't forget to download and print out your free seasonal meal planning page:
Looking for more seasonal cooking ideas for February? Check out these February dinner menu ideas for four weeks of easy entrees and sides!
Originally published in February of 2012, this article has been completely updated to be more relevant and useful - enjoy!
Wendy (The Local Cook) says
I actually am not a lettuce lover. So it doesn't bother me 🙂 Although, we do have a hydroponic lettuce grower here so I could still eat it "local."
Stoney Acres says
Depending on where you live it is possible to get lettuce to over winter. We live in Zone 5 Utah and we can have lettuce until December and then again by mid March. In January and February we usually switch our salads to spinach, chard, kale and mache (corn salad). Of course all of this is grown in cold frames or a hoop house. No way we could get it to survive unprotected. I have a friend that has a giant hoop house with lots of sun and he is able to grow lettuce year round inside!
Terri says
I love to read vintage homemaking magazines. In one of my issues the couple ate a green salad a couple of times per week but she used collard greens or kale which would be seasonal for us here in the Southern states. I notice that cabbage is also on the seasonal list. I recently purchased my first head of savoy cabbage and it might well be used for a green salad, being more tender than usual cabbage.
Jami @ An Oregon Cottage says
Ah, yes- we do love cabbage and you're right: savoy is pretty close with a mild flavor and texture. My daughter would still turn her nose up, though. sigh.
Diana says
I guess you mean seasonal for your specific locale? I can grow lettuce through the winter here in west Tennessee with row covers or cold frames, or indoors with lights (if I plan it well enough to plant sufficiently early in the fall so they can put on good growth before December), and lettuce grows through the winter further south.
I can grow lots of greens in the open garden, covering only when the temps go down in the teens (usually once or twice for a few days each winter) -- like arugula, swiss chard, mustard, turnip greens, beet greens, and kale. I can use these to make wilted salads (not the same as lettuce, I know . . .)
Diana
Jami @ An Oregon Cottage says
Well...yes. 🙂 I realize things are different down south, but I think the majority of the country has slim pickin's in January and February.
My area, like yours, is also known for being able to grow things year-around - with row covers and cold frames. I admire you, though, as I've found I don't like gardening in the rain and cold, so my garden is limited to what continues to grow- like chard,kale, and such. We don't like them as much in raw salads, unfortunately. Sigh.
Sakura says
In Utah the only thing we grow in the winter is icicles! I buy spinach and lettuce during the winter for our salad fix. I do have a bunch of dehydrated swiss chard and spinach from the summer that I use in a pastas and soups for some added greens.
I have to let you know I'm down to my last spaghetti squash from the summer, I'm saving it for a special dinner. This is the last fresh produce I have left from my garden. Everything else is canned, dehydrated or frozen.