Fall is one of my favorite times of year. In San Francisco, summer weather finally arrives in September, so we enjoy warm glorious days after suffering through fog filled, freezing summer months.

Autumn also offers some of my family’s most favorite seasonal fruits and vegetables. Here are some of our must-have’s:

Persimmons – Around here, the two most frequently found types of persimmons are the Fuyu and Hachiya. I am a fan of both, but Fuyu is a lot easier to eat – you can simply bite into it like an apple with the peel on. They’re also sweet and crunchy, so the kids love them. Fuyu persimmons are high in fiber, low in fat, and make a delicious and healthy sweet topping to everything. I add it to salads, yogurt (it’s particularly tasty with Strauss yogurt, which is a little on the tart side), or I cut them into slices and pack them into the kids lunches.

Butternut Squash – Butternut squash soup is staple for my family during the fall and winter months. I recently discovered a recipe by America’s Test Kitchen with a secret trick I never would have guessed. The key to an amazing butternut squash soup is actually sauteeing all the seeds and stringy bits in butter with shallots, this adds incredible flavor! The recipe calls for heavy cream, but to keep it healthier, I just omit it since the squash is thick enough.

Delicata Squash – I first encountered this sweet, thin-skinned squash a few years back and it’s become a household favorite. Preparing it couldn’t be easier, all you have to do is split it in half, take out the seeds, and then cut into thin slices. They are delicious roasted with a little drizzled olive oil, salt and pepper, simply flip them halfway through cooking. I love that you don’t need to peel the skin, which makes it an easy veggies option for weeknights when time is sparse. To save even more time, I slice up a few pounds at once and keep them in ziplock bags so it’s ready to go for the week.

What are your family’s favorite foods this time of year? Share in the comments below!

About the Author

Nancy Yen is the founder of OmieLife, and developed the OmieBox after realizing there must be a better way to pack lunches for her young sons. She enjoys challenging conventional wisdom, and is always looking for a better way to do things.

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