As it happens, there are a few recipes this week featuring Granny Smith apples pretending to be vegetables... First up is a roasted carrot and apple soup. The flavours are clean and light - as well as the carrot and apple there's grainy mustard, some light veg stock and a handful of cashews to make it creamy and nutritious... this one is Vegan, DF and GF

The crumble topping here has buckwheat groats, sunflower seeds and crumbled tofu as well as a generous Tbsp of yeast flakes to make it very savoury and delicious - underneath that topping is a combo of roast veg (including our friend Granny Smith) and some shredded leafy greens, so the Buckwheat crumble with Roasties is Vegan, DF and GF

This is a Sturdy vegetable curry with brown lentils for extra substance! It's tasty, but not too hot - we'll send yellow curry paste for this one which is very aromatic. And then it's basically a fistful or two of as many different veg as you can find! (There are actual instructions on the recipe I promise) The vegetable and lentil curry is Vegan, DF and GF

This kidney bean and mushroom ragu can be served with pasta or with cauliflower masquerading as pasta for a GF version! It has tomato paste, red onion, garlic and either dry white wine or white wine vinegar a well as flatleaf parsley, and parmesan (optional) or pecorino if you are Dairy free rather than Vegan. So this one is Vegetarian and GF and potentially DF also.

I happen to know that Oamaru Organics have beautiful red and green cabbages at the moment, and I remembered this recipe... chicken with two-tone slaw! It's light and super delicious - have it with baked potato to give you some wintery comfort - chicken thighs with two colours of cabbage, carrots, fresh herbs, a sneaky avocado sliced up and other tasty things. This one is DF and GF

And finally the third recipe with Granny Smith as the secret ingredient... pork and Apple meatballs with tomato gravy. Not a VERY secret ingredient... This is fabulous with soft polenta or a mash of your favourite - potatoes or kumara ... it's also good with fresh pasta... The recipe is DF and GF