Complement the natural flavours of fresh, seasonal produce with delicious cacao

At Hotel Chocolat, we’re all about using high-quality ingredients to make our culinary creations — even when cooking at home. This means choosing fresh ingredients, locally grown fruit and veg, and seasonal produce. Though many of us are used to having access to a wide range of imported foods, there are numerous advantages to eating seasonally.

N​​ot only does seasonal produce tend to taste better, it’s also more nutritious and less harmful to the environment. It’s also great for the local economy, and can be cheaper to buy than out-of-season produce.

Using cacao in cooking and baking

Naturally, we love experimenting with cacao in cooking beyond our (admittedly irresistible) chocolates. Some of these creative cacao-themed concocting sessions have led to much-loved products like our Cacao Gin, Cocoa Blonde Beer, and Amaretto Chocolate Almond Sultanas. However, there are plenty of ways to incorporate rich, nuanced cacao flavours into cooking at home.

Our recipe book A New Way of Cooking with Chocolate ventures into the savoury world of using cacao in your starters, mains, and salads. Here are some more of our favourite fresh produce and cacao pairings.

Seasonal fruits and vegetables

Eating seasonally is one of the easiest ways to ensure you’re choosing the best tasting fruits and vegetables throughout the year. Here’s a glimpse of what’s in season during winter, spring, summer, and autumn in the UK — and how you can pair each with cacao.

What’s our favourite thing about eating with the seasons? Even when one particular ingredient goes out of season, another is ripe and ready. Eating seasonally is great for those of us who are somewhat indecisive when it comes to cooking — nature chooses our shopping list for us!

Our seasonal cacao pairings all call for either cacao nibs or chocolate for melting or baking. Take a look at our Cooking Chocolate collection for slabs and batons in a range of chocolate grades. If you need dark chocolate, we recommend using our plain dark chocolate batons in 70%, 85%, or 100% Rare & Vintage. Which one you choose will depend on your personal cacao percentage preference!

Winter

These ingredients will keep you going throughout the cold winter months…

Apples

Apples are fantastic for dipping in your favourite melted chocolate, turning this delicious fruit into a richer, more indulgent snack or dessert. If you’re feeling even more creative, you could try whipping up an Apple, Ginger and Chocolate Crumble using cacao-rich chocolate to give the sweet apple a bitter, decadent edge. If you like the combination, move on to Chocolate and Apple Muffins or Cakes.

Pears

Like apple, the natural sweetness of pear makes it an obvious choice for pairing with chocolate. If you’re throwing a dinner party, why not impress your guests with a Spiced Poached Pears with Chocolate Sauce or Chocolate and Pear Upside-Down Cake? These dishes put the pear front and centre, but use the richer tones in chocolate to transform it into an ever-so-indulgent treat.

Mixed Winter Vegetables

Leeks, potatoes, parsnips, curly kale, turnips, and Brussels sprouts are all in season during the winter. All these veggies taste delicious when roasted together in the oven — and when you add a cacao twist to.

Simply add two tablespoons of cacao nibs to your baking tray of vegetables and roast like you normally would. It might sound like an unlikely culinary combination, but the occasional burst of cocoa will take your fresh, earthy winter vegetables to a whole new level.

Spring

When spring arrives, you’ll have a whole new range of tasty fruits and vegetables to add to your eating seasonally portfolio!

Rhubarb

This fleshy, tart vegetable (yes, it’s actually a veggie, not a fruit!) comes to life when sweetened a little and used to create bakes, bakes, and desserts. We adore it so much that we created a Rhubarb & Custard Chocolate Selector — a mellow yet zingy take on the classic British pud. If you’re new to cooking with rhubarb, we recommend starting with a Dark Chocolate Rhubarb Crumble.

Spring greens and spinach

With lots of healthy greens in season, spring is the perfect time of year to whiz up some green smoothies and juices. Only with an added special ingredient — cacao!

It’s difficult to make a smoothie or juice that doesn’t taste good, so experiment with the fruit and veg you have available. This Cacao Almond Spinach Smoothie is a great starting point.

Summer

When it comes to fruit, Summer is the jackpot time for eating seasonally…

Blueberries

Highly nutritious and delicious, blueberries are another superstar smoothie ingredient that works wonderfully with cacao. Here’s a simple Blueberry Cacao Smoothie recipe. Fancy a dessert? Try this Chocolate and Blueberry Pudding Cake.

Strawberries

If you’ve already tried chocolate-dipped strawberries and are ready to move on to bigger things, why not try this Self-Saucing Chocolate Strawberry Pudding? It’s quick, easy and suitable for vegans.

Still, adore a chocolate-dipped strawberry? Bring in some new flavours by experimenting with different chocolates. We think our Strawberry Cheesecake Batons taste heavenly with the natural sweetness of fresh strawberries.

Raspberries

We’re big fans of raspberry chocolate of all kinds, but this Raspberry Chocolate Torte looks especially tempting! Make the most of this bright, zingy berry being in season.

Beetroot

It’s generally easier to pair fruit with cacao than it is to create a chocolate-centred vegetable dish. However, beetroot changes the game. Impress your friends with this Epic Chocolate and Beetroot Cake which harnesses the natural earthy undertones of the summertime vegetable.

Autumn

As the leaves turn to golden hues, embrace classic autumnal produce.

Pumpkin

Does any vegetable scream autumn more than pumpkin? Instead of sticking with traditional Pumpkin Pie, venture into the unknown with this Spiced Chocolate Pumpkin Cake With Pumpkin Glaze — a warming, cacao-infused bake.

Sloes

You can find sloes growing all over the UK, so go out foraging this autumn and make your own sloe gin with just a small container of hand-picked sloes. You can then make these Chocolate Truffles With Sloe Gin Blueberries.

Enjoy the taste of the seasons

We hope you relish tucking into all the delicious seasonal produce that the UK has to offer and that this article has provided you with some helpful cacao-infused recipe ideas. Itching for even more cacao meal inspiration? Have a read of our guide to chocolate-themed gourmet meals.

For a more extensive list of seasonal fruits and vegetables, see this month-by-month UK produce list. Time to don your chef hat, gather your top-quality chocolate and start eating seasonally!

And if you want to enjoy chocolate and fruit pairings in bitesize form, our fruity chocolates and patisserie collections are brimming with natural ingredients.