Brighten up your winter with these rainbow vegetables.

There is more to the rainbow food than fruit salad and smoothies.

We have all seen those TikTok’s celebrating brightly coloured rainbow smoothie bowels or fruit platters. Lovely, probably delicious, but full of expensive berries and watery Dagon fruit for the most part.

What if we told you there are other, amazing, all natural, healthy and exciting ways to get your rainbow foodie fix this winter?

Celebrate the abundance of vegetables.

For all its colourful tastes, the fruit kingdom lacks certain colours. If you’re looking for true pink and real purple, no raspberry or grape gets close to the colour intensity of radish, red onion and beetroot.

We have scoured the internet and found a couple of delicious rainbow recipes to try out this winter. (and yes – they are absolutely content worthy, so post away!)

First up is a classic that has been given a new, beautiful twist: The picnic pie.

This is a dense, flavourful pie with a buttery flaky crust that was traditionally made to take on picnics and be eaten cold with cheeses, chutneys and wine.

The filling was made up of vegetables, because they do not need sauce that can congeal and are delicious, even when cold, unlike many meat-based pie fillings.

What makes this pie so special is the fact that you prepare the vegetables and then layer them in the pie base to create beautiful rainbow layers, that show up when you slice into it. There are many versions of this pie available online and in classic recipe books but our favourite is this one by the Naked Chef himself.

This vibrant and colourful layered pie is packed with natural goodness and seasonal vegetables. According to Chef Jamie, it is best enjoyed with bread, cheese, chutney, and a chilled rosé wine.

Jamie Oliver’s Picnic Pie

Another way to dish up the rainbow, but with less effort than the picnic pie, is to create your own rainbow focaccias. (No food colouring required.)

A focaccia is a simple, salty, puffy, crunchy olive oil-based dough that you poke with your fingers (its really pleasing to do this) drizzle with even more oil, and then finally scatter with herbs or other interesting flavour bits.

But, a focaccia can also be an artwork.

If you just want a basic rosemary or basil focaccia, that’s up to you, but with a little bit of prep you can elevate it into a showstopping side dish.

Slice up rainbow coloured veg, (tomatoes, bell peppers, red onions, herbs and seeds work well) and then use these coloured morsels to create an artwork on top of your focaccia before you bake it. You can go basic with simple rainbow lines, or get creative and do a garden effect, or a depict an animal or insect(butterflies work well) – your imagination is the only limit here.

We love this Sourgdough Rainbow Focaccia as inspiration.

Need something gluten free?

If you feel like these options aren’t giving you the veggie kick you crave, you can go for the savoury version of a smoothie bowl (lets call it a harvest bowl instead.)

By layering multicoloured vegetables and spending a little time on presentation, you can create a completely vegan, gluten free vegetable extravaganza that will have you begging for another bit of rainbow. There are so many salads and bowl out there on the internet, but we absolutely love this Rainbow veggie salad by She Likes Food, and as far as rainbow-food goes, this bowl is truly B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L