Spring shopping basket: my favourite fruit and veg

While our spring weather see-saws, you can still eat like it's peak season. Find out my favourite type of mango (especially when it is only a dollar!), what to do with fennel and a fun fact about continental cucumbers.

While I always picture spring as sunshine and daffodils, the reality where I live is a bit different. Mind you, even with a few days of grey in a row it's never as challenging as my previous home, London. So here's cheers that our fresh produce is spot on with its seasonality.

You can get a mood boost at your local grocer by buying up these delicious spring fruit and veg:

Mangoes: Yes, mangoes are here! Skip Honey Gold and Calypso and pick up sweet and tangy Kensington Prides, if you can. I bought two today from my local supermarket for just $1 each. They are a simple, healthy dessert, just as they are.

If you have IBS and are temporarily limiting high FODMAP foods, just have a couple of bites of mango and grab some gold kiwifruit instead. New dietary guidance in the UK recommends two kiwifruit a day for four weeks to improve constipation.

Cucumbers: Cucumbers are cheap right now: you can buy a Lebanese cucumber for 70c or a continental cucumber for about $1.30 (laughing as I type because there's nothing elegantly European about this variety of cucumber to my eyes, but let's go with it!). If the sun comes out, make my prawn and pickled vegetable rice paper rolls as a change from your regular sandwich. Get the recipe here.

Fun fact: Apparently the continental cucumber is sometimes known as a burpless cucumber, because it's less likely to cause digestive discomfort.

Fennel: Fennel is full of gut-loving fibre (excuse the alliteration). Once the price comes down to a couple of dollars, buy one and thinly slice it to create one of my favourite salads – with baby spinach or rocket, sliced pear or apple and some parmesan shavings, dressed with olive oil, freshly cracked black pepper and lemon juice. Inspired by a recipe from beloved UK cook Nigel Slater, this salad goes with absolutely anything.

What else is in season? Continue to grab avocadoes for your sandwich or toast (stick to a quarter of an avo if your stomach is sensitive); all sorts of baby tomatoes, from classic cherry to the intriguing Perino Noir variety; and perennial bok choy, which seems to be $2.90 year round. I'm into making Chinese Dan Dan noodles at the moment, with crispy tofu instead of mince.