5 delicious meals in autumn: These recipes taste particularly good for cyclists now

After an autumn training session, there is hardly anything better than regenerating with a warm, home-cooked meal. The selection of seasonally available foods is now as colourful as the leaves on the trees. Pumpkins and apples are piling up in the supermarket shelves and are a natural source of high-quality carbohydrates and vitamins. The body can make particularly good use of these as the cold season approaches. When your stores are empty after a bike tour and your stomach is rumbling, all you need is the right inspiration to get cooking. We have identified five recipes that should taste particularly good to cyclists. So: please imitate them!

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1st autumn dish for cyclists: Oven gnocchi with pumpkin

Pumpkin and mushrooms are the absolute classics in autumn, which can be perfectly complemented by Brussels sprouts. Herbs and cheese add a burst of flavour. The dish needs very little attention in the oven and the gnocchi will be nice and crispy. Enjoy your meal!

Ingredients for 4 people

• 400 g mushrooms (e.g. king oyster mushrooms, button mushrooms, chanterelles)
• ½ Hokkaido pumpkin (approx. 500 g)
• 400 g Brussels sprouts
• 3-4 stalks thyme
• 5 tbsp olive oil
• Salt, pepper from the mill
• 500 g gnocchi (chilled)
• 100 g cheese, e.g. Gouda
• 200 g sour cream (20 % fat)
• 100 ml vegetable stock
• 1 bunch of chives

Preparation

1. Clean and trim the mushrooms and cut into pieces. Wash and clean the pumpkin and cut into wedges. Wash and clean the Brussels sprouts, halve any large florets. Wash the thyme and pat dry. Remove some for garnish, pluck the leaves from the rest and chop.
2. Preheat the oven to 200°C and line a baking tray with baking paper. Mix the pumpkin and Brussels sprouts with 3 tbsp of oil, salt and pepper, spread on the prepared baking tray and pre-cook in the oven for approx. 15 mins. Mix the mushrooms and gnocchi with the remaining oil, salt and pepper and the pumpkin mixture. Cook everything in the oven for a further 10 mins. Grate the cheese.
3. Mix the sour cream and stock, season with salt, pepper and chopped thyme, spread over the gnocchi mixture, sprinkle with cheese and bake for a further 15 mins. Wash the chives, pat dry and chop. Scatter over the oven gnocchi with the reserved thyme to garnish.

Preparation: 20 min. Cooking: 40 min.

2nd dish: Berliner-style apple schnitzel

Very few people have ever combined apple and schnitzel in the kitchen. Athletes need not fear a dash of wine, as the alcohol evaporates during cooking. A hearty autumn dish that tastes particularly good after a lively Sunday round.

Ingredients for 4 people

• 2 onions
• 2 apples
• 1-2 tbsp lemon juice
• 4 pork escalopes (approx. 120 g each)
• Salt, pepper from the mill
• 1 tbsp clarified butter
• approx. 150 ml vegetable stock
• 2 tbsp sherry (or port)
• 1 bed of cress
• 1-2 tsp cornflour
• Marjoram, dried

Preparation

1. Peel the onions and cut into rings. Wash the apples, remove the core with a corer, cut the apples into thin slices and sprinkle with a little lemon juice.
2. Pat the escalopes dry, season with salt and pepper, fry on both sides in the heated clarified butter in a pan and remove. Add the onion rings and apple slices to the remaining frying fat and fry as well.
3. Pour in the stock and sherry and reduce a little. Cut the cress from the bed. Mix the cornflour with a little water, thicken the sauce with it and season with marjoram, salt and pepper. Add the escalopes, heat briefly, arrange on plates, garnish with the cress and serve. Tip: Mashed or roasted potatoes taste good as a side dish.

Preparation: 25 min.

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3rd autumn dish: Tarte flambée with radicchio

Radicchio is still in season in October. So let's get it on the tarte flambée! The subtly bitter flavour harmonises perfectly with an autumnal, ripe pear and delicious blue cheese. Tarte flambée always works in autumn and also tastes good cold. So better make some more right away!

Ingredients for 4 people

• 2 packs of tarte flambée dough (260 g each; from the chiller cabinet)
• 250 g sour cream Salt, ground pepper
• 2 small pears
• 200 g Bavaria Blu (or another blue cheese)
• 100 g pine nuts
• 50 g radicchio or Treviso
• ½ Pomegranate

Preparation

1. Allow the tarte flambée dough to reach room temperature and preheat the oven to 200°C fan oven.
2. Stir the sour cream with salt and pepper until smooth. Unroll the tarte flambée dough and baking paper onto two baking trays, spread with sour cream, leaving a 1/2 cm border all round.
3. Wash, quarter and core the pears and cut into wedges. Cut the Bavaria Blu into slices and spread on the tarte flambée with the pear wedges. Bake the tarte flambée in the oven for approx. 15 mins.
4. In the meantime, toast the pine nuts in a pan without fat. Clean and wash the radicchio, leaving the small leaves whole and plucking the larger leaves into pieces or cutting them into strips. Remove the pomegranate seeds.
5. Remove the tarte flambée from the oven and arrange the radicchio on top. Sprinkle with pine nuts and pomegranate seeds and serve immediately.

Preparation: 30 min.

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4th cyclist meal in autumn: Butternut roast

Back to the pumpkin: a roast without any meat is possible with the flavourful butternut. Quinoa, courgette, nuts and leek are perfect for autumn. Our tip: Prepare it before your bike tour, then put it in the oven first and after a shower, bike wash and stretching session, you have a great vegan autumn dish.

Ingredients for 4 people

• 70 g quinoa
• 2 tbsp linseed
• 1 courgette
• 1 leek stalk
• 1 butternut squash (approx. 1.8 kg)
• 2 onions
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 30 g cranberries
• 2 tbsp chopped nut kernels
• Salt, pepper from the mill
• 2 tbsp vegan margarine
• 2 tbsp wheat flour (type 405)
• 500 ml vegetable stock
• 2-3 tbsp herbs (frozen)
• 2-3 tsp mustard
• Also: kitchen string, aluminium foil

Preparation

1. Prepare the quinoa according to the packet instructions. Soak the linseed in 2 tbsp hot water. Wash and clean the courgettes, cut in half lengthways, scoop out the flesh, leaving a rim about ½ cm thick. Wash and trim the leek. Wash the pumpkin, cut in half lengthways, remove the fibres and seeds. Also scrape out some of the flesh.
2. Preheat the oven to 200°C and line a baking tray with baking paper. Peel and finely chop the onions and garlic. Chop the courgette and pumpkin flesh and fry in a pan with the onion and garlic in 2 tbsp of heated oil. Mix in the quinoa, cranberries, nuts and linseed, season with salt and pepper. Stuff 2/3 of the mixture into a pumpkin half.
3. Fill the courgette halves with the leek and place on top of the quinoa mix in the pumpkin. Cover with the remaining quinoa mix. Place the second pumpkin half on top and secure the pumpkin roast with kitchen string. Brush with the remaining oil, wrap in aluminium foil and cook on the baking tray in the oven for 1½-2 hours.
4. Sauté the second onion in the heated margarine in a small pan. Dust with flour and sauté. Pour in the stock, bring to the boil and flavour the sauce with herbs, mustard, salt and pepper. Serve with the roast pumpkin.

Preparation: 45 min. Cooking: 1 ½-2 hours.

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5. food for cyclists: oat granola

Breakfast of the Champions! Oats are enormously beneficial for athletes. This breakfast is easy to prepare and provides plenty of energy from natural ingredients before training. With fresh berries, this granola is a breakfast hit!

Ingredients for 4 people

• 25 g coconut oil
• 2 tbsp maple syrup
• 50 g wholegrain rolled oats
• 25 g flaked almonds
• 15 g pumpkin seeds
• 15 g sunflower seeds
• 15 g soft or dried fruit (e.g. apricots, plums, pears)
• 2 dates
• 15 g dried cranberries
• 300 g raspberries
• 1 Apple
• 2 bananas
• 1 kg yoghurt, plain (1.5 % fat)
• 2 tbsp cocoa nibs
• 1 tbsp chia seeds

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a baking tray with baking paper. Melt the oil with the syrup in a small pan. Mix in the rolled oats, almonds, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds and spread on the baking tray. Bake in the oven for 15-20 mins. Turn halfway through the baking time and mix thoroughly. Leave to cool for at least 30 minutes after baking.
2. Cut the soft or dried fruit and the dates into cubes and mix into the cooled granola with the cranberries. Carefully rinse the raspberries if necessary and pat dry. Wash, core and roughly grate the apple. Peel the bananas, cut into slices, puree ¼ with the yoghurt, mix in the grated apple and divide between bowls. Arrange the remaining banana slices and berries on top and serve sprinkled with granola, cocoa nibs and chia seeds.

Preparation: 20 min. Baking: 15-20 min. Cooling: 30 min

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