TV Tonight: Jamie Cooks Spring (New Series)

In this new series, Jamie Oliver takes us through the year, celebrating gorgeous ingredients and what we can make with them as they come into season in the UK. He takes us on a delicious journey through the kitchen calendar, celebrating weird, wonderful, beautiful and wonky produce with inspiring recipes for when they’re at their best – helping us to eat well for ourselves and the planet.

This series is a celebration of sustainable, seasonal produce and the re-awakening of the kitchen garden after winter, with the freshest new fruit and veg ready for picking and cooking.

In this first episode, Jamie picks some rhubarb from the garden and celebrates its tart tanginess by making a lip-smacking sauce for marinated pork belly, pan-fried until crispy in his hot and sour rhubarb crispy pork noodles, a special dish for any springtime occasion. He picks some new season spinach for a silky and luxurious spinach and goat’s cheese risotto, before celebrating a veg that has seen us through the winter and into spring – the leek – as he cooks up a scruffy spring tart.

Jamie also shows us how to divide shop-bought basil into lots of individual plants to last us through the year and celebrates the vibrantly coloured stalks and leaves of chard in a crowd-pleasing cheesy spring cannelloni – a perfect reflection of this time of year.

All three episodes will be available to stream following the transmission of this episode.