Monday
- Ploughman's plate with quick pickled onionsmature cheddar · crusty bread · pink pickled onions
Home · Across the UK · South West England
A region of England
South West England: its food, and a week to cook at home.
Dairy farms, cider orchards and fishing harbours. The South West gave the country Cheddar, clotted cream and the pasty.
The photograph is AI-generated.
What people eat here
Dishes from South West England
No. 1
The Cornish pasty
Beef, potato, swede and onion sealed in pastry with a crimped edge. Cornish Pasty is a protected food name: a pasty sold as Cornish must be made in Cornwall.
No. 2
The cream tea
Scones with jam and clotted cream. In Devon the cream usually goes on first, in Cornwall the jam; both counties argue the point.
No. 3
Cheddar
The cheese takes its name from the village of Cheddar in Somerset. West Country Farmhouse Cheddar is a protected food name.
No. 4
Stargazy pie
A Cornish fish pie with pilchard heads poking through the crust, made in Mousehole for Tom Bawcock's Eve in December.
What grows here, and when
Mackerel through the summer, cider apples in autumn, and new potatoes and asparagus in late spring.
Cornish clotted cream is a protected food name. Somerset and Devon grow cider apples, and the harbours of Cornwall and Devon land crab, mackerel and hake.
Seven days, seven menus
A sample week from our recipes
A week to cook at home that suits South West England and its seasons, using only recipes on this site. Each day reads in the order you eat.
Tuesday
- Crisp hake with minty crushed peascrisp-skin hake · minty crushed peas · lemon new potatoes
- Creamy mashed potatoessilky mash · warm butter · chives
Wednesday
- Leek and potato soupsilky leek and potato · snipped chives · green olive oil
- Welsh rarebit on sourdoughgolden cheddar rarebit · toasted sourdough · peppery watercress
Thursday
- Jacket potatoes with smoky homemade beanscrisp jacket potato · smoky tomato beans · chives
- Green leaf salad with mustard dressingsoft garden leaves · cucumber · mustard dressing
Friday
- Smoked mackerel pâté with toastsmoked mackerel · lemon and chive · sourdough toast
- Steak with peppercorn sauce and watercressseared sirloin · cracked peppercorn cream · peppery watercress
Saturday
- Jamaican curry goat with white riceslow simmered goat · golden curry gravy · white rice
- Caribbean rice and peascoconut rice · red kidney beans · thyme and pimento
Sunday
- Roast chicken thighs with leeks and potatoesgolden chicken thighs · sweet roast leeks · crisp potatoes
- Crisp roast potatoes with rosemary and garliccrackled roast potatoes · rosemary · soft roasted garlic
- Apple and blackberry crumblebramley apple and blackberry · golden oat crumble · warm custard
We have no recipe yet for the Cornish pasty, scones or stargazy pie.
Meal plans that suit South West England
Cities in South West England
Facts checked on 27 October 2026.