Plum ketchup and fruity traybake chicken: 5 inspiring plum recipes that aren’t jam or crumble

The salad

Mozzarella, plum and burnt leek salad
Peach and burrata has become a popular salad combo in the last few years, but as the nights draw in, we like swapping in British plums. The combination of creamy cheese, smoky leeks, peppery watercress and sweet-sharp fruit in this simple and colourful salad is ideal for the tail end of summer. The leeks are charred and the plums lightly pickled for added sophistication.

The bit on the side

Plum ketchup (with confit duck leg and shoestring fries)
Sweet and tangy plum ketchup is a gamechanger, capturing the fruit’s honeyed character and showcasing its affinity with savoury flavours. Particularly good with meat, we recommend pairing plum ketchup with rich duck and shatteringly crispy fries for a heavenly autumnal plate. A touch of chilli, garlic, chinese five spice and fresh ginger flesh out the flavour. The ketchup will keep for a week in the fridge.

The savoury traybake

Honey & Co’s chicken, plum and sweet spice traybake
Plums… as a marinade? You read that right! This inventive recipe from Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich of restaurant Honey & Co blends the fruit with garlic, black pepper and coriander and fennel seeds and smothers the mix over chicken thighs, before roasting with more quartered plums. Demerara sugar adds a delightful stickiness.

The preserve

British plum umeboshi
Umeboshi are Japanese pickled ume plums (actually a type of apricot) and give a complex, salty-sweet-sour kick to dishes. Guess what? British plums can be fermented in exactly the same way. They’re ace served alongside roast duck or pork, whizzed to a purée and added to salad dressings or finely chopped and eaten with with steamed rice or sushi. You can chop them and stir through stews or salads as you would capers or preserved lemons, too.

The dessert

Grilled fruit salad with honey labneh
Keen cooks will be familiar with the wonders of intense, juicy grilled fruit; barbecuing does magical things to peaches, nectarines, apricots and plums. This recipe is kicked into a higher gear with the addition of sweet labneh – strained yogurt spiked with honey – and a sweet take on Egyptian nut-seed-and-spice mix dukkah, starring pistachios, sesame seeds and cinnamon. Wow.

Fancy that plum crumble, jam or cake after all? Find all our favourite plum recipes in one place: we recommend the spiced plum cake with swiss meringue frosting.