Comfort food now the nights are drawing in

[TitaniaQueenOfTheFairies]

What are your favourite vegetarian comfort food dishes? I just made shepherdess pie, one for tomorrow and one for the freezer. Thinking macaroni cheese, baked potatoes, stew and dumplings, anything with puff pastry...

What are your favourites for this time of year?

I love soups and find them so comforting. A lovely soup bowl helps.
Spicy Lentil soup is my favourite.
Soup and a fruit pudding is a very balanced comforting meal, in my opinion.
Also mashed potato, veg sausages and onion gravy.

Super-indulgent mashed potato with fried onion and grated cheese stirred through.

If I use stock I get the Kalo low salt version. There’s also a brand that is supposedly good for coeliacs/ins aufferesr etc - I think it’s called 7 and comes in a pack (like a lack of chewits). I think I’ve seen it in the kosher section too.

Aubergine belongs only in baba ganoush.

Not a great fan but there’s a Persian dish that it’s bloody lovely in (with loads of tomato garlic onion and split lentils)

@milliefiori have you seen this series in the Guardian, they look at different approaches to classic recipes and combine the best approaches.

Ahem @AgnesNaismith

Now, what about a field mushroom, some sort of oozy cheese & thyme. All tucked up in some puff pastry. Might serve with French beans and mash - with those crispy onions.

I forgot the garlic!

Aubergine Parmigiana!

www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/aubergine-parmigiana-melanzane-alla-parmigiana/

Oops.....I may have missed the word vegetarian there........

As you were

Ooh just remembered this, which is bloody brilliant comfort food -

get big flat mushrooms - put a bit of butter or olive oil in them plus some finely chopped garlic, s&p and a few chopped sage leaves

slice a red onion into big fat rounds and drizzle with a bit of oil

bake them until all is brown and bubbling and lovely

Put into rolls, with baby spinach leaves and a dollop of Stokes chilli jam. Eat with corn on the cob.

Just posted this on another thread. Do try Leek, Carrot and Potato Pie from the original fair trade cookbook - just google.

Simple, seasonal, inexpensive. It's a real traditional style winter warmer...

I’m a big fan of soup - thick lumpy soup with lovely bread and butter (or a cheese sandwich).

Oooh what’s that Persian dish all about??? Love lentils!!!!

I have @TitaniaQueenOfTheFairies, thank you. I got so excited when I saw she was featuring ratatouille but none of those is quite right either. I think I might have to book onto some cookery school in Provence...

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie - no. What about imam bayildi and aubergine curries? I love aubergine.

I’ve tried to find a recipe with a nice photo (it’s really lovely but some of the photos look awful!) and this version does have the traditional meat (just ignore that bit) but I find restaurants usually make it without these days anyway. Now the sour grapes are not a ‘must’ - but they are tart little gems of you like sour - or dried lemons can also be used (easier to get a hold off) for that tart zing.

This page also has a few of my other faves!

www.196flavors.com/iran-khoresh-bademjan/

Oh yum. www.196flavors.com/azerbaijan-kuku/

(Persian not Azerbaijani!)

Oh my god - now this is traditionally made with duck - but the sauce is so lovely I have it with rice by itself (but my favourite restaurant has started to add fried aubergine to bulk it out a bit and that’s good too).

And another favourite ‘cat stew’ (lame joke because ghormeh sounds a little like ‘cat’ in Persian.

Yes it’s very green but is really lovely with rice. Again - dried lemons give it a zesty zing.

www.196flavors.com/iran-ghormeh-sabzi/

Now I’m drooling...

Risotto. Make double and then breadcrumb and fry/bake the leftovers as arancini.

Arancini - why didn’t I think of that! I love them (the Cauldron ones are really nice, as are the Sainsbury beetroot and goats cheese ones).

I make a lot of pies this time of year, sometimes just veg and sometimes with quorn. Mushroom and leek is nice with a creamy sauce. Sometimes top with pastry or sweet potato mash.

Veggie satay curry, I loosely follow the bbc good food recipe for peanut butter chicken but use butternut squash/sweet potato etc instead of chicken.

Pasta dishes: halloumi pasta, spinach and ricotta cannelloni, lasagne.

Potato bake with cheesy topping served with peas and sweet corn. Any leftover bake can be whizzed up the next day with stock to make a lovely soup to have with crusty bread.