MORE PLEASE - COMFORT VEG

Gnocchi with Leeks and Brown Butter, Hot Girl Green Stew and Parsnip and Pepper Soup with Feta Toasties

The Dinner Party has been firmly in comfort food mode this month and for the final October episode I wanted to discuss Comfort Veg. This is, for me, the niche area of soothing eating which is strictly vegetarian or vegan and better for it.

Sometimes comfort food means creamy, cheesy, meaty, or fried and sometimes it means nutritious, lush and cheap. I think the “comfort” we get from “comfort food” can be from nourishment and goodness, or even smugness from making a dish that is as cheap as it is sensational. Its the satisfaction of knowing you are giving yourself something wholesome, tasty and relatively inexpensive that is “comforting” in itself. When I cook something like this, I sit on my sofa with a movie on, a bowl of joy on my lap and I feel utterly content.

So; here are three of my ultimate soothing, inexpensive veg dishes for cold nights under blankets and hours of David Attenborough.

To start with, I have invented something I am calling Hot Girl Green Stew and to be quite honest, you are welcome. I cannot stop eating it. It’s got a vibrant and spicy cavolo nero, jalapeño and coriander broth that is stuffed with savoy cabbage, chickpeas and more cavolo nero. It is fiery, fresh and so very bloody good, plus it is completely customisable to suit your mood. Truly this is my platonic ideal of a good vegetable stew and I hope you love it just as much.

Gnocchi with Leeks and Brown Butter is next up, with gnocchi making its first appearance on The Dinner Party! Homemade gnocchi is unbeatable and deceptively easy once you know how. I have, over the years, honed a few tricks to make sure it never gets gluey or wet and I am really proud of my recipe (plus it’s vegan!). Here, it is drenched in a sauce of softly cooked leeks and nutty brown butter (that bit is not vegan) and it would be an absolutely show-stopping main course for a Dinner Party as much as a cosy meal for a chilly night.

And then of course we HAVE to have a soup and a sandwich because dipping food = comfort food. Parnsip, Pepper and Baharat Soup with Feta Toasties is spicy, rich and easy as hell. I adore parsnips and they are so good roasted with peppers, tossed with fragrant Lebanese Baharat spice mix and served with crunchy, salty feta sandwiches.

GNOCCHI WITH LEEKS AND BROWN BUTTER

I guess you could say this is a bit like leek and potato soup in pasta dish form. That was a happy and delicious accident. I find gnocchi is often quite dense which is usually from too much flour and, in my opinion, unnecessary egg. My recipe is based on weighing our potatoes after we have cooked and riced them and then adding a flour quantity that is relative to their weight. Our sauce comes from slowly cooked leeks and plenty of toasty brown butter, a bit of gnocchi water and parmesan. It’s so much more than the sum of our parts and so utterly delicious.