Letting go of summer produce is one of the worst things about the cooler months. But as we bid stone fruit, perfect tomatoes, and the most fragrant mangoes farewell, we make room for things that feed our souls in other ways. Poaching, roasting, preserving. Slowly rendering the fat out of something that will be submerged in silky sauce for hours on end. Things that keep us sustained, food as a source of warmth. Summer food often feels swift - arranging crunchy vegetables on a plate with homemade mayonaise, searing seafood on high heat or eating it raw with a drop of lemon, sprinkling chilli powder and salt over perfectly ripe fruit.
Winter food is meditative. Turning classically hard, hearty produce into supple morsels, rendering meat low and slow, boiling beans in a pool of aromatics to eat for the week ahead. In the spirit of winter food, we're rounding up recipes below that encourage meditative cooking and eating for the cooler months.
Paccheri with Pork Shoulder Ragu and Creamy Goat Cheese
Goats cheese cuts perfectly through rich ragu on satisfyingly tube-shaped pasta. Hard to find faults in this dish when you're halfway through it and needing to pace yourself.
Cashew Milk Braised Cabbage with Crunchy Chile Oil
Here, cabbage is deeply charred before braising with cashew milk, ginger, scallions, chiles, and garlic. The cabbage becomes weak in the knees while the cashew milk transforms into a thick pudding, similar to soft tofu or cheese.
Poached Mulled Wine Pears
As delicious as you'd imagine. Syrupy, spiced, and supple. Crisp pears transform into melty goodness with the help of red wine and sugar.
Braised Goat Shoulder Rubbed with Spanish Spices
Goat shoulder is warmed up with fragrant spices and left in the oven for two and a half hours to fall apart.
Laila Gohar's Beans
Nothing is more comforting than slowly cooked beans in rich aromatic broth. Serve with fried bread and homemade aioli and relish in the simple luxury.
Enoki Five-Spice Chinese Vegetable Soup
Doused with Chinkiang Chinese cooking oil, star anise, ginger and all the good stuff, this chinese vegetable broth will elevate any winter warmer or soup dish.
Ouzo Snapper with Fennel and Tomato
Fish: an art form with a legion of different ways how to cook it. An entire snapper might seem like a daunting task, but the Greek-scented licorice liqueur and fennel do the heavy lifting in perfuming the meat.
Brown Butter Acorn Squash Pasta with Toasted Sage
An unctuous balance of sweet, savoury and the perfect bite of char. You'll make enough to go round, maybe just for one.
Gingersnap Key Lime Pie
Gingersnap cookies imbues this summer pie with a cosy, winter-appropriate nod. And if you ask us - lime pie is trans-seasonal.
Sian Redgrave’s Baked Rigatoni With Broccoli and Zucchini Pesto and Pangrattato
Week-night appropriate, one-pan, and under Sian Regrave's watchful eye. It's all here.
Black Sesame Dessert Soup
Anyone who knows me by identity knows I am a fiend for black sesame. And there are plenty of reasons to be: it's vegan, gluten free, menstrually soothing and velvet-rich. The homemade version of this recipe with toasted sesame seeds will have you raving.
Lemon White Bean Soup with Turkey and Beans
When all else fails, turn to the New York Times for a punchy soup in a fraction of the time. This bean and turkey mince iteration sings from the ladle.
Anything Goes Donabe
The beauty of Anything Goes Donabe is that it's a stock purger for your fridge shelves. As long as the base of dashi and glass noodle is there, toss anything you you please that can be lightly simmered, in the donabe pot.
Rukmini Iyer's Leek, Spinach and Mushroom Tagliatelle
Finished in the pan with a swig of white wine and a parmesan cheese bread crumb.
Basil Tomato Soup
Topped with a surprise, earthy element: ghee.
Man’oushe za’atar flatbread
Za'atar is my favourite spice. And supple, doughy, man'oushe flatbread is the perfect vessel for the sumac and sesame blend. What did I say? Big fan of sesame.
Alison Roman's Brothy Chickpeas in Calabrian Chilli
Several spoonfuls of diced calabrian chilli elevate this humble dish from a nourishing broth to a knockout on your coldest days.
