Beef Cheek And Bean Ragu, Delicious Magazine
As a ragu, this deeply warming dish is beautiful served with pasta as an interesting variation on the classic Bolognese. However, we like it even better piled into a bowl as is and served with a hunk of crusty bread. With cannellini beans, celery, garlic, onion, thyme and sage, it is not only the stuff of great comfort, but also punches up your veg intake brilliantly – always important but more so than now as we plunge into the depths of winter. Find the recipe here.
Vegetable Casserole With Dumplings, BBC
Packed full of veg – including celeriac, cannellini beans, spinach and leeks – this nutritional wonder is not only virtuous but comforting too. That last is, in part, down to being topped with dumplings to add some pleasingly wintry stodge to the whole affair. As they note, it is ‘simple enough to whip up quickly, but smart enough to serve to friends.’ In a word: perfect. Find the recipe here.
Mary Berry’s Rather Special Chicken and Herb Casserole, The Happy Foodie
What Mary Berry doesn’t know about whipping up a wholesome supper is barely worth bothering with. This delightful and warming chicken casserole is given an earthy depth thanks to the chestnut mushrooms, a delicate yet distinctive flavour thanks to the crisped sage leaves and a creaminess thanks to the silky crème fraiche. Ideal for dinner parties, particularly since it can be made a day in advance thus dispensing with too much stove time when guests arrive. Find the recipe here.
Sausage And Cider Casserole, Delicious Magazine
The perfect meal to devour after a Sunday spent virtuously toiling in the garden, this hearty casserole is a total crowd-pleaser, as well as being brilliantly nourishing and heartily wholesome. A one-pan wonder, make it with organic sausages, leeks, apple cider vinegar, dry cider, spinach, chicken stock and wholegrain mustard for a punchy and delicious evening meal – to be followed, ideally, with a snooze in front of the fire. Find the recipe here.
Oriental Pork Casserole With Stir-Fried Green Vegetables, Delia Smith
Good old Delia. Who else could we trust quite so reliably to deliver the goods and yet save us time in the kitchen? As she notes, this recipe is wonderfully flavoursome and yet takes only six minutes in the active cooking time – all while feeding four to six hungry mouths. Flavoursome, delicious and easy, this is a recipe to turn to again and again. Find the recipe here.
Monkfish, Mussel and Prawn Stew with Char-grilled Sourdough (Cioppino), Rick Stein/ The Happy Foodie
As seen on Rick Stein's BBC series, The Road to Mexico, this dish is packed full of flavour and goodness. Best of all, we like the fact that it works all year round, whether to lap up a taste of the sea in the summer or to devour huddled around the fire in winter. Hailing from the Tadich Grill in California, the oldest restaurant in the state having been there since 1849, the cioppino – which literally means chopped seafood – is one of its signature dishes with good reason. Serve it with a good sourdough and enjoy. Find the recipe here.
By Nancy Alsop
November 2023
