All posts tagged: Comfort Food

Spiced Butternut Squash Soup

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When it’s cold out, a good bowl of soup can be really satisfying.  This one really hits the spot, and it’s so simple to make. The addition of ginger boosts the warming quotient, and the coriander adds a subtle spice without being overpowering. I love this made with chicken stock, for a really rounded flavour, but vegetable stock works well too, to make this a vegetarian dish. I originally came across a version of this recipe in a book called ‘Easy Entertaining’, but the original used allspice berries instead of ginger and coriander.  I definitely prefer the ginger and ground coriander for the warmth and more subtle flavour; but if you’re making this at Christmas time, the allspice is a good seasonal variation. I’m lazy, and think life’s too short to toast your own pine nuts, so I buy ready-toasted ones, but by all means toast your own if you have the time or inclination! This works well with a scattering of fried bacon or pancetta as garnish, but again, only if you have the time …

Turkey Meatballs in Tomato Sauce

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I have recently been thinking of cutting back on the amount of red and processed meat that we eat, not least after watching the recent BBC documentary investigating the relative health-and environmental impacts of eating various kinds of meat protein. But Chief Stick Collector and Bird Girl definitely fall into the carnivorous camp, and love their bolognese sauce and beef meatballs.  Vegetables are either just about tolerated (on a good day) or outright refused (unless hidden incognito in something else!).  So the question was whether I could replicate one of their favourite beefy meals with something else? Step forward Turkey Mince.  The challenge? Make some meatballs with turkey mince that were not only edible, but tasty. A bit of internet surfing revealed a large number of recipes for turkey meatballs, but none seemed exactly what I was looking for, so I mixed and matched and added and subtracted and threw in a variation of one of our favourite tomato pasta sauces, and ended up with the recipe below. The results? Well, the children loved the sauce …