Food / Wellbeing

Meditative recipes for the cooler months

winter-recipes

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 five recipes below that encourage meditative cooking and eating for the cooler months.

Paccheri with Pork Shoulder Ragu and Creamy Goat Cheese

winter-recipes

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

winter-recipes

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

winter-recipes

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.