As the seasons change, so do our appetites. Cool weather calls for food that’s warm, comforting and substantial. Hefty roast meats and slow-simmering stews come to mind. Nigel Slater has other thoughts.
To him, longer evenings are the time to “dig out my capacious ladle for a creamed celery root soup as soft as velvet.” Carbs take on leading roles — as rice- and noodle-based entrees, beans mashed into “buttery clouds,” and sturdy toasts “happy to be slathered with a thick wave of crème fraiche or hummus, roast vegetables, or perhaps cheese to melt and bubble.”
These titillating descriptions, and instructions for making them, can be found in “Greenfeast: Autumn, Winter” (Ten Speed Press, $26), the first of Slater’s two plant-based recipe collections originally released in the U.K. last year. (Its “Spring, Summer” counterpart arrives in the U.S. next April.)
Slater is a British journalist and author of bestselling cookbooks as beloved for his skillful wordsmithing as for his uncomplicated approach to creative meal-making. His memoir, “Toast: The Story of a Boy’s Hunger,” was adapted into a BBC film. Though not a vegetarian, he’s found that dinner can be just as satisfying even when meat isn’t “the knee-jerk star of every meal.”
The recipes I’ve tried thus far from this compact, 6-by-8-inch volume back his thesis. Each is presented alongside its photograph with just enough words to pique my appetite.
“Parsnips, Cashews, Spices” involves caramelizing root vegetables, simmering them in a creamy, coconut and curry-scented gravy, then swirling in a verdant puree of spinach, nuts and chiles. It was delicious, filling, and quick to assemble, as was “Burrata, Beans, Tomatoes”: canned cannellini beans brought to a sizzle in olive oil with smashed garlic cloves and cherry tomatoes, topped with a slab of oozy cheese, and showered with basil.
Entrees are designed to serve two, and occupy the bulk of the book. Happily, though, he ends with a handful of desserts for wider sharing. Buttery banana slices baked with maple syrup in a puff pastry shell could be just the antidote to a bone-chilling day. Or I could just forget the thermostat and go with Slater’s rationale: “Sometimes we need dessert.”
Susan Puckett is a cookbook author and former food editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Follow her at susanpuckett.com.
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