Comfort and Joy: Irresistible pleasures from a vegetarian kitchen

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There is no buttering and layering of delicate filo pastry: instead, the iron-rich mixture of greens and cheese is blanketed under a nest of buttered kataifi pastry, a shredded filo dough that crisps up beautifully when baked or fried. Shortlisted for Fortnum & Mason Cookery Writer of the Year - Ravinder Bhogal for work in FT Weekend Magazine

It's well-proven that a diet centering fruits, vegetables, beans, grains, and nuts is healthier for us and our planet, but talks of decreasing global meat and dairy intake have for too long been tied to narratives of culinary sacrifice. Ravinder Bhogal, award-winning chef and self-described “half-woman, half-hummus,” knows better. In Comfort and Joy, she radically reclaims vegan and vegetarian cooking in all its abundance, with decadent, craveable recipes that bring together crisp okra fries with curry leaf mayonnaise, earthy roasted beet salad with blood orange and creamy burrata, whipped feta with tomatoes confit, and so much more.Raw, modern and sensual, Comfort and Joy applies Ravinder's creative ingenuity to approachable veg-centric recipes for home cooks. The vegetarian option will never again be relegated to second choice. The Namaste Box - Sweet and Sour Baby Aubergine Curry with Spicy Nut Butter, Alphonso Mango and Bramley Apple Dhal, French Bean, Coconut and Cashew Nut Thoran and Lemon Rice. Heat the olive oil in a large pan over low-medium heat, add the onion and sauté for 10 minutes till sweet and caramelised. Add the garlic and fry again till fragrant, then add the kale and soften before adding the spinach. Once the greens are wilted, take off the heat and cool. It's well-proven that a diet centering fruits, vegetables, beans, grains, and nuts is healthier for us and our planet, but talks of decreasing global meat and dairy intake have for too long been tied to narratives of culinary sacrifice. Ravinder Bhogal, award-winning chef and self-described “half-woman, half-hummus,” knows better. In Comfort and Joy , she radically reclaims vegan and vegetarian cooking in all its abundance, with decadent, craveable recipes that bring together crisp okra fries with curry leaf mayonnaise, earthy roasted beet salad with blood orange and creamy burrata, whipped feta with tomatoes confit, and so much more.

In June 2020, Bhogal launched a sustainable vegetarian home delivery brand, Comfort and Joy, as a sister brand to Jikoni. She is a food columnist for the FT Weekend Magazine and Guardian Feast, a contributing editor at Harper’s Bazaar, and regularly writes for the Observer Magazine and Vogue online. You’ll find kataifi pastry in the fridge or freezer section of Middle Eastern grocers.” Broccoli, kale and spinach kataifi pie Born in Kenya to Indian parents, Bhogal’s food is inspired by her mixed heritage and the UK’s diverse immigrant culture. Her first restaurant, Jikoni, was ranked 56th in the UK by the National Restaurant Awards within seven months of opening and achieved a place in the Michelin Guide in the same year. It was the UK’s first independent restaurant to go carbon-neutral. A gorgeous and enticing marriage of styles and flavours that is uniquely Ravinder's' - Claudia Roden It's strange that vegetarian food has a reputation in the West for being insipid fare, when every Indian knows its flavours can be explosive. Ravinder brings the textures, colours, and tastes of this cuisine to life, adding surprising twists along the way. With this book she shows that she is nothing less than the most original cookery writer in Britain today' * Sathnam Sanghera *Transfer to a large bowl along with the broccoli and add the eggs, pine nuts, currants, feta, ricotta, lemon zest and juice, herbs, nutmeg and sour cream, and season with salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly. At a corner table in Jikoni – where ingredients are British and inspiration global, and where one has to make impossible decisions between dishes such as whipped feta with beetroot Gujarati cake, butternut squash pakoras and crispy aubergine with Sichuan caramel – Bhogal is brimming with enthusiasm for her latest project. This month, she publishes a plant-based cookbook, full of recipes so imaginative and luscious that (and I say this as an omnivore) you’d never know they didn’t contain meat. Comfort and Joy is a fresh take on vegetarian and vegan cooking; not geared towards health or denial but indulging all the senses with a decadent global larder.

This book is equal parts mouth watering, heart warming and identity forming. A tender and soft love letter to her family, that spans three continents. Connecting us with our ancestors, the soil, our roots. Celebrating what South Asians have known for centuries, that vegetables are an entire meal. Just like Ravinder this book is generous, open hearted, Beautiful, sexy as hell and DELICIOUS. I want to eat it all' * Anita Rani * This pie is based on that comforting Greek favourite – spanakopita – although it is far more forgiving to make,” says Ravinder Bhogal. Rowan Yapp, who was this week made head of Bloomsbury Lifestyle, acquired world rights to Comfort and Joy from Felicity Blunt and Sabhbh Curran at Curtis Brown. Bloomsbury will publish in May 2023. This is not a book about food but a source of comfort. Bhogal writes with care and an inviting hand, bringing us not just into her kitchen, but her present, her histories, her intimacies' * Caleb Azumah Nelson *Ravinder is one of the best food writers in Britain today, and interwoven throughout these recipes are stories of a life led by the feel-good, life-enhancing power of vegetarian food. A gorgeous and enticing marriage of styles and flavours that is uniquely Ravinder's' * Claudia Roden * Pull apart the strands of kataifi pastry to loosen and fluff them up. Stir the butter through the kataifi, coating it well.

Pour the spinach and ricotta filling into a deep pie dish – I use a 34cm baking dish. Gently pile the kataifi over the pie filling, sprinkle over the sesame seeds and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until the filling is hot and set and the kataifi pastry is golden brown. Serve with a light salad. (Bloomsbury/PA)

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Her cookbook Jikoni: Proudly Inauthentic Recipes from an Immigrant Kitchen (Bloomsbury, 2020) was the winner of the IACP Awards Best Chef/Restaurant Cookbook and was shortlisted for both the André Simon Award and Fortnum & Mason’s Food and Drink Awards. Her debut book, Cook in Boots (HarperCollins, 2009), won the Gourmand World Cookbook Award for the UK’s Best First Cookbook and was awarded the first runner-up prize for the World’s Best First Cookbook at the Paris Cookbook Fair in February 2010.