Autumn Comfort Cooking

I've just been writing a shopping list for this week's meals. There's gnocchi, lasagne, burger and chips on there. We're having pizza for tea tonight too. I crave comfort foods at this time of year. I'm trying to counter the carb overload by taking up a new exercise regime. I've recently dropped some hours at work and can't afford a gym membership so it exists of a stack of Davina McCall DVDs bought cheap off eBay and Amazon and two tins of baked beans for weights! Here's a little look at what I've been cooking recently.

This Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese was something I made on our recent holiday to Suffolk. I'll be blogging about the places we found to eat soon. It's this recipe from Oh She Glows pimped up with some cubed Vegandeli chorizo. I've been sampling some of the Vegandeli slicing sausage range for an upcoming Can I Eat It? review and this was a great way to use it.

I love a good roast dinner and we've been often enjoying them with the Artisan Nut Roasts recently. I decided it was time to try something different and remembered the fantastic Chickpea Cutlet recipe from Veganomicon. It was Matt's first time trying them and he was well impressed. I love how these make extra and freeze well. The picture was taken before I added my usual vat of gravy.

Here's another roast dinner. We've been really getting into roasting sprouts and cauliflower. They taste so good cooked this way. The centre piece of this dinner was Macsween Vegetarian Haggis. This wasn't just the standard haggis though (which I love). This was a limited edition new product - Moroccan Spiced Haggis. I tried this for another Can I Eat It? review and I must say that I was a bit dubious about whether this would work but I was really pleasantly surprised. It's spiced without being chilli spicy and has gorgeous flavours from the inclusion of apricots, prunes, ginger and lime. It's being launched this month in Selfridges but then will be more widely available. Definitely worth trying if you spot it anywhere.

And finally something simple and quick that really hits the comfort food spot. This was a 15 minute Saturday lunch. The French Onion soup is made from a thinly sliced onion, veg stock, a teaspoon of mixed herbs, a teaspoon of yeast extract and a splash of brandy. This costs pence to make but is so tasty and great for when you feel a cold coming on. Alongside it is cheese on toast made with Veganic Pizza Cheese liberally splashed with the Yorkshire delicacy that is Henderson's Relish. 

What's your ideal Autumn comfort food?