Comfort Food - Comfort Food Recipes For All The Family
Comfort Foods
From time to time, everone craves comfort foods, for all manner of different reasons. The Winter blues are what cause me to crave comfort foods, the daylight disappearing too early, the cold and wet weather. It's just lovely to sit down and eat something that you've been craving, even if it is a little naughty on the fat and calorie front.
That old saying: 'A little of what you fancy does you good' couldn't be more appropriate when talking about comfort foods - everything in moderation. If you are looking for some comfort food recipes that will delight your taste buds, fill up your belly and satisfy your cravings, here's some comfort food ideas to terrify dieters and baffle health food fans!
What Is Comfort Food?
Whats considered to be comfort food? For me, it's something indulgent, possibly a bit heavy on the stomach and above all, delicious. It's a personal preference but it's unlikely you will ever hear someone saying "Oh, I need comfort food, I fancy a really nice salad." If it's a Ceasar Salad with loads of croutons, smoked chicken and loads of dressing, you might catch my attention, but that's still not comfort food to me!
Comfort Food Recipes
Toad in the hole is a classic English recipe that teams sausages with Yorkshire pudding batter to create a hearty meal that is quick, easy and cheap to make for all the family. Different flavored sauages can be used to make the meal different if you have it on a regular basis. Anyone can make this Toad In The Hole recipe and it's a great meal for a large family on a tight budget. Cheap meals don't have to be tasteless and boring.
Everyone knows chicken soup as a comfort food, but here's a really simple chicken soup recipe that has a minimum cooking time of one hour. By using good quality stock cubes, you can get an intense flavor faster, but the great thing is that you can leave it to simmer depending on how rich you want the soup flavor to be. A good chicken soup in an hour is a fast way to feed a family cheaply.
Pork makes a nice change from beef burgers and when you make them at home they can be as healthy as you want. From the basic burger recipe you can add all sorts of things to jazz up the flavor to suit your own tastes. Burgers are real comfort foods that can be served with all sorts of accompaniments, so they make a really versatile mealfor all the family. If you like cheeseburgers, here's a pork cheese burger recipe that's a bit different, but delicious!
This ridiculously simple recipe is basically mashed potato and cabbage made into patties and fried. It may not sound the most exciting of side dishes, but it goes great with lots of mains. So long as it is well seasoned, Bubble and squeak is a yummy comfort food that disguises the greens well if you're someone like me who hates them! A good way to get kids to eat greens!
I guess this is typically British really, but it's something that everyone should have on their comfort foods list, providing you like fish, of course! Fish in a thick batter served with chips, lots of vinegar (preferably onion vinegar) and salt may not be by any means healthy, but once in a while it makes a lovely comfort food meal that you can tailor to your personal fish preferences and / or budget.
There's something so great about putting a fajita together. Placing the salsa, guacamole and sour cream onto the tortilla then spooning over the mixture of chicken, onions and peppers to make a messy envelope of comforting goodness that tastes amazing. If I had to choose one comfort food recipe from this list, this would be it.
For sweet comfort food, for me it has to be a cheesecake. Here's a recipe for 3 different kinds of cheesecake bases and 3 different cheesecake fillings, traditional, chocolate and velvet. It may be a bit time consuming to make a cheesecake, but the results are definitely worth it.
This isn't for everyone, but for a seafood lover, a bisque is a great comfort food that is hearty and rich in flavor. Combine with some fresh crusty bread and you have a sumptious meal that is warming and delicious. Making a bisque does require effort, it's not something you'll want to do after a day at work or looking after the kids, but if you do have some spare time, making a batch up and freezing invididual portions is ideal for reheating for a quick meal.
I love homemade pizza and I can't recommend buying a pizza oven enough. The results are so different to cooking pizza at home in a regular oven. If you are buying a shop bought pizza either fresh or frozen, go with the regular oven. If you are making your own pizza, think about investing in a pizza oven because they are so worth it! The taste and texture is way better. This pizza recipe is for basic pizza margherita, I made it basic so you could choose to add whatever toppings you like. We all like our pizzas differently after all.
There's something really comforting about a good moussaka. I love the way the layers of the meat, sauce and eggplant work perfectly together. This is a traditional moussaka recipe made with lamb, though as mentioned above, I'm not a fan of red meat, so I either make this using pork (shhhh!) or just veggie. Either way, it's delicious and really filling after a long hard day.
I am a cheese fanatic, I love cheeses of all kinds. Cheese fondue is one of my most favourite meals and I think it definitely deserves to be considered comfort food. This is a 4 cheese fondue recipe that is creamy and delicious. I like the adaptability of fondue, you can dip anything you like into it, there's no rules.
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