Even if you don't have a cold, some cosy nutritious food might help your chances at warding one off. I thought I'd post a couple of recipe ideas; and they are particularly good in this dismal weather. I'm not going to list ingredient quantities and you can vary them however you'd like.
The first is a butter bean and vegetable stew baked with garlic bread. This is an easily delicious vegetarian recipe. Add a chopped onion to some olive oil in a fairly deep saucepan, fry off for a bit before adding chopped celery (about 2-3 sticks) and a couple of carrots, chopped into little pieces. I don't often like carrots 'in' things, however they do work really well here. Now crush some garlic cloves, finely chop and add to the pot. I have to say I love garlic, and usually add 2 large cloves- they're very good at getting rid of germs and as we all are told, they are very 'cleansing'. It's good to add them here instead of at the beginning so that it doesn't 'burn'- that doesn't smell or taste nice. Add a can of butter beans. You can also add flageolet beans, or perhaps cannellini beans. Add chopped tomatoes and some vegetable stock (swiss bouillon is good, but anything will do). You want it quite liquidy as it will need need to boil until the carrots soften. Now is the time to add herbs. Like my love of garlic, I love herbs- french/italian herb will work quite well. Try basil, thyme, oregano, and a bit of rosemary- basically any 'herbes de provence' will work. I like oregano a lot so I tend to put more in as thyme is quite a dominant taste. Leave this to bubble whilst you make the garlic bread.
Any bread you think will work will do- you could use a chopped baguette, or you could use a slightly stale bread, seeded bread.. I used a cheap polish rye/wheat bread from a local shop that work very well. Mix some butter (or soya/ vegetable spread) with chopped garlic and chopped fresh parsley, and spread this onto the bread slices. Now all you have to do is wait and make sure the stew is cooked nicely, then put it into some kind of fairly deep dish (with a sprinkle of cracked pepper of course!) and lay the garlic bread in slightly overlapping layers on the top. Bake until the bread is looking nice and golden. Like I mentioned, it's a good idea to make sure the stew is fairly liquidy, as the bottom of the bread will soak up a lot of the juices so you get a warm comforting doughiness with a bit of a crunch on the top.
It's also a handy recipe if you're trying to eat cheaply as you can keep some stew aside and just add some bread again and bake the next day. I also reckon it's easy to customise the mixture to exactly what you feel like.
The next is a baked butternut squash with cheese, ginger and honey. Chop a butternut squash in half, get rid of the seeds, spread with honey and bake until fairly soft. Then scoop out the insides and mix in a bowl with chopped garlic, a spoon of honey, bit of fresh ginger, cheese (cheddar, gruyere, goats cheese are all good, or a mixture). Add herbs if you'd like and season. Now pop that back into the squash 'skin', and add a bit of extra cheese on the top and bake until the top starts to melt. The honey isn't too sweet, and it's a lovely alternative to a baked potato/ sweet potato. I've tried it without ginger and it's nice too. You could eat this alone with vegetables, or top it with a vegetable/lentil/bean stew if we are carrying on this theme! I think it would work well too sliced up after baking and eaten as a starter/ nibble with friends.
-Pazzi
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