Comfort and Joy: Irresistible pleasures from a vegetarian kitchen

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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. Comfort & Joy will be a sister brand to the existing Marylebone restaurant - delivering vegetarian meals across London. "We wanted to lead the way in a well thought out, sustainable, vegetarian home delivery brand," says Ravinder.

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 *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. From the IACP award-winning author of Jikoni, a cookbook celebrating indulgence in vegetarian and vegan home cooking. 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.

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. A gorgeous and enticing marriage of styles and flavours that is uniquely Ravinder's' * Claudia Roden * 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. 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. Shortlisted for Fortnum & Mason Cookery Writer of the Year - Ravinder Bhogal for work in FT Weekend MagazineRavinder 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. This pie is based on that comforting Greek favourite – spanakopita – although it is far more forgiving to make,” says Ravinder Bhogal. Bloomsbury has landed a second cookbook from award-winning author, journalist, chef and restaurateur Ravinder Bhogal. 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.

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.

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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)