Last Updated on July 29, 2024
A celebration of the most important meal of the day
Meera Sodha describes putting a good dinner on the table as her superpower. Until I read this, I had never considered making dinner for my family over decades as a superpower so much as a responsibility and sometimes, but not always, a joy. A super-achievement, certainly. In her introduction, Sodha shares with her readers the reason why making dinner came to feel like her superpower. After a period of depression that began a few years ago – she describes it as ‘darkness’ – she found her way back into herself by slowly returning to her kitchen to make dinner for her family. Previously, she had been relentlessly busy, finding great success with her first cookbook, Made In India, which was followed by Fresh India and East. Additional acclaim resulted from her weekly The New Vegan column in The Guardian’s FEAST section. Having had what she describes as a breakdown, she felt unable to enter the kitchen for a long while. When she returned to her stove, she began by cooking according to what she felt like eating. These recipes were recorded in an orange notebook and the collection became the basis of her new cookbook, Dinner.
Sodha’s newly published Dinner (Fig Tree) comprises 120 vegan and vegetarian recipes ‘for the most important meal of the day’. I agree with that description – breakfast in my household has always been eaten in relay fashion, but we always sit down for dinner together. On weekends, we tend to eat dinner at lunchtime especially if we are entertaining. The days of evening dinner parties seem to have fizzled out and most of my friends seem to prefer – as do I – lunchtime get togethers.
Dinner is a very useful book for a variety of reasons. Firstly, it is packed full of spicy ideas with which Sodha’s readers will be familiar from both her previous cookbooks and her weekly column in The Guardian. Secondly, with many of us trying to be more plant-based in our eating, it is so helpful to have an exciting set of plant-based recipes. Thirdly, for those who break into a sweat when vegan guests are due, this book settles all anxieties. If you have a vegan in your household, even better.
The book divides curiously into a choice of chapters. There is the conventional list divided into vegetable type with happy endings to conclude. Then there is a second choice of chapters entitled Eat the Seasons with the recipes distributed according to seasonality. I particularly liked the third iteration of the chapters which comprised the following: Quick, One pot/pan, bung it in the oven, curries, noodles/pasta, rice, soups and stews, salads, and Meera’s favourites. That is covering a lot of ground in one book and the titles show just how versatile this book is.
I began at the end, the chapter on happy endings, otherwise known as dessert. I might be one of the few people in the UK who did not bake even one banana bread during the Covid lockdowns. Not because I didn’t spend a lot of time in the kitchen, trying to raise our spirits and nourish our bodies with good meals – which at times felt like that was all there was to look forward to in the day. It is more because I am not a great fan of banana bread in the first place. Sodha’s recipe is vegan and, having previously found vegan desserts to be a bit lacking somehow, I thought this would be a good challenge. I served it to a carnivorous family group gathered under my apple tree for lunch and waited for the feedback. One guest ate four slices which I took to be a good sign. When I revealed that it was vegan – and as it turned out, also gluten free – there was a murmur of approval. It had a good texture, not too dense, light in fact, with good flavour and not too sweet. Everyone liked the crunchy topping care of the tablespoon of demerara sugar strewn over before baking. Loving tahini as I do, I liked the nutty flavour it imparted. We did not eat it with butter (or non- dairy butter as the recipe suggested) as we were eating it with tea after a Sunday lunch. However, I take the chef’s treat concept seriously, and that evening, I toasted the last slice and slathered it with butter and it was even more delicious.
The salad section of Dinner by Meera Sodha is quite unlike what I expected to find – nam jim aubergine salad with wild rice and fried egg salad being just two examples. I enjoyed Sodha’s no-cook salad with tomatoes, chickpeas and rose harissa so much that I served it twice in a week. It is so versatile not to mention very flavoursome from the rose harissa dressing. I was surprised by the amount of harissa suggested (I checked a few times that I had read ‘three tablespoons’ correctly) and thought it would be far too spicy, but it was combined with olive oil and lemon juice which tempered it beautifully. The first time I served it as a midweek, stand-alone lunch dish – with sourdough toast on the side – and it kept me going until dinner time. The second time I served it as a starter course on a platter of labneh – you could call it loaded labneh – along with wholemeal pitas that I toasted, brushed with za’atar and olive oil and crisped in a hot oven.
A one pot/pan dish that made everyone go ‘WOW’ was the butter beans in salsa verde. This must be eaten on the day – the leftovers had lost the vibrant colour and flavour by the next day. It does require some chopping and picking of leaves of herbs, but the result is well worth your time. I have never eaten a vegetarian salsa verde and thought I would miss the pungency of the anchovies, but this was so flavoursome that it makes a quite wonderful alternative if vegetarians or vegans are at the table. Or even if they are not. I will certainly be making this again, it is brilliant as part of a mezze course. Do use jarred butter beans rather than canned for this dish, they really provide just an extra level of texture and taste.
I almost always cook a lentil dish if a recipe book has one and Dinner has an easy lentil soup with harissa and preserved lemon. I would never have thought to use preserved lemons in a lentil soup – this is why I love to be inspired by cookbooks. I served the soup as soon as it was cooked even though I usually wait until the following day when the flavours have always deepened. It was very satisfying and my guest that evening particularly enjoyed the fried onion topping. The following day I had some soup left over – I added a few spoons of leftover brown basmati rice to make it into a filling dinner – and indeed the flavours had intensified, and it made a very welcome addition to a chilly evening in July. I used a creamy Greek yoghurt as a garnish along with the fried onions and a slick of excellent olive oil, all of which made each spoonful pleasurable.
On another evening I prepared miso butter greens pasta which was full of umami flavours even if my dish did not manage to acquire the gorgeous green in the accompanying photograph. I have bought the requisite Jalapeno chillies for the broccoli spaghetti with zhoug which looks easy to put together and delicious. Dinner is beautifully photographed by the inimitable David Loftus. The pictures are so enticing as are the very recipe titles. I will certainly be making thorough use of the book with its dynamic flavours and enticing combinations. Care of Meera Sodha, dinner never looked so promising.
A summery salad that requires no cooking
- 3 tbsp rose harissa paste Belazu does an excellent rose harissa paste
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 3 tbsp lemon juice from 1-2 lemons
- 1 700g jar cooked chickpeas if using tinned chickpeas, use two tins and bring to the boil, then simmer for 5 minutes, drain.
- 1/2 red onion finely sliced
- 30 300g baby plum tomatoes halved
- 1 350g cucumber deseeded and sliced into 1cm half moons
- 20 Kalamata olives pitted and halved
- 20 grams fresh coriander
- 30 grams fresh mint
- pitta or flatbread to serve
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Put the rose harissa paste, extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice in a bowl and stir.
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Drain the chickpeas and place in a large bowl, adding the onion, tomatoes, cucumber and olives.
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Pour the dressing over the vegetables and mix well.
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Finely chop the coriander and all but a small handful of mint leaves.
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Sprinkle the herbs over the salad and fold through. Plate onto your serving platter and scatter over the remaining mint leaves.
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If using pita or flatbreads, heat them and cut into pieces. Serve on the side.
You can order Dinner by Meera Sodha from Amazon here
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