There’s a point every fall when supper changes.
You know the night I’m talking about. It gets dark way too early, there’s a cold wind coming off the water, the leaves are blowing all over the driveway and suddenly nobody wants a salad for supper anymore.
This is when I start craving food that cooks a little slower, smells amazing while it’s doing it and, most importantly, warms you up from the inside out.
Comfort food doesn’t have to be complicated and it certainly doesn’t have to be fancy. In fact, some of the very best fall meals are made with potatoes, onions, root vegetables, a bit of cheese, something simmering in a pot and whatever you managed to find in the fridge.
So put on a sweater, pour yourself something good and get supper started. Here are 10 of my favourite ideas for those chilly fall nights.
1. A Big Pot of Beef and Barley Stew
This is the kind of meal that should almost be mandatory once the temperature drops.
Start with chunks of beef and get some good colour on them in a heavy pot. Don’t rush this part because that browning is where a lot of your flavour is coming from. Add onions, carrots, celery, garlic and mushrooms, then build everything up with beef stock, a little tomato paste and plenty of black pepper.
Barley is what really makes this a fall supper for me. It thickens the broth slightly, adds a nice chewy texture and makes a relatively small amount of beef stretch a lot farther.
You could also throw in turnip, parsnip or whatever root vegetables you’ve got hanging around. A splash of red wine certainly wouldnt hurt either.
Serve it with thick slices of buttered bread and call it a night.
2. Homemade Mac and Cheese With a Crunchy Top
I love mac and cheese, but if we’re making it for a chilly fall night, let’s make the real stuff.
You want a sauce that’s creamy without becoming gluey. Start with butter and flour, slowly work in milk, then add plenty of good cheese. Old cheddar gives you lots of flavour, but combining it with mozzarella, Gruyère, Monterey Jack or whatever happens to be in the cheese drawer works really well.
A teaspoon of Dijon mustard is one of my favourite little tricks because it sharpens everything up without making the dish actually taste like mustard.
Then comes the top.
Breadcrumbs tossed with melted butter, maybe Parmesan, cracked pepper and a little garlic. Bake it until the edges are bubbling and the top has those crunchy brown bits everyone tries to scoop onto their own plate.
Want to turn it into supper? Add leftover ham, lobster, roasted broccoli, pulled chicken or caramelized onions.
3. Turkey, Apple and Sage Harvest Soup
Fall and apples go hand in hand here in Nova Scotia, and they don’t always have to end up in a pie.
Turkey, apple and sage make a beautiful combination for a fall soup. The turkey gives you something hearty, sage brings that unmistakable autumn flavour and apple adds just enough sweetness to balance everything out.
The trick is not going overboard with the apple. You still want this to be a savoury soup. Add onion and celery, a good stock and perhaps a little cream depending on how rich you want to make it.
I like this sort of soup because it sits somewhere between light and hearty. It’ll warm you up but you dont feel like you need a nap afterwards.
Serve it with warm biscuits, a crusty roll or a grilled cheese sandwich and you’ve got a pretty fine fall supper.
4. Chicken Pot Pie With Lots of Gravy
There are few things better than breaking through a golden pastry crust and seeing all that creamy chicken filling underneath.
And pot pie is a perfect place for leftovers.
Start with cooked chicken or turkey, add carrots, peas, celery, onion and maybe mushrooms, then bring it together with a thick, savoury gravy. Thyme works beautifully here, and a little sage doesn’t hurt either.
You can make one big pie for everybody or divide the filling into individual dishes and top each one with pastry.
And here’s the thing: nobody said you had to make homemade pastry on a Tuesday night. Good store-bought puff pastry works just fine.
Brush the top with egg, cut a couple of slits for steam and bake it until it’s puffed, golden and bubbling around the edges.
That’s comfort food.
5. Butternut Squash Pasta With Sage and Parmesan
Pasta is already pretty comforting, but give it a silky butternut squash sauce and now you’re speaking my language.
Roasted butternut squash has this natural sweetness that works beautifully with onions, garlic and sage. Blend it until smooth with enough stock or cream to create a sauce, then toss it with hot pasta.
Parmesan brings the salty bite you need to balance the sweetness of the squash.
You could leave it there, or add crispy bacon, pancetta, toasted walnuts, sautéed mushrooms or crumbled sausage.
I also like finishing something like this with lots of freshly cracked black pepper and a little squeeze of lemon. That tiny bit of acidity wakes the whole dish up.
It’s fall in a bowl without being overly heavy.
6. A Proper Maritime Seafood Chowder
I couldn’t make a fall comfort-food list without chowder.
Here in Atlantic Canada, seafood chowder isn’t just something you order at a restaurant in July. It’s even better when there’s a cold wind outside and you’ve got a steaming bowl sitting in front of you.
Potatoes and onions are your base, then start adding whatever good seafood you can get your hands on. Haddock, lobster, scallops, shrimp, mussels or salmon can all find a home in there.
A little bacon is never a bad idea. Neither is some fresh dill, parsley or seafood seasoning.
One important thing: once the seafood goes in, dont beat the life out of it by boiling everything forever. Seafood cooks quickly, especially delicate fish and scallops.
Finish your chowder with cream and serve it with biscuits, oatcakes or big pieces of bread for soaking up the bottom of the bowl.
That last spoonful might be the best one.
7. Shepherd’s Pie With Cheesy Mashed Potatoes
This one was built for cold weather.
You’ve got savoury meat and vegetables underneath and a thick blanket of mashed potatoes on top. There’s not much there not to like.
Ground beef works beautifully, or use lamb if you want a traditional shepherd’s pie. Turkey also works extremely well and makes it a bit lighter.
Cook your meat with onions, carrots, peas and corn, then add Worcestershire sauce, stock and a little tomato paste to create a rich gravy.
Now for the potatoes.
Don’t be shy. Butter, warm milk or cream, salt, pepper and some grated cheddar folded through the mash will take that topping from pretty good to fantastic.
Pile it on, rough the top up with a fork so you’ve got lots of little edges to brown, then bake until the filling is bubbling up around the sides.
Leftovers the next day are even better.
8. French Onion Soup Loaded With Melted Cheese
French onion soup sounds fancy but really, you’re taking one of the cheapest ingredients in the kitchen and turning it into something spectacular.
The secret is patience.
You need to give those onions time to slowly caramelize. We’re talking deep golden brown, soft and sweet. If you rush them, you miss the whole point.
Then add a rich beef stock and something like sherry, port or even a splash of red wine to deepen the flavour.
Now comes the good part.
Put the soup into oven-safe bowls, add a thick piece of toasted bread and cover the whole thing with Gruyère or another good melting cheese.
Into the oven it goes until that cheese is bubbling, browned and running down the sides of the bowl.
Just remember the bowl is roughly the temperature of molten lava when it comes out of the oven. Ask me how I know.
9. Turkey, Apple and Cheddar Bake
Fall casseroles deserve more respect.
They’re usually easy to assemble, they feed several people and they give you an excuse to clean out the fridge.
Turkey, apple and cheddar is one combination I really love this time of year. Turkey gives the dish substance, apple adds sweetness and freshness, onion and celery bring the savoury side and sharp cheddar pulls everything together.
Top it with something crunchy — buttery breadcrumbs, crushed crackers or even leftover stuffing — and bake it until everything underneath is hot and creamy and the top is good and golden.
This is also exactly the kind of meal you want after Thanksgiving when there’s still turkey staring back at you every time you open the refrigerator.
Nobody wants the exact same turkey dinner four nights in a row. Turn those leftovers into something new.
10. Slow-Braised Chicken Thighs With Mashed Potatoes
If you’re looking for something that smells incredible while it cooks, braised chicken thighs are hard to beat.
Brown the thighs first, then build your braising liquid with onions, garlic, stock and whatever direction you want to take things.
You could go traditional with mushrooms, thyme and a splash of wine. Add mustard and cream for something richer. Try apple cider with rosemary. Even maple with a little Dijon can work beautifully in the fall.
Let the chicken cook slowly until it’s tender and the sauce has had time to develop.
Then put the whole thing over buttery mashed potatoes.
Make a little well in the potatoes before spooning the chicken and gravy over top — because gravy containment is important.
Trust me.
Fall Cooking Doesn’t Need to Be Complicated
The best thing about fall comfort food is that it’s usually pretty forgiving.
You don’t need twelve fancy ingredients or restaurant equipment. You need a good pot, a warm oven, some seasonal ingredients and enough time to let things cook properly.
Use those Nova Scotia apples. Grab some local potatoes, squash, onions and carrots. Make use of the turkey left from Sunday dinner. Pick up some seafood from your local fishmonger. And don’t be afraid of butter, cheese and a good splash of cream once in awhile — it’s fall, we’ll survive.
A lot of these ideas are dishes we cook, talk about or play around with regularly at The Kilted Chef. If one of them gets you hungry and you’re looking for an actual recipe, head over to www.kiltedchef.ca. There’s a whole collection of recipes there, from soups, chowders and pasta dishes to casseroles, seafood, baking and plenty of other comfort-food favourites. We also post weekly meal plans, so if you’re staring into the fridge wondering what the heck to make for supper, there’s lots of inspiration there too.
Most importantly, cook something that makes people want to hang around the kitchen.
Because when the wind is blowing, the nights are getting longer and winter is sitting just around the corner, there’s something pretty special about gathering around the table with a big plate of comfort food.
And if there’s enough leftover for tomorrow’s lunch?
Even better.
