The Surprising Vegan Comfort of Nigella Lawson
Though Lawson’s signature recipes are often far from vegan, her soothing writing and indulgent creativity still feel nourishing
No bed, bundt-sized rats circling, and a hole in the front door taped over with cardboard. Moving to a new city in 2006 was not the glamorous montage I anticipated, but I owned a copy of the cookbook How to Eat by Nigella Lawson to vicariously live through. The more visible you are, the more people project onto you, and the media loved reinforcing how Lawson prioritized lavishness, excess, and cakes on cakes on cakes.
It nevertheless took minimal digging through How to Eat to find accessible food — Chickpea and Pasta Soup; Panch Phoran Aloo; Pea Risotto. It thrilled me to tick off and note each completed recipe, or as near as I could muster. Lamb with Chickpeas: “couldn’t afford lamb, the chickpeas were amazing.” For every six-egg cake, she has a low-key pancake, for every enormous roast, a humble soup. One of her most evocative recipes is simply bread and milk.
Good recipes are nothing, however, without the words to draw you in. Unlike any food writing I’d encountered, Lawson was conversational, exuberant, giving permission to revel in the process and unashamedly adore the eating. Luxuriating, rather…
