This can be a confusing month for cooks, with all the messages to ‘cut this out, stop doing that, eat less of this, drink more of that’. But I think we need comforting now more than ever. It’s dark at 4pm and the weather’s so bleak and uninviting that raw salads and keir shakes simply can’t cheer us up.
We need sustenance for the body but also for the heart. We want to feel loved, warmed and reassured, not hollow and hungry – and January is a brilliant time to cook nourishing hearty food. New, exciting vegetables might be few and far between, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make the most of the storecupboard.