Nigella Lawson

There is not a way I don’t like a chickpea or, indeed, a time when I couldn’t eat mashed potatoes, and this is a very happy combination of both, while being very gratifyingly its own thing. It offers comfort, uplift, aromatic zing, and ease – just what you want when lacking time or energy or both. While I eat this all the year round, I do think of it as the perfect summer version of a bowl of wintry mashed potatoes. And cold, this bumpy chickpea mash is wonderful as a kind of tahini-free hummus.

This recipe is from Nigella Lawson’s new cookbook, Nigella Christmas. The recipe has not been tested by the Chatelaine Test Kitchen.

This recipe is from Nigella Lawson’s cookbook Nigella Christmas.

I’m not, as a rule, one for flavouring mashed potatoes, but this version is a worthy exception. Because the garlic cloves are boiled with the potatoes, they make their presence felt sweetly rather than shoutily, and the Parmesan provides a gentle tang.

One of the most gratifying things for a home cook is to scrummage a meal together out of leftovers. It’s enormously satisfying to ransack the fridge and use up what lies under plastic wrap or is lounging about in the vegetable drawer; it always provides a relaxed, unforced creativity. I certainly would never have thought of using horseradish as a dressing for a tomato salad if I hadn’t wanted to find a way to use up a horseradish root staring beseechingly at me every time I opened the fridge. - Nigella