This New Orleans Creole hot pot with sausages, celery, onions, green peppers, leeks, tomatoes and corn on the cob, among other flavours, are brought together with a Creole-style roux and gently cooked to offer up deep rich flavours in a hearty gravy. Less spicy than Cajun gumbo, this also makes it a popular dish with children.

Tuscan pasta with kale, leeks and sausage, traditionally served with pappardelle, is another great dish for those who like pasta but can't eat or don't like tomatoes. I'm doing it here according to the recipe my father recorded in his journal in the 1960s, though it's easily turned lactovegetarian. It's neither slow-cooked nor a quick dish, but easy to cook with relatively few ingredients.

Japanese-influenced katsu fish pie is a reworking of the British comfort food classic. Brimming with a mix of fish and seafood with a creamy béchamel subtly infused with with the flavours of katsu curry, a Japanese comfort food increasingly popular around the world, it's topped with a sweet potato and a panko crust.

Provençal lamb with orange and fennel and various fresh herbs is a traditional recipe from the South of France, hearty yet dripping in the sun-drenched flavours of the region. A rustic, slow-cooked meal, it's a dish that is easy to make and packed with nutritious vegetables.

My Dublin coddle recipe is a personal take on a dishes considered their signature dish by many natives of the capital of the Republic of Ireland. Like so much in Irish culture, its story is complex. Nonetheless, its core ingredients of carrots, potatoes, bacon and sausages are the stuff of comfort food in many cultures. Easy-to-cook, I have alway found it a crowd-pleaser, particularly among crowds of diminutives. Yes, kids like it.

Sweet and sour curry with apple and spinach is by default vegan, but its most indulgent versions are lacto-vegggie or include chicken

Vegetarian tandoori masala butternut squash, roasted to perfection and served with a mildly spiced dish of leeks, lentils, celery

A fricassée with dumplings; fresh green flavours. Quick and ideal for mixed groups of diners—vegans, vegetarians and carnivores

Piedmontese spezzatino with stuffed squash is an ideal autumnal dish, cooked with a special vegetable mix that gives base flavours

Hollandaise fish pot and Camargue rice salad. A riff on a Flemish fish pot (vispotje) inspired by Hollandaise sauce

My Flemish waterzooi unapologetically takes it back to its fishy roots and a Scottish influence in the choice of fish and root vegetables