There's truly nothing better than making your favorite comfort meal as the weather starts to get colder. And now that we've hit peak fall, I'm craving all those cozy dishes I grew up with. So when redditor u/txlily asked members of the r/Cooking community for their culture’s easy home comfort food, I was ready to dig in and take some notes on what I'll be cooking this season. Here are some of the cultural dishes people shared:
1. "Latvian lazy cabbage — it's like a deconstructed cabbage roll. It's actually my mom's comfort food. I didn't even know about it until I was much older and she asked me to find the recipe for her. Now I make it several times a year and always give some to her and her sister. I use precooked rice and add a pinch of cayenne and some Worcestershire to the meat with the tomato paste."
3. "Daal and rice. Or khichdi, which is a one-pot lentil and rice dish eaten with ghee, curd, and pickle — or, in my case, mango chutney."
4. "Loco moco — sticky white rice, fried hamburger patty and an over-easy egg on top, all smothered in brown gravy (the packet is fine). You can add onions, if you’re feeling fancy, or some sriracha on top. My gramps dumped ketchup on his."
5. "Something I picked up from living in Japan was tamago gohan. Just steamed rice, egg yolk, some soy sauce, and furikake, if you have it. Whisk it all together with chopsticks, and it’s just a simple and wildly satisfying meal."
6. "Probably chilaquiles in our family. Leftover corn tortillas are fried crispy, then cooked in a salsa (in our family, usually salsa verde or borracho), then topped with a fried egg and the usual suspects (lime wedges, cream, cilantro, jalapeños, and queso fresco)."
7. "Chicken and dumplings! Although my family’s dumplings are more like flat homemade noodles, so it’s probably closer to chicken and noodles. I just made some last night, and it’s so comforting on a cold day."
8. "A fresh dosai off the griddle on a Saturday morning, or idli with butter and cinnamon."
9. "Chicken paprikash. Pride of Szeged sweet paprika is the best. Use bone-in chicken thighs and egg noodles if you absolutely don't want to make nokudli (dumplings). Opa will be proud if you make the nokudli with it, though, and honestly, the flavor and texture are so much better with the sauce if you do!"
10. "Fried eggs banh mi — warm baguette, pickled carrots and daikon, Vietnamese pâté, Vietnamese mayo, and crispy fried eggs, finished with a drizzle of Maggi seasoning."
11. "Baked beans on toast, cheese on toast, cheese on beans on toast, cheese and beans on a baked potato, etc. I think easy British comfort food comes down to what we can do with baked beans, cheese, and carbs."
12. "Sabbath stew! Chunks of stewing beef browned with onions and garlic. Add it all to the slow cooker with barley and beef stock and cook for at least 12 hours."
13. "Congee is a big one in my household. An easy soft-tofu stir-fry with Chinese sausage is another one. And anything with soupy noodles plus sui choy (Chinese cabbage) and an egg!"
14. "Haluski — pasta, golden onions, sauerkraut or green cabbage, salt, and pepper. Garnish with chives if you want. IMO, all Polish food is comfort food, but this is the easiest."
15. "Chicken and sausage gumbo with French bread and butter."
16. "Rice, eggs, and spam."
"My old Filipino roommates ate this often. We weren’t close, but they were so generous and open to sharing meals."
17. "My family is French Canadian and made Acadian dishes. We have something called tourtière, which was like a mincemeat pie. Now that I'm vegetarian, I make it with lentils, but it was our main way of using leftover turkey from Thanksgiving."
18. "On my Ashkenazi side, we got a lot of premade stuff from the local deli; matzoh ball soup, knishes, blintzes, and stuffed cabbage were big ones."
19. "Mercimek çorbası — Turkish red lentil soup. It is very easy to make, and you can eat it with some lemon, raw onion, and bread."
20. "The Polish version of a tomato soup. You take the chicken stock that you made for Sunday dinner and just add a jar of concentrated tomato paste. Served with either pasta or rice. The best part is a mushy carrot that you can fish out of the pot. My grandma would also make blini with leftover mash, flour, and one egg, then shape it into discs — like potato croquettes, but less crispy."
21. "My family liked to make cream chopped beef over buttered toast. We also called it 'shit on a shingle.' Delicious."
22. "Belgian mac 'n' cheese with macaroni, diced ham, and shredded Gruyère cheese."
23. "Cuban picadillo. We omit raisins and leave olives whole so leftovers can go into papas rellenas or empanadas."
24. "Adobo from the Philippines is so easy. Even if you make a mistake making it, it’s still delicious. You can use pork or chicken for this dish. Every family has their own version, so don’t worry about authenticity or tradition — make it your own!"
25. "I’m Trinidadian, so curry chicken, white rice, and cucumber chow was always the meal I asked my dad to cook when I came home from university."
Are there any comfort meals from your own culture that you can't get enough of? Let us know in the comments or through this anonymous form. Your favorite dish could be featured in a future BuzzFeed Community post.
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.