Comfort Food – for Our Souls

Food is comforting, despite our relationship with it having become fraught with “Emotional Eating” concerns lately. As someone whose family has been impacted by eating disorders, I know the fears on emotional eating have validity. Before I go further, let me share a special place for anyone who might be struggling – NEDA – The National Eating Disorders Association- has been a lifesaving organization for our family.

However, I would like to talk about the presence of food as a means of comfort from a spiritual perspective, without feeling guilty. I’m saying there are no absolutes. Despite all the negative warnings about emotional eating, sometimes you must embrace that food is a soothing balm for your soul. It hugs you from the inside. And that feels good. Especially after the shock and pain of life’s tragedies begin to subside, food helps the process of healing. Our ancestors have known this through the ages. We have evolved from the informal, community phone lines of communication for coordinating meal prep and delivery, to more technologically adapted tools for planning weeks of meal delivery for families during times of illness or loss. Bringing covered dishes to the sick and mourning is less about the inability to cook for oneself during tragedy and more about the healing qualities of food prepared and offered in love.

God’s Love Delivered

We recently helped to celebrate the life of Paul – a brother, a husband, and a father. I have known Paul since grammar school, so well over 55 years of growing up as neighbors and friends. His tragic passing came after five years of a stoic battle with colon cancer. As an adult, Paul was a passionate and prolific gardener of organic vegetables. He built his homestead on my grandparent’s old farmland and designed his gardens as a tangle of exuberant plants, all vying to be the most robust in the rambling plots that made up his lawn. Tomatoes and peppers; eggplant and onion; zucchini and cucumbers and snow peas, with abundant herbs merging up in patches throughout the holy mess! It was glorious!

And Paul cooked too. He used this rich Eden of vibrant veggies to make the most fantastic ratatouille, velvety quiche, and substantial soups. He poured his passion into his cuisine creations for his family.

So, of course, there was food for his celebration of life. But not just your run-of-the-mill funeral deli food. At Paul’s celebration, there was an array of meaningful food for Paul and his family, filling the hall with aromatic memories of his existence, tickling our noses throughout the day as an homage to his spirit of generosity and passion for feeding others. And in this celebration, we experienced God. We experienced the warmth of God’s peace in the chill of our grief. We experienced the joy of God’s generosity, the overflowing richness of his bounty of love. And we experienced the communal gathering of breaking bread as God’s family, in unity and grace for all we suffer and endure under God’s sovereign protection.

God invites us into the banquet for healing. Psalm 104:15 states, “wine that gladdens human hearts, oil to make their faces shine, and bread that sustains their hearts.” In this Psalm, we praise God for his glorious abundance, provision, and comfort. We are reminded that God gives us exactly what we need when we need it, including food to bring a sweet sense of solace to our turmoil. When we can embrace that God’s presence of comfort is sometimes delivered through food, we can understand that the healing qualities are not in the food we consume, but in the mercy and grace that God gives us in providing the food. Food symbolizes his promise to never leave us alone in our time of need. And our response is a prayer of gratitude for his eternal sustenance and comfort.

Paul’s Easy Summer Ratatouille Recipe

One medium size eggplant peeled and cut into 1″ chunks

One large green zucchini, halved and cut into ¼” slices

One large red onion, cut into eighths

One large red bell pepper, sliced

2 cups of grape tomatoes, halved

Four large cloves of garlic, crushed

¾ cup olive oil

1 cup fresh basil leaves, torn or sliced

Five twigs of fresh thyme

Kosher Salt, to taste

Ground fresh black pepper, to taste

Fresh French bread, in abundance

Preheat oven to 400*

Salt eggplant and zucchini in a colander. Let sit for 30 minutes. Drain any remaining water and dry on paper towels.

In a large Dutch Oven over medium-high heat, sauté eggplant and zucchini in 1/3 to 1/2 cup of olive oil until golden, about 5 minutes. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Add more oil if needed, and in the same pan, sauté onion, garlic, and bell pepper for 8-10 minutes, until wilted and browned. Toss in thyme and add tomatoes. Cook for another 5 minutes over heat until tomatoes soften. Add salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat.

Transfer pan to preheated oven and roast covered for 15-20 minutes.

Remove from oven, toss in basil leaves, stir, and serve with crusty French bread.