Easy Weekday Dinner Recipes – Week 1
We are having a really warm September here and all the veggies are so ripe and waiting to be enjoyed. This week’s recipes will contain quite a lot of vegetables, three of them will be vegetarian and two contain meat.
This week we cooked:
1. Chickpea Pancakes with Harissa Yoghurt and Red Caviar
I craved caviar and these chickpea pancakes seemed like a healthy substitute for the usual wheat blini that go nicely together with caviar. The frying of the chickpea pancakes was really easy, the pan needs to be really hot though! Otherwise they don’t bubble and will turn out flat. We enjoyed the flavoursome harissa yoghurt but red caviar got lost in the strong chickpea flavour. Perhaps fried chorizo with chopped tomato and cilantro would be a good topping. Maybe next time!
For the Chickpea Pancakes:
- 1 1/4 cup chickpea flour (gram flour)
- 1 1/2 cup cold water
- 1/4 tsp sea salt and pepper each
- 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/2 to 1 tsp seasoning of choice
- Coconut Oil for the pan
For the Harissa Yogurt Sauce Topping:
- 150 ml greek yogurt
- 2 tbsp Harissa Paste
- 1/4 tsp minced garlic
- olive oil to drizzle
- Cracked black pepper and sea salt to sprinkle
2. Vegan Spaghetti Squash Lasagna Bowls
I have been eyeing the spaghetti zucchinis for a while now and when this recipe came along, I knew this is the ONE. Very few ingredients, vegetarian and healthy.
As the author mentions in the recipe, this meal could be potentially cooked in 20 minutes if you have pre-cooked the zucchinis. Which I haven’t. So it took a while to bake the zucchinis – around 50 minutes. It was smooth sailing from there.
We enjoyed the final result, it was definitely a hearty and fulfilling meal. I imagine it would be good with minced meat too.
So, the ingredients for the squash bowls are:
- 1 medium sized spaghetti squash
- 1 cup homemade tomato sauce with garlic and herbs, I used this recipe
- 1/2 cup ricotta cheese
- 1/2 cup baby arugula (rocket) or spinach
- crated parmesan cheese for topping
3. Broccoli Pesto Pasta with Walnuts
Broccoli pesto sounds so healthy and delicious, plus the author lists so many ways of using it. I had bought some locally grown broccoli and decided to give it a try although I tend to not enjoy green basil pestos. The original recipe uses spiral pasta but we chose casarecce. It was a bit of work to blend all the pesto ingredients (my bad, I use a big blender for that) but all in all it is a simple recipe. We didn’t get the pasta : pesto ratio right and ended up with too much pesto. Unfortunately I still stick to my guns and continue disliking the green basil pestos. It’s a pitty.
For the pesto you need:
- 3 Tablespoons kosher salt
- 225 g broccoli florets
- ⅓ cup freshly grated Parmesan (plus extra for serving)
- 2 garlic cloves (smashed)
- 450 g pasta
4. Lamb and Zucchini Curry
Kaspar is a huge fan of lamb curries and I haven’t attempted to prepare one yet. I chose this recipe because it has only a few ingredients and uses the zucchini, once again.
Oh boy, what a beautiful dish! Really easy in preparation and basically you only need lamb, zucchini, water and herbs. I served it with some boiled rice and chopped fresh coriander. The taste is so good, lamb shines through so nicely and the zucchini pieces turn into a beautiful flavoursome stew. This recipe goes straight to our Favourites.
For the lamb curry you need:
- 450 g lamb cut into chunks
- 1 tsp oil
- 1 tbsp curry powder
- ¼ tsp cumin
- 1.5 tsp garam masala
- 1 medium zucchini, chopped into small pieces
- ½ onion, thinly sliced
- 1 ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
- 2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- 1.5 cups water
5. Quinoa Black Bean Tacos with Avocado Crema
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 medium-size onion chopped
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon ground coriander
- 2 tablespoons of tomato paste
- 2 small cloves of garlic minced
- 3/4 cup uncooked quinoa rinsed and drained
- 1 can black beans rinsed and drained
- ½ teaspoons kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 ½ cups water or vegetable broth
- 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice freshly squeezed
- ½ cup fresh cilantro rinsed and roughly chopped, more as a garnish (optional)
That’s it guys! See you next week.
