One of my goals this time was to try new recipes instead of falling back on a couple of old favourites. Even though I cook dinner at least six times a week, there are times when I feel uninspired and cook the same dishes on repeat. Of course, when you try new things there’s always a chance that it will not work out (see the note under kale-quinoa salad). But most of the dishes I cooked last week turned out great and will definitely appear on the menu again. If you want to see what vegetables I had to start with, you can watch the harvest video.
Meal prep:
I like to get a little head start if possible but do not actually prepare much. On Sunday I made a batch of poached pears for an easy dessert and started a jar of fermented radishes.
I also roasted a big (3 kilo) butternut squash. During the week, I used the squash puree in different ways – for the gnocchi on Monday and then to bake a lovely pumpkin chocolate cake (twice). Esther had a stressful week at school with big tests every day and a cup of tea and a slice of cake when she came home were much appreciated.
Monday
Dinner: Winter squash gnocchi with mushrooms, goat cheese and endive salad
Recipe for the gnocchi here. I often double it because we like the gnocchi so much.
Tuesday
Soba noodles with pakchoy, sweet potato and miso
I loved this soup so much I made it again for lunch a few days later. Recipe here.
Wednesday
Chickpea burgers with sweet potato oven fries and Belgian endive
When you make fast food yourself it’s not really fast at all (and super slow if you factor in the growing of the ingredients – I planted the sweet potatoes at the beginnig of June).
Thursday
Leek quiche with sundried tomatoes and walnuts & red beet salad
Can’t go wrong with a leek quiche – I threw in a handful of walnuts we have from our friends’ garden and some sundried tomatoes since I had an open jar in the fridge.
Friday
Kale and quinoa salad
Well… to be honest, this was not a good idea. Not that there was anything wrong with the taste, it was pretty good actually, it just was not the right kind of food for the past week’s winter temperatures. As my husband put it, it feels like it costs more energy to chew than you get out of it. I’ll keep it in mind for spring though.
Saturday
Chickpea soup
Saturdays are for cleaning the house in the morning and gardening in the afternoon (or the other way round – depending on the weather). Which means I usually want to cook something quick and easy, yet nourishing and comforting =soup. Soup is also an opportunity to use up the rest of the chickpeas from Wednesday, the last leek, the dried-up Parmesan rinds etc. and empty the fridge before bringing home a new harvest for the next week.
Sunday
Spaghetti squash lasagna
Another fun recipe from HalfBakedHarvest and since it was well received (R: “I don’t mind eating spaghettisquash when you cook it this way“), I will most probably be making it again. After all, we still have about a dozen of spaghetti squashes…
This was our week in seven meals. It’s also fun to see what meals I cooked from our harvest during the same season 2 years ago:
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