I’m no longer updating What Rachel Ate, but I am blogging with some friends at Everyday30.
There’s still lots of recipes like these super-easy pancakes, a simple chickpea and chorizo stew and a crunchy Asian noodle salad.
But you can also find out 7 questions NOT to ask a new mother, why we can’t do 90s fashion and what you should wear to a wedding.
Come over and say hi! x
Say hello to your new favourite side dish, accompaniment or thing-to-go-with-protein. This is super healthy thanks to the kale and lentils, but still tasty and comforting thanks to the cream.
Have you tried tinned lentils? So easy!I pretty much always buy lentils tinned now and if you do, it makes this recipe very quick. We had it with sausages and some roasted carrots (I just sliced the carrots and roasted them with the sausages for about 30 minutes). But as I said above, you can have this with anything really. Crispy roasted chicken thighs? Roast chicken? Steak? Salmon? Oooh even a fried egg.
Oh, and this is what happens when you try to take a picture with a toddler in the room. He was licking these sausages while saying ‘hot! hot!’.
I’ve got a new recipe up on Brixton Blog– a rich, hearty, totally delicious lamb and orzo stew taken from the fabulous Kitchen & Co. It’s actually perfect for weekend cooking, especially if you’ve got friends coming over. You need to try it! Recipe here.
I’m in a real roasting phase at the moment, it seems all vegetable (broccoli, carrots, cauliflower) benefit from a bit of time in the oven. So this recipe was perfect (see gorgeous picture above) – roasted kale and sweet potatoes with coconut rice and spicy roasted salmon. It’s healthy and really delicious – I even got envious glances at the work the next day after it had been squished into a lunch box. Recipe here.
This was a quick after-work pasta number with a bit of a difference. I liked that it had beans in there to boost the protein/veg count and it took no time to make. Recipe here.
On my to-cook list
Perfect chocolate chip cookies
For more recipes ideas, head over to my Pinterest board
This recipe came about from the dregs of the fridge and if I do say so myself, it was goood. Seeing all those colours on the plate made me feel happy that I was eating so many veggies (I don’t know about you, but I feel perpetually guilty about not eating ough vegetables), but most importantly, it was so tasty! There’s something about black beans, they’re this magical ingredient that make everything delicious and the rich savouryness of the beans goes perfectly with the sweet cubes of roasted potato and creamy diced avocado.
I made it again the other day, mostly because I couldn’t resist, but also to take pictures and check it was that good. Yes, they really are. Make lots of this as the leftovers are really good, especially with a fried egg for breakfast.
More »
I love a good beef massaman curry – it’s such a comforting bowl. While it’s not exactly hard to make, it does need a good few hours for the beef to meltingly tender. So this is my quick, after-work version, I promise it can be on the table in 30 minutes! It’s simple enough for after work, but also special enough to cook for friends. In fact these pictures are from when I made it for friends for Saturday lunch.
Once you’ve got the basics down (this app is good and BBC Food has a good video too), I reckon a good steak is all about starting with quality ingredients. I really like the thinner ‘frying’ steaks you can get, that are not only cheaper and tastier but great for a recipe like this where they’re sliced up. We had ours with green beans for some crunch and lots of fluffy rice to soak up the sauce.
I like a plain cake, one that you bake in a loaf tin and have slices of with a cup of tea. i made this to see us through the weekend. It’s on my favourites – a blueberry cake sweetened with maple syrup and a little rosemary and thyme.
Recipe here
I love this stew! It’s rich and comforting but only takes about 30 minutes to make (it’s low carb too). For some reason I couldn’t find flageolet, so I used cannelini instead.
Recipe here
I like reading the comments under recipes, I like to know what people thought, if they made any alterations, what they’d do differrently next time. For a seemingly simple salad, the comments with this recipe were so positive that I had to give it a go. And it’s true, this is delicious! We had ours with steak, but you could have it on it’s own or with chicken or salmon. So easy too, just a bit of chopping and mixing.
Recipe here
When this first popped up in my feed, I thought it sounded preeetty weird. Then I saw the pictures and thought I could be persuaded otherwise, it’s kind of like a savoury rice pudding. Does that make it sound better? Anyway, it’s delicious. The brown rice does take a while to cook, so it’s probably not after-work fare, but I bet it reheats well.
Recipe here
For more recipes ideas, head over to my Pinterest board.
I try to be quite ruthless with my cookbook collection as it’s all too easy to accumulate books you never cook from. The reality is, most of my recipes come from the internet these days. That said, there are a couple of books that I’m really loving at the moment.
Have you heard of French & Grace? The little Brixton restaurant is pretty well known around here as was their supper club (one of the first) called the Salad Club (find out more on their blog). Still, I’m not sure I would have rushed out to buy the book, instead my friend gave me a press copy and I was immediately taken in by the spot on styling (juust enough shabby chic). I’ve tried a few of the recipes and they’ve all been delicious – exactly the kind of thing to cook when you’ve got friends coming over. Hearty, filling and just a bit special. The brunch recipes look amazing too.
Kitchen & Co: Colourful Home Cooking Through The Seasons
I will tell you now – these recipes don’t take 15 minutes, more like 30 minutes or maybe 45. Which to me, is still pretty good for a weeknight. This book was a godsend when I had a tiny newborn and I still use it all the time. In fact, it’s the book I’ve cooked the most recipes from ever. I love it and can’t recommend it enough. I particularly like the fact that all of the recipes are reasonably healthy, clearly Jamie’s worked hard to keep calories down and stuff in as many veggies as possible.
Do you have either of these books? Do you like them as much as me? Any other cookbook recommendations?
Have you heard about green smoothies? They seem to be ubiquitous in Pinterest land, but whenever I start trying to tell my friends, they think I’m totally crazy. Basically, they’re a step up from normal smoothies as they have greens (usually spinach or kale) blended into them too. Before you click away in disgust, it’s not actually that weird, you can’t even taste the greens!
I either have a smoothie for breakfast or take it to work as a snack. I like the fact that I’m getting some extra veggies as some days are frankly a struggle to get any. Also, my toddler loves them.
More »
Oooh some very good recipes last week.
My new post is up on Brixton Blog – a quick and easy chickpea curry. You can whip it up in the time it would take for a takeaway curry to be delivered.
Whenever we make this, it always comes out very thick, so we sometimes have it with rice. Either it’s cheap, simple and DELICIOUS. A great one to have in the freezer too. Recipe here.
This recipe may exactly jump out at you (and the name is stupid), but it’s actually really easy, surprisingly delicious and low carb too – if you’re into that kind of thing. Recipe here.
I am unapologetic in my love for Jamie Oliver. I’m sure he doesn’t write most of his own recipes anymore, but he clearly has a fantastic team and I think his recipes are superb. Especially the fact that they’re mostly quite balanced with lots of veggies. Anyway, gushing over, this recipe was lovely. A couple of notes: we did not make our own tortillas (I love the Tesco values ones as they’re quite small) nor could we get tomatillos (I used ordinary tomatoes). Also, we kind of ruined a frying pan trying to blacken the tomatoes, so maybe don’t bother. AND, it does not serve 16 people – I would say more like 4-6. Recipe here.
This was so tasty, and I love that it’s full of beans and lentils too. You could eat it on it’s own as a kind of thick stew with a dollop of yoghurt. Or with some crusty bread. We had it with rice (the obvious choice). Recipe here.
I love pancakes, big stacks of the fluffy ones with plenty of butter and maple syrup. This version has good stuff in them like oats and bananas. I’m loathe to call them ‘healthy’ but you know what I mean. I first started making them for the toddler, but now we love them too. They make really good snacks too if you’re like me and always trying to find portable snacks for when you’re out and about.
More »
