Menu plan 11 December

A few suggestions for nice things to eat this week

Monday again already and despite the ever quickening march towards Christmas, somehow everyone still needs feeding every night 😀 Here are my suggestions for a busy week - mostly dishes that can be prepared ahead of time and quickly reheated at dinner time. As always, I should say I'm not a qualified nutritionist but I've tried to include a range of meat, fish and veggie options and a good variety of pulses, grains and vegetables.

My alternative Sunday dinner for this week is kedgeree - a lovely dish to share after a busy Sunday. I would add a green salad or some steamed greens on the side.

Next up, chorizo and chickpea stew is a delicious one pot that takes about 40 minutes to make and reheats really well. Again a green salad would be welcome here and some crusty bread to soak up the paprika spiked juices. 

Parsee scrambled eggs is an old Nigel Slater recipe from Real Fast Food and makes a great quick midweek dinner. It's a delicious tangle of eggs, onions, tomatoes and Indian spices. Of course, plain scrambled egg is even quicker but if you have a few extra minutes spare then I do urge you to try this creamy, gently spiced version. I serve with buttered toast, a green salad or some wilted spinach or even some steamed broccoli.

BBC Food's chicken dhansak recipe is a firm favourite here - I use rapeseed oil rather than low fat cooking spray though. Again it reheats well (you may need to add a touch more liquid on reheating as the lentils seem to keep soaking it up) so it's a good one to make in advance for a speedy dinner. I serve with basmati rice, some greens quickly wilted with slivers of garlic, cumin seeds and a pinch of cayenne and a dollop of natural yoghurt.

Puy lentil soup is a really hearty soup that's almost a stew and more than substantial enough for a main course, with some bread. I start this off with some pancetta but if you'd prefer a vegetarian soup then do omit this - it will still be delicious.

For lunch this week, can I suggest black bean wraps? Not terribly seasonal but a lovely bright fresh lunch.

A much more seasonal lunch option is my curried parsnip soup. It freezes really well so you can stash a few individual portions in the freezer for speedy lunches or maybe freeze a big batch to have over Christmas?