My Go-To Staple Dishes

Raise your hand if you regularly struggle to come up with meal ideas.
For me, coming up with seven varied, delicious, quick and nutritious dinners every week is definitely a challenge. I wish I was one of those people who try a new recipe from a cook book and discover new ingredients and cuisines regularly but alas, you know what they say… Ain’t nobody got time for that.

In reality, I have a bunch of favourite, fool-proof recipes that I rotate. Every now and then we try something new, a dish gets added to the list or dropped from it, but there are a number of dishes I always go back to. Today I thought it’d be fun if I shared them with you. I love seeing what other people’s go-to’s are and finding new inspiration, so hopefully this can be helpful for some of you as well.

I tend to favour dishes that are flexible in the sense that they can be made with different ingredients and altered to include whatever we have in the frigde at the moment. Most of these don’t have strict recipes, but rather a few key elements that “make” the dish.

Tomato Risotto

Simple, delicious, budget friendly, requires minimal ingredients. Tomato risotto! Fry off an onion, add the rice, fry until it goes see-through. Then add vegetable broth and tomato puree, and stir until the rice is done. I like to add cherry tomatoes and sundried tomatoes, as well as fresh basil and sometimes courgette.

There’s a recipe for this one here!

Tempeh Stir-Fry

I love me some fermented food, and tempeh is among my favourites. I like to marinate it in some soy sauce, balsamic vinegar and honey with fresh grated garlic and ginger. Then I stir-fry it with whatever veggies we have, and either rice or noodles.

There’s a recipe for this one here!

Loaded Nachos

When in doubt, tex-mex. Loaded nachos are a firm favourite over here because who doesn’t want to eat chips for dinner and get all their nutrients in?
I make a mix of beans (black or brown), bell pepper, corn, onion, jalapeños and whatever other veggies we have with canned tomato cubes and a Mexican spice blend. Cook it until the veggies are soft. Then I place the mixture in a baking dish and cover it with a layer of nachos. Add a layer of grated vegan cheese on top, and bake in the oven until the cheese melts.

Pesto Pasta

This has been a go-to pretty much since I learned how to cook. Fusili with a simple sauce of green pesto, vegan cream cheese, cherry tomatoes and pine nuts. I sometimes add sundried tomatoes, courgette, minced mock meat or anything else I think might go with it, but the basic recipe is very simple.

There’s a recipe for this one here, but it’s from before I went plant-based at home so you might have to veganise it.

AGV

“Aardappels groente vlees”, literally “potatoes vegetables meat”, is a staple in the oh so exciting Dutch cuisine. It’s just what you might imagine: potatoes (preferably boiled or mashed), overcooked veggies and some type of meat all sitting next to each other on a plate. Add some mayonnaise if you’re feeling fancy. I’m not making it sound very appealing hahaha, sorry! It has a nostalgia factor though, and for many Dutch people this is pretty much the only thing they’ll eat. It’s super quick and easy to make, so it’s usually on our menu at least once a week. Featuring a mock meat, of course.
I also tend to cheat and add some seasoning to the potatoes.

Cauliflower Pineapple Curry

Curry is one of the simpler dishes to make, and also really easy to alter depending on the available ingredients. One of my favourites is a curry with cauliflower, pineapple, chickpeas and garam masala. I like to serve it with brown rice.

There’s a recipe for this one here!

Kimchi Fried Rice

The fermentation love continues with kimchi! I really enjoy making my own kimchi every once in a while, which leaves us with a massive jar of it. My favourite way to eat it is to make the kimchi the star of the dish and add some tofu, asian veggies and fried rice.

There’s a recipe for my kimchi here!

Ras el Hanout Couscous

Another one of those “anything goes” recipes: couscous with mixed vegetables, seasoned with some delicious spices. Ras el hanout is a North African spice blend that, funnily enough, doesn’t have any set ingredient list; every family, shop, or in my case brand makes their own blend. Common ingredients are cardamom, cumin, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, allspice, dry ginger, chili peppers, coriander seed, peppercorn, sweet and hot paprika, fenugreek, and dry turmeric.

Staples in my couscous are eggplant, chickpeas and some type of dried fruit, usually raisins. And anything we have in the fridge that goes with the flavours, of course.

Cauliflower Crust Pizza

Dutch brand Magioni brought their vegetable pizza crusts to the market a few years ago, and the cauliflower kind has been a household staple ever since. They’re a tad pricy so I usually only buy them on sale, but the crusts are delicious and really easy to make into an amazing pizza. Robbert usually makes the sauce, and we each fill up our own pizzas with veggie ham slices, onion, bell pepper, jalapeños, vegan grated cheese, and whatever else tickles our fancy.

You could of course use a regular bare pizza crust, or make your own cauliflower pizza using one of the many recipes available online.

Green Rice Tex Mex Bowl

Did I mention we love Tex Mex? Another one of my staples is a bowl of spinach-infused rice with baked sweet potato, smoky black beans and avocado. It’s a slightly more time-consuming dish than the others I’ve mentioned, but definitely worth it.

There’s a recipe for this one here!

Ginger Carrot Soup

Last but not least: the simplest, most budget friendly dish there is. Carrot soup with ginger and coconut milk. All you need is a kg of carrots, a thumb-sized bit of ginger, onion, garlic, a stock cube and a can of coconut milk. Throw everything into a pot with boiling water and cook until the carrot has softened. Blend and serve with crusty dark bread. Yum yum!

There’s a recipe for this one here!

I’d love to hear what some of your staple dishes are. Let me know in the comments!