Meal Plan w/c 17th November 2014

Monday:  Tonight I'm making my favourite soup - Minestrone! I'm adding pinto beans, Vekale, fresh tomatoes, yellow peppers and courgettes. I'll also be using my homemade stock which I made out of the carcass of last weeks chicken.

Tuesday: Dinner will be jalfrezi made with chicken legs and thighs. I'll also be making some sag aloo (spinach and potatoes) and pilau rice to serve alongside it.

Wednesday: We're having a meatless day today, so I'm going to make falafel which we'll have with a colourful Turkish salad and some flat breads.

Thursday: I'm going to make a delicious lasagne (secret ingredient: chicken livers). There's a lot of components - white sauce, fresh pasta, bolognese etc, so I'm going to try and make the sauces the day before as it spreads the work out a bit, but also lets the flavours intensify as well.

Friday: Treat night, so we're going to have lamb koftes with a tahini sauce and a Meze plate with fresh pitta bread. Great start to the weekend!

Saturday: Oily fish night so either rainbow trout or mackerel, which we'll have with some purple potatoes (delicious and in season) and some salty samphire.

Sunday: To round off the week, I'm going to make some roast game birds with lots of vegetables and some cranberry sauce. For dessert I'm going to try and make a semifreddo and the flavours I'm thinking of are rose water and pistachio. 

Falafel

Falafel are a traditional Middle Eastern food made from chickpeas and broad beans. We have been trying to eat less meat during the week and they are really delicious with hummus, salad and some flatbreads. They are easy to make, but take a bit of organising as the pulses will need to be soaked the night before. The only way to cook them is to deep fry (it's important that they are really crunchy on the outside) but if served with a large enough salad, they almost qualify as a health food!

Ingredients 

For the falafel

150g chickpeas, covered with water and soaked overnight

200g broad beans, covered with water and soaked overnight 

1 large bunch coriander, stalks removed and leaves chopped

1 small bunch parsley, stalks removed and leaves chopped

4 sping onions, chopped

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 tbsp Baharat spice mix

1 tbsp cumin

1 tsp ground coriander 

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

5 tbsp sesame seeds

Sunflower oil, to fry

Method

1. Drain the pulses and lay on a tea towel to dry. Then add all the broad beans and three quarters of the chickpeas to a food processor and whiz until smooth.

2. Add the garlic, spring onions, herbs, spices and salt to the pulses and whiz again until well combined. Stir in the baking powder and chill the mixture in the fridge for at least half and hour.

3. Using damp hands, roll the mixture into tight balls about 1.5 inches across (the size of a fig) and roll in the sesame seeds. Chill in the fridge until you heat your oil.

4. Heat around 6cm of oil in a saucepan over a high heat to 180 degrees ( or use a deep fat fryer, if you have one) and fry the falafel in batches for around 5-6 minutes until dark brown in colour. Drain on kitchen paper until most of the oil is absorbed and served with plenty of salad, flatbread and hummus (recipe below).

Hummus 

Hummus is best made with dried chickpeas, and since we're using them already in this recipe, it's easy to whip up a batch to go with the falafel. 

Place the leftover chickpeas in a sauce pan, cover with water and bring to the boil. Leave to simmer for around 15 minutes until soft. Drain, place the chickpeas in a food processor and whiz until smooth. Stir in around 4 tbsp of tahini and the juice of half a lemon. If necessary, add some water 1 tbsp at a time to achieve the desired constituency. Season to taste. Serve at room temperature with the falafel.