HelloFresh had some new meals available this week and they sounded pretty appealing, so I ordered a box. The Kidlet saw burgers on the menu and immediately voted for those to be our first meal. I added some cheese and sambal olek to my burger since it seemed a little plain recipe as written. With those simple modifications though, I found this burger extremely tasty. I think a handful of arugula would've been a nice touch, but I was still excellent without it. I just figure adding a bit of extra veg is never a bad idea.

Mushroom-Topped Veggie Burgers and Sesame Slaw

Slightly adapted from HelloFresh

Ingredients

Sesame Slaw

• 1/4 c. white wine vinegar
• 2 Tbsp. sesame oil
• 2 tsp. sugar
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1/4 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 2 Tbsp. sesame seeds
• 340g cabbage coleslaw mix

Veggie Burgers

• 1/4 c. mayonnaise
• 14g cilantro
• 450g cremini mushrooms
• 2 Tbsp. light soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 2 1/2 Tbsp. canola (or other neutral) oil, divided
• 4 Beyond Meat burger patties
• 4 slices Cheddar cheese
• 4 burger buns
• 4 tsp. garlic butter
• 4 Tbsp. sambal olek

Directions

Sesame Slaw

1. Vigorously whisk oil into vinegar.
2. Mix in sugar, salt, pepper, and sesame seeds.
3. Toss cabbage mixture with dressing and set aside.

Veggie Burgers

1. Separate cilantro leaves from stems. Set the leaves aside.
2. Mince cilantro stems and mix them into the mayo and set aside.
3. Slice the mushrooms thin and toss with soy sauce, pepper, and 2 Tbsp. of the oil.
4. Place mushrooms on a parchment lined baking sheet and broil until tender (~5 minutes).
5. Heat remaining 1/2 Tbsp. of oil over medium-high heat.
6. Add the burger patties and cook until browned (3-4 minutes per side).
7. Meanwhile, halve the buns, spread with garlic butter, and toast.
8. Spread bottom buns with cilantro mayo, top with burger patty and cheese, add cilantro leaves on top, spread top bun with sambal olek and place it on top.
9. Serve burgers with coleslaw.

My starter was looking hungry and I didn't want to make more bread, so I poked around online for ideas on what I could use up a bit of starter in. I've made sourdough crêpes in the past and, while they were tasty, I wasn't really feeling the crêpes today. And I don't think we would've had enough eggs for it anyway.

There are actually a bunch of non-bread sourdough recipes up on the King Arthur website. I contemplated trying the biscuit recipe, but the Kidlet and I made buttermilk biscuits recently and that felt like too much of a repeat. I'll keep that one in my back pocket for another time. Same with the overnight sourdough waffles/pancakes. There were also some interesting-looking quick breads and muffins. I thought about giving the blueberry muffins or the pumpkin bread a try, but in the end the cranberry-date-walnut muffins were what really sang to me.

Usually I try to go by the book my first time through a recipe. I will admit, I did tweak this one a bit. I cut the sugar way back: 1 1/2 c. of dates and 3/4 c. sugar?! No way! I only put in 1/4 c. of sugar and the resulting muffins were still bordering on cloying. Definitely more dessert than breakfast. I also swapped out the (white) all-purpose flour for whole wheat flour. And, as usual, halved the salt. I'm happy with the muffins, but I'd definitely make even more changes next time: replace half the butter with applesauce, add a bit of cinnamon, replace some of the baking soda with baking powder, add more cranberries, and slightly reduce the baking temperature and extend the bake time. I think I'd probably reduce the sugar even further next time and try swapping in brown sugar in place of the granulated. The recipe below reflects all these changes.

Cranberry-Date-Walnut Muffins

Adapted from King Arthur Flour

Ingredients

• 1/2 c. water
• 1 1/2 c. chopped dates
• 2 Tbsp. brown sugar
• 1/4 c. unsalted butter
• 1/4 c. unsweetened applesauce
• 1 c. fresh or frozen cranberries, halved
• 1/2 c. chopped walnuts
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 c. sourdough starter
• 150g (hard or soft) whole wheat flour
• 1 Tbsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Combine water, dates, sugar, butter, and applesauce and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring often.
2. Remove from heat and stir in cranberries, walnuts, eggs, and vanilla.
3. Stir starter into date mixture.
4. In a small bowl, sift baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon into flour and mix well.
5. Stir flour mixture into date mixture until just combined.
6. Spoon into greased muffin tins.
7. Bake at 190°C (375°F) for 22 minutes.
8. Let cool in tins for 5 minutes.
9. Remove from muffin tins and set on wire rack to finish cooling.

---

Variations

Vegan

I suspect this recipe would work particularly well in a vegan version. I think the flax eggs would complement the whole wheat flour and dates quite nicely.

Ingredients

• 1/2 c. water
• 1 1/2 c. chopped dates
• 2 Tbsp. turbinado sugar
• 1/4 c. coconut oil or vegan butter
• 1/4 c. unsweetened applesauce
• 1 c. fresh or frozen cranberries, halved
• 1/2 c. chopped walnuts
• 2 Flax Eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 c. sourdough starter
• 150g (hard or soft) whole wheat flour
• 1 Tbsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

This chili recipe looks a bit different than I'm used to: Potato? Olives? No beans? Can you even still call it chili at that point?! And the promise of a 30-minute meal, while tempting, was also a bit worrying to me. I needn't've been concerned though; it was fabulous! I actually really liked both the olives and the potatoes in it. It made for a really satisfying combo. And, with the addition of a salad, you actually have a pretty decent meal!

Picadillo-Style Beef Chili

Slightly adapted from Cook's Country April/May 2020

Ingredients

• 500g lean ground beef
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 chipotle in adobo, chopped
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. chili powder
• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 (800mL) can fire-roasted diced tomatoes
• 2 c. vegetable broth
• 450g Yukon Gold (or similar) potatoes, cut into 1cm cubes
• 1/2 c. pimento-stuffed green olives, sliced

Directions

1. Season beef with salt and pepper and coo over medium-high heat until beginning to brown (8-10 minutes).
2. Stir in onion, chipotle, chili powder, and garlic and cook until softened (2-3 minutes).
3. Stir in tomatoes, broth, and potatoes and bring to a boil.
4. Reduce heat to medium, cover, and simmer until potatoes are tender (~15 minutes).
5. Stir in olives.
6. Serve with tortillas, sour cream, and hot sauce.

"Are we planning anything that needs eggs?" TF asks me. "No," says I as I pack up all 12 of our remaining eggs to be given to TM.

I mean, to be fair, at the moment the question was asked, I wasn't planning anything that required eggs. But an hour or so later I suddenly desperately wanted to bake something. Not bread, we've already got lots and I'm way to tired today anyway. Something quick and easy. A cake or maybe some muffins! Oh right, those are things that generally require eggs. Drat! Cue an hour of aimlessly flipping through recipes muttering about eggs.

I wasn't in the mood for a pie or a crumble or shortbread, so that eliminated a lot of the non-bread egg-less options. I considered making scones or making muffins or quick bread with flax eggs in place of the chicken egg, but none of those quite tickled my fancy tonight. I had initially written off this cranberry pudding recipe since we didn't have any frozen cranberries left... or so I thought! After some contemplation I decided that maybe it was worth double-checking the cranberry situation. Turns out we still had most of a bag in the freezer! Score!

This recipe apparently hails from Maine and is pudding in the British sense of being a sweet dessert-type dish rather than pudding in the North American sense of being a custard-y milk-based concoction. Looking at the recipe, it looks an awful lot like sticky toffee pudding but with cranberries taking the place of the dates. I still think I prefer traditional sticky toffee pudding, but this is an interesting variation on the theme.

Cranberry Pudding

From Taste of Home

Ingredients

Cake

• 1/4 c. unsalted butter, softened
• 1/4-1/2 c. sugar¹
• 1 c. all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/8 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1/2 c. whole (3.25%) milk
• 1 1/2 c. frozen cranberries, halved

Sauce

• 1/2-1 c. brown sugar¹
• 1 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
• 1/16 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 2/3 c. water
• 1 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions

Cake

1. Grease and flour a 20cm (8") square cake tin and preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
2. Cream sugar with butter.
3. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. Mix flour mixture into creamed mixture alternately with milk.
5. Stir in cranberries.
6. Spread mixture evenly into prepared tin.
7. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 40 minutes.

Sauce

1. Combine sugar, flour, and salt.
2. Stir in water until smooth.
3. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
4. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally for 3 minutes.
5. Remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla.
6. Pour sauce over warm cake.

---

The original recipe is written for the larger amount of sugar, which is what I used this time. However, I found the results overly sweet. If I'm going to have cranberry pudding, I'd like for the cranberries to be able to really shine. I'll probably try scaling back the sugar in either the cake, the sauce, or both next time. ^Back

Subzi Biryani (Vegetable Biryani)

This biryani looks complicated, but it's not actually too bad to put together. It's only slightly more complicated than making a curry and cooking a pot of rice to go with it. You just stir a few extras into the rice and then layer everything into a casserole dish and finish cooking everything in the oven. I served it with Kaaju Curry, a spinach raita (Keerai Pachadi), and a stack of Papads.

Subzi Biryani

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

Rice

• 1 c. long-grain brown rice
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 2 Tbsp. heavy (35%) cream
• 1/4 tsp. saffron threads
• 1 tsp. ground Kashmiri chilies

Vegetable Curry

• 2 Tbsp. ghee
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds
• 1 tsp. black cumin seeds
• 6 green cardamom pods
• 6 whole cloves
• 2 (Indian) bay leaves
• 2 (3") cinnamon sticks
• 1 red onion, halved and sliced
• 6-8 cloves of garlic, julienned
• 1 c. cauliflower florets
• 1 c. fresh or frozen green beans, cut into 2.5cm (1") pieces
• 2-3 small carrots, cut into 1cm cubes
• 2 tsp. Punjabi garam masala
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 c. water
• 1/2 c. fresh or frozen green peas

Directions

Rice

1. Thoroughly rinse the rice and then pour boiling water over it to cover. Let it soak in the hot water while you prepare the curry.
2. Once the curry has been removed from the heat, drain the rice.
3. Fill a pot halfway with water and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
4. Add drained rice and salt.
5. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered, stirring very occasionally for 10 minutes. Rice will not quite be fully cooked.
6. Meanwhile, warm the cream slightly and stir in the saffron. Set aside to steep for at least 5 minutes.
7. Once the rice has simmered for 10 minutes, drain it and divide into two equal portions.
8. Pour the saffron-laced cream into one portion and sprinkle the ground chilies over the other. Keeping both portions of rice separate, stir each to fully incorporate the colourful additions.

Vegetable Curry

1. Heat ghee over medium-high heat.
2. Add cumin, black cumin, cardamom pods, cloves, bay leaves, and cinnamon sticks and sizzle for about a minute.
3. Add onion and garlic and stir-fry until they turn light brown (~8 minutes).
4. Add cauliflower, green beans, and carrots and cook, stirring frequently for another minute or two.
5. Add garam masala and salt and stir in water.
6. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until veggies are just slightly cooked (~5 minutes).
7. Stir in the peas, cover, and remove from heat. Set aside.

Assembly

1. Preheat the oven to 150°C (300°F) and grease a casserole dish.
2. Pour the chile-spiked rice into the bottom of the prepared dish and press it into a smooth layer.

3. Dump the vegetable curry in on top and smooth it into an even layer.

4. Top with the yellow saffron rice, smoothing this layer as well.
5. Cover the dish and bake at 150°C (300°F) for 45-60 minutes.

---

Variations

Vegan

Ingredients

Rice

• 1 c. long-grain brown rice
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 2 Tbsp. coconut milk
• 1/4 tsp. saffron threads
• 1 tsp. ground Kashmiri chilies

Vegetable Curry

• 2 Tbsp. canola (or other neutral) oil
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds
• 1 tsp. black cumin seeds
• 6 green cardamom pods
• 6 whole cloves
• 2 (Indian) bay leaves
• 2 (3") cinnamon sticks
• 1 red onion, halved and sliced
• 6-8 cloves of garlic, julienned
• 1 c. cauliflower florets
• 1 c. fresh or frozen green beans, cut into 2.5cm (1") pieces
• 2-3 small carrots, cut into 1cm cubes
• 2 tsp. Punjabi garam masala
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 c. water
• 1/2 c. fresh or frozen green peas

Kaaju Curry (Cashew Curry)

We built a beautiful vegetable biryani for dinner tonight and were feeling quite pleased with ourselves. About 10 minutes into the baking time I suddenly realized that we'd prepared a dinner full of starch and veggies but completely devoid of protein! I frantically flipped through the legume section of the cookbook without much hope of finding anything that I'd be able to prepare in time for dinner. I was figuring we'd probably end up having to thaw out a few frozen meatballs to serve along side our fancy saffron-laced casserole.

Just toward the end of the legume chapter though, I spotted this delightfully simple cashew curry. Sadly, the first step ended with a 2-hour soaking period. It sounded so perfect otherwise though, so I decided to give it a go, replacing the long soak with a short simmer. This approach seems to have worked wonderfully! The cashews came out nice and tender with a lovely mild flavour. The Kidlet couldn't get enough of 'em! (If I'm honest, neither could I.)

Certainly not a curry for every day; if not for health reasons, then for budget ones. But what a lovely treat to enjoy when you have the cashews to spare. I'm used to cashews being used as a pleasant inclusion in meat- or tofu-based curries and stir-fries. Having them as the main ingredient made for a decadent (and delicious) change of pace.

Kaaju Curry

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 2 c. raw cashews
• 1 (400mL) can coconut milk
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. ground turmeric
• 1/2 tsp. ground Kashmiri chilies¹
• 12-15 fresh or frozen curry leaves
• 6 green cardamom pods
• 6 whole cloves
• 1-2 (3") cinnamon sticks

Directions

1. Place cashews in a pot and add water to cover.
2. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
3. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 5 minutes.
4. Drain and return to pot.
5. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil.
6. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer until sauce thickens (~20 minutes).

---

¹ Iyer calls for ground cayenne here, but I swapped in some Kashmiri chilies instead since they're quite a bit milder and I figured the Kidlet would prefer it. Feel free to use cayenne if you're looking for something with a bit more kick. ^Back

Sorshe Tamatar (Mustard Tomatoes)

I really enjoyed this one! Being composed mainly of tomatoes, it's not very substantial on its own, but it is very tasty. I love the pungent mustard flavour. I kind of want to try making the same sauce and cooking other things in it. I think it could be nice on greens and/or potatoes. Maybe even some sort of mustard-y mixed vegetable stew! Tomatoes, potatoes, spinach, mustard greens... maybe even a few green chickpeas? I think it could make for a really interesting dish. In the meantime, if you just want a light side dish with big flavour, this simple tomato curry has you covered!

Sorshe Tamatar served atop Gatte ki Tehri

Sorshe Tamatar

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp. mustard seeds, ground
• 1/4 c. hot water
• 2 Tbsp. mustard oil
• 3-4 dried red Thai, cayenne, or arbol chilies
• 450mL diced tomatoes
• 1 Tbsp. jaggery
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. ground turmeric
• 1/4 c. chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

1. Combine mustard and water and mix to make a pungent, yellow paste.
2. Heat oil over medium heat.
3. Add chilies to hot oil and roast until blackened (~30 seconds).
4. Add tomatoes, mustard paste, jaggery, salt, and turmeric and bring to a boil.
5. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until sauce has thickened slightly (~10 minutes).
6. Stir in cilantro and serve.