I was making lunch and dinner for a family gathering, and cooked a ton of things.
- Seed crackers (pumpkin, sunflower, sesame, chia, and linseed)
- Marinated tofu salad with cherry tomatoes, capers, and olives
- Bulghur wheat* with kidney beans, corn kernels, and pumpkin seeds
- Cauliflower curry
- Cauliflower and quinoa balls in masala sauce
- Apple and ginger dhal
(*) I’d not used this before, but it must surely be the least-time/effort grain I’ve ever cooked with. From the packet, just add boiling water, cover for 10 mins, and it’s ready to eat! You could bulk up any meal with this stuff in a jiffy.
I made as many of the dishes as possible the previous day (along with chia pancakes for my partner’s sister and her husband who visited for lunch the day before my family), so I basically spent that whole day in the kitchen, but it all turned out well (which was a relief, as pancakes aside these were all new recipes for me). I was marinating the tofu overnight, so I cooked the rest of that dish in the morning before people arrived for lunch, and in the evening had to bake the cauli/quinoa balls (which I’d already prepared) and make the masala sauce for them, and get everything else re-heated for serving (I definitely should have taken dinner things out of the fridge earlier in the day!).
Dessert was a trio of fruity sorbets and coconut ice-cream (I didn’t make any of these, but they were all good).
Our dishwasher then chose this particular day to form a fault, and it sounds like it’s going to be about a fortnight before it can be serviced – but I’m having a day of doing nothing today, so the dishes can wait until tomorrow!