New meal prep: Saffron cauliflower curry, vegan burgers with brown sauce & pasta salad | RECIPES

New week and that means a new meal prep! Though because of studies and other things in my life, i haven’t had the time to actually write down the recipes/instructions… so i am a little late on posting them, haha.

This week i have rather short days in school, meaning that i could just cook each day or make a big dinner so that i have left overs for lunch. But i find that meal prepping works well for me, and i can always freeze in the pasta dishes if i feel that i want to eat something else someday, but don’t want the food to go bad.

This week i decided to make a sort of typical swedish dish, which is vegan “beef” burgers with potatoes and brown sauce, and usually you eat it with lingonberry jam. But i decided to go for veggies and pickled cucumber.

I also experimented and made a saffron curry with cauliflower, potatoes and chickpeas which turned out ok. I can’t say it would win any prizes for best tasting food, but it was still delicious and worked out well!

And also quickly threw together a pasta salad with some bean pasta, left over veggies, tofu and tomato sauce.

I also made a taco pie which i will share the recipe of this week 🙂

 

One of the most frequent questions i get regarding my meal prep is… How to store it so that it doesn’t go bad?

Well, i only meal prep for 3-4 days, so the food lasts fine in the fridge. However if i make big batches of all the food then i just freeze it in… like i have done with the tacopie, as i won’t have eaten it all before it starts to go dry.

One thing to remember though is that roast potatoes and veggies don’t last so well in the fridge before going dry, and should be eaten within 48 hours. And the same goes for things like tofu nuggets, battered cauliflower wings etc They tend to lose their crunch and go soggy.

Typically, things like lentil soup/daal, pasta salad, quinoa salad/quinoa dishes, falafel work well to make a big batch of and they will last several days in the fridge. So if you are meal prepping for a whole week,  i would go for those options instead. But if you like me just meal prep for a few days, then you can meal prep roast veggies, pasta dishes, tofu and just make sure to eat the roast veggies first.

How long did it take to make?

Around an hour… with some planning it goes quickly!

&RECIPE FOR THE SAFFRON CURRY

Ingredients:

1 small cauliflower head

1 can coconut milk

1/2 can chickpeas

Potatoes – 5-7 medium potatoes

2 cloves garlic

1 small onion

ginger

0,5g saffron

1tsp cornstarch (if necessary to thicken the sauce)

Pearl barley (alternatively rice)

(Note… adding some chili if you have can add an extra touch of spice!)

METHOD: I first began with chopping the potatoes and carrots – for the other meal prep dish – , drizzling over some oil and salt and then putting into the airfryer for 20 minutes at 200 degrees celsius. I also saved some of the potatoes to boil for the curry.

In the mean time i began with the saffron curry. First boiling the potatoes and also the pearl barley according to instructions. And also frying garlic, ginger and onion in some oil. Then i added the cauliflower and chickpeas. Poured over the coconut milk and added the boiled potatoes. Seasoned with salt, pepper and the saffron. (And more water or coconut milk if necessary): Let simmer on medium heat for a few minutes (5-7minutes) until it has thickened.

Combine with some rice/pearl barley and tomatoes!

 

For the vegan burgers and brown sauce i used a premade vegan mince which i defrosted.

I then combined the mince with bread crumbs, mustard and a little soya sauce. And then i formed into burgers/balls and fried in oil until done. (As simple as that!). Though i have some recipes on my blog for falafel and bean burgers which you can test instead if you don’t like using fake meat.

And like mentioned above, i made the vegetables in the airfryer – 200degrees celsius for 20 minutes.

And then it was my first time making brown sauce:

1tbsp vegan margarine

2tbsp flour

500ml vegetable stock

250ml plantbased cooking cream

1 tbsp soya (I used a dark soya)

HOW TO:

Boil 500ml water and add vegetable stock (depending on what type you use, 1-2 cubes works).

Begin by melting the margarine, and then whisking in the flour. Then add the vegetable stock while continuously whisking so that it doesn’t clump together.

Allow to simmer before adding the plantbased cream and add the soya last. Add a little black pepper and allow to simmer until the sauce thickens slightly.

(Note, if it doesn’t thicken, add a little more flour!)

For the pasta salad, i just boiled some bean pasta and then added whatever veggies i had at home as well as some tofu. So no real recipe, but i have plenty of pasta recipes you can search for on my blog if you want a specific recipe 🙂

 

Hopefully this has inspired you to meal prep… or just given you some ideas of what to make for dinner/Lunch this week!

Also i know some people have requested me to keep doing videos/filming when i meal prep… however i find that it takes too much time. I.e what would take 60-90 minutes takes twice as long when filming. But also that now in winter it is usually too dark to film when i meal prep so it won’t even look good on camera.

But of course, if you want to see my meal prep videos/when i meal prep just let me know and i might consider doing it again. Otherwise… feel free to leave other YouTube video ideas below!! 🙂