May Cooking Class

What should we cook this weekend? What about we keep it nice and simple - and set aside 40 mins or so to make four dressings, cook some grains, roast some chicken and put it all in the fridge ready to be put to work in loads of delicious ways all through the week ahead?

So let’s do a spicy peanut butter soy sauce; a big-flavour vinaigrette; sunshine dressing (orange, tahini, miso – it goes on everything); and a chilli oil that brings the vibes to pretty much any plate.

The video walks you through all of them, plus I’ve got a bunch of ideas for using them in salads and bowls and things.

This isn’t meal planning or batch cooking, rather, it’s setting a little time aside to make the building blocks for easy meals all week.

Putting Your Sauces to Work

Having all four of these dressings in the fridge ready to go means a shortcut to loads of delicious lunches and easy dinners. Here are some quick ideas beyond the four main recipes:

Chilli Oil

• Stir through soft scrambled eggs with a pinch of flaky salt

• Drizzle over steamed or microwaved silken tofu with soy and sesame

• Toss with halved cherry tomatoes, pile onto hummus, serve with torn focaccia

• Use as a dipping sauce for dumplings

• Drizzle over steamed greens, beans, broccoli or broccolini

• Swirl through a bowl of ramen or instant noodles

Sunshine Dressing

• Grain bowl base: barley, farro or quinoa with whatever roasted veg you have

• Drizzle over a simple salad of cucumber and avocado

• Drizzle over roasted or steamed tofu or fish

• Drizzle over a warm roasted sweet potato with pepitas and goat’s cheese and maybe some pickled green chillies for heat and tang.

Big Flavour Vinaigrette

• Dress a big crunchy slaw: shaved cabbage, fennel, apple, toasted walnuts, boiled eggs

• Toss through warm lentils with roasted capsicum and feta

• Use as a simple dressing for leftover roasted vegetables

• Drizzle over grilled fish or chicken straight from the pan

Spicy Peanut Butter Soy Sauce

• Toss with cold soba noodles, chicken, cucumber and spring onion

• Use as a dipping sauce for rice paper rolls or fresh spring rolls

• Drizzle over a rice bowl with fried egg and pickled vegetables

• Thin with extra water and use as a satay-style marinade

• Use wherever you would a satay sauce.

  

While making these dressings, I also had the below prep on the go. Now this is all in the fridge with my dressings, and the week ahead is looking pretty delicious!

• Toasted cashews for crunch

• Shredded cabbage and iceberg wedges

• Quinoa and brown rice cooked in the rice cooker

• Farro cooked according to the absorption method

• Roasted pumpkin and onions

A note about the videos - I do these thinking you’ll be stopping and starting as we go, and hope they flow well for you, but I’d love your feedback if you’d like me to be doing anything differently!

The idea is we get all the ingredients out (you can download the shopping list and recipes below) before hitting play, but you can hit pause anytime to regroup, clean your benches, gather more ingredients etc.

Also, my camera stopped filming halfway through making the vinaigrette, but I figure you didn’t miss anything earth-shattering there, and the recipe should see you through the end!

Thanks so much for watching and for your support.

Sophie x