What Should I Cook This Weekend? A lunch of easy wins.

This lunch (or dinner) menu is packed with easy wins - it's all slow cooking, room temp serving, easy assembling deliciousness.

Welcome to the very first edition of What Should I Cook this Weekend? !

This weekly newsletters will to send you weekly ideas, encouragement, recipes, practical tips and inspiration that makes having people round and cooking for them something fun to do. Not stressful, expensive or just too much hassle.

If we’ve not met before, hi - I’m Sophie Hansen 👋🏻. I’m a food writer and person living on a farm just out of Orange NSW with my family and other animals. My favourite thing is cooking easy, tasty food to share (ideally outside).

Today’s newsletter is free to read but going forward, most of these menus will be behind a paywall. Putting together these new recipes, styling, shooting, testing, writing them up will take some time. And for this to be sustainable I’ll need to cover that time with subscriptions.

But if you like the idea of receiving two full menus a month plus loads of inspiration and ideas the alternating weeks for around $4/week (less than a coffee these days!) then please consider subscribing. You can turn the payments off anytime.

Ok so what are we cooking this weekend?

It’s a beautiful time of year for long lunching, ideally outside, ideally on a slow November Sunday before the storm before the calm of the Christmas break swells.

Here is a menu, recipes and photos from a lunch made and shared recently at a Farm Kitchen cooking class here, just out of Orange. It was fresh, tasty, easy and delicious so I thought it would make the perfect first post! You can download the recipes and shopping list pdfs below or cook along directly from this post.

I hope you enjoy these newsletters and thank you so much for subscribing.

Sophie x

Easy Wins Lunch Menu

Ravioli with Garlic Scape Pesto
Quinoa Salad with Pickles and Greens
Slow cooked, spiced beef fillet
Slow-cooked capsicums with horseradish cream and balsamic
Elderflower and prosecco jellies with cream and berries

Easy Wins Lunch Recipes

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Easy Wins Lunch Shopping List

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Notes on timing and prep;

• If doing the ravioli, you can make this weeks in advance and freeze, then cook the pasta from frozen. The pesto will sit happily in the fridge for a few days or freeze in ice cubes.

• For the quinoa salad; you can make the dressing and pickles a day or two in advance. Then you can just cook the quinoa, blanch the veggies and toss together an hour or so before lunch.

• Make the spice rup a week or two out. Or that morning!

• The beef and capsicums are fine (better even I’d say) served at room temperature so you could put both on in the morning and then pull out when done and set out, covered, until lunchtime. Or put on around 9am if you want to eat at 1pm!

• Make the jellies the night before or first thing in the morning so they have time to set. Whip the cream just before lunch.

The recipe for the pasta and pesto are both over on my blog.

I haven’t included the ingredients for this dish in the shopping list only because adding this element to the menu does slightly push it out of the ‘easy wins’ category (if only because of the time involved), but there are lines on the list for adding extra things if you’d like to jot down the things needed to add handmade ravioli into the mix!

Quinoa salad with pickles and greens

A gorgeous, big salad full of colour, crunch, flavour and goodness. This is good as a side dish, as a lunch on its own (with bread perhaps?) and to make ahead for picnics or work lunches. 

Serves 6-8
200g green beans, trimmed
200g broad beans (podded)
200g snow peas, trimmed
1/2 cup white quinoa, rinsed
100g feta, crumbled
A handful of mint leaves
1/2 cup natural almonds, toasted and roughly chopped
1/2 cup pickled radishes (recipe below)

For the dressing

2 lemons
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp honey
1/4 cup olive oil
Salt and pepper

Blanch the greens by plunging them, one variety at a time, into a pot of boiling water for a minute a pop. Then rinse under cold water to stop them cooking.

Cook the quinoa according to packet instructions and set aside to cool.

Make the dressing by combining all ingredients in a jar and shaking well to combine. Check the flavours and adjust to taste.

When ready to go, combine the blanched greens, cooked quinoa, feta, almonds and mint leaves on a serving platter and toss well. Top with the pickled radishes and serve. 

Quick pickle formula

This pickling liquid is great for pretty much any vegetable (fennel, carrots, red onion, cucumber…) ; just wash, trim and slice, then pack in a clean jar and pour the liquid over the top. Seal with a lid and store in the fridge. It should be ready to use within half a day but best after 24 hours. 

Makes about 1 big jar
Prep time 10 mins
3/4 cup white wine vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp salt
1 tsp peppercorns

2 bunches of radishes, washed and trimmed (or similar quantity of whatever veggie you are using)

Add in any aromatics/spices/herbs you choose here - chilli flakes, bay leaf, coriander seed, fennel seeds…it’s a choose your own adventure!

Combine the pickle formula in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer. You really just want to dissolve the sugar.

Meanshile, wash and slice your vegetables into bite-size pieces (I like to slice my radishes quite thinly), pack into a clean jar and pour the pickle formula over the top. Seal and keep in the fridge.

Slow cooked, spiced beef fillet

This recipe is so so easy, so good, and perfect for summery gatherings when want an easy win (when don’t we) and something tasty to feed a few. 

Prep time 10 mins
Cook time 1 3/4 hours
Serves 6-8 (with leftovers!)

3 tbsp spice rub (see below)
1.8kg beef fillet (I ask our butcher to tie mine up or you can do this yourself, it cooks better when tied)
2 tbsp olive oil

Rub the spice mix into the beef and bring to room temperature before cooking and preheat oven to 80C. Rub the salt mix into tand sear the beef well on all sides in a large, oven-proof pan on high heat. Pop in the oven for 1 1/2 hours, turning once halfway through. This should yield a lovely, tender pink roast.

Let rest under a tent of foil for at least 20 minutes before slicing and serving.

Spice rub 

1 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tbsp pink peppercorns
1 tbsp yellow mustard seeds
1 tbsp smoked paprika
2 tsp sea salt
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp ground coffee

Toast the coriander seeds, peppercorns and mustard seeds in a dry pan until just aromatic. Transfer to a spice or coffee grinder (or blender) and blitz till you have a coarse powder. Tip this into a jar and add in the paprika, salt, sugar and coffee. Shake to combine. 

Collapsed capsicums with horseradish cream and balsamic

Prep time: 15 mins
Cook time: 1 hour 10 mins
Serves 4–6 as a side

There is a lot of flavour going on here for such a simple recipe. It’s such a winner as a ‘bed’ for our roast beef but also tossed through baby spinach or rocket, chopped and stirred through a pasta salad or layered into a crazy good lasagne. In short, please consider making double.

4 red capsicums (peppers), halved, seeds and membrane removed, then quartered
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
4 thyme sprigs
3 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 tsp freshly grated horseradish
Juice of one lemon
1/2 cup sour cream or swap for store-bought horseradish cream

Preheat the oven to 90°C (315°F). 

Place the capsicums in a medium-sized ovenproof dish (so they fit fairly snugly). Sprinkle over the salt, pepper and thyme sprigs and pour in 1/4 cup (60 ml) water. Cover with a lid or foil and place in the oven for two hours. Remove the cover, toss everything around fairly well, increse the oven temperature to 180C and while the beef is resting, return to the oven for 30 minutes, or until the capsicums are completely soft and have shrunk down quite a bit. 

Meanwhile, grate the horseradish into a bowl, add the sour cream and mix well. Add a little lemon juice to taste.

While still warm, drizzle over the olive oil and balsamic and toss well. At this point, the dish can sit happily at room temperature for a few hours, then, just before serving, grate over the horseradish or dollop on the horseradish cream. 

Elderflower and prosecco jellies with cream and berries

Serves 8
Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 5 mins

I think jellies are one of the very best ways to end any meal. They are light and cleansing and just the right amount of sweetness, and you can always fit a little glass of jelly, even when you think you might be full! And for extra points, they are completely done and ready to pass around well before anyone arrives. Obviously this is one for the adults, but if you prefer you can leave out the prosecco, increase the cordial to 1 1/2 cups (375 ml) and make up the rest of the liquid with water.  

I especially love elderflower jellies, but this recipe would work well with any fruit syrup or cordial you have on hand.

4 gold-strength gelatine leaves (see Note)
1 1/2 cups (375 ml) elderflower cordial
1 cup water
2 cups (500 ml) prosecco or sparkling wine (or water)
Fresh raspberries, to serve
Whipped cream, to serve

Place the gelatine leaves in a shallow bowl and pour over one cup of cold water. Leave to soften. 

Meanwhile, place the cordial and water in a small saucepan and bring to boiling point. Remove from heat,  squeeze the liquid out of the gelatine leaves, add them to the hot elderflower cordial and whisk until the gelatine has completely dissolved. Pour in the prosecco and gently stir. 

Divide the mixture among pretty serving glasses, dot with the raspberries, a few per glass, and pop them in the fridge to set for at least 3 hours.

Serve the jellies topped with a dollop of whipped cream. 

Note:

Check the gelatine packet to see how much you need – most will tell you how many sheets you need to set every 1 cup (250 ml) of liquid.