Recipe help, please!

July 20, 2017 10:45 AM

I have a bunch of vegetables and some other things. What can I make for dinner tonight?

I need to feed 6 people. Some are vegetarian. One is gluten free. Most prefer low salt and low sugar foods. I can make more than one thing or modify a smaller portion to meet people's needs. We don't want tacos and it would be nice to use the tofu. We have a blender, oven, etc. There should be very solid vegetarian options.

What cohesive set of dishes can I make, buying as little extra food as possible?

We have:

Tomatoes
Hummus
Garlic
Goat cheese
Random other small pieces of cheese
Spring mix
Spinach
Green onion
Zucchini
Cherries
Chicken breasts, already cooked and seasoned
Onion
Watermelon
Coconut milk
Thai curry sauce
Fish sauce
Bell peppers
Bacon
Swiss chard
Carrots
Cabbage
Broccoli
Plantains
Fruit juice
Sesame oil
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
A few other condiments
Wine

My idea is to do a Thai curry plus rice and roasted vegetables. I'd have to buy the rice. And, a salad using the greens--but not sure how to make it work with the Thai flavors.

Thanks for any ideas. :)

posted by ramenopres to Food & Drink (11 answers total)

Best answer: Have you tried loading your ingredients into Supercook?

It will generate recipes based on your ingredients. That's what I do when I don't know what to make.
posted by Dressed to Kill at 10:51 AM on July 20, 2017 [3 favorites]

We like to do "healthy bowl night" at my house, so I'd just supplement with some rice or quinoa (or both, to let people decide), and put most of that stuff into bowls on the table. One person might make themselves a big salad with toppings and balsamic. Another might make a rice bowl with hummus and chicken. The possibilities are endless and everybody gets what they want. I'd also add sriracha or the like, but that's just how my fam rolls.
posted by BlahLaLa at 11:01 AM on July 20, 2017 [5 favorites]

It's hot outside, so I'd avoid heating the oven if possible. How about: cheese/vegetable plate, Thai coconut milk soup with tofu, carrots, maybe some cabbage if it's a delicate cabbage, and a hearty salad, and basic vinegar coleslaw. Watermelon and/or other fruit for dessert.

Your list includes no carbs/bread/rice that I can see, so you could buy some awesome bread or crackers and some lentil/gluten free crackers to accompany. No need to cook rice, but of course you can if you want to.
posted by amtho at 11:05 AM on July 20, 2017 [1 favorite]

Thai curry with tofu and veggies; chicken skewers as an appetizer for the carnivores; an appetizer tray with fruit, veggies, and cheese, optional salad dressing for dipping; and then for dessert do plantains in coconut milk, and also offer watermelon slices, perhaps with lime and chili powder. This gives you a lot of options for people to be flexible around and a main dish that can be vegan and gluten-free.

Be sure you get gluten-free soy sauce or your gluten-avoiding person is going to get sick. This is vital for the curry. If the chicken has already been seasoned with soy sauce that has wheat in it, please warn them.
posted by bile and syntax at 11:53 AM on July 20, 2017 [1 favorite]

As a meat eater, I like your idea of Thai Curry, but I like it best if the meat is cooked with the sauce and your veggie companion(s) may not want to just fish the meat out. However, you are on the right track with rice. I'm offering suggestions for rice bowls and salad bowls, some of the ingredients can move from one category to another (I'm looking at the chicken breast and the tofu, in particular, but plenty of the veg are movable. I would not put goat cheese in a rice bowl, but maybe your group would love that.) Bold, Underlined items are things it sounds like you need to buy.

Whether to serve both kinds of bowls will depend on your situation with dishes, cleanup, and/or quantity of things like....are you dividing one tomato six people, or six tomatoes? You could also outline for folks what you are offering and ask them to choose which they want, letting folks know there are, say, three rice bowls and three salad bowls available, if quantity is a concern.

Cook up a pot of rice (I like Jasmine rice with curry sauce, so that's what I would get), use that as a foundation for "rice bowls" and either assemble (mostly) identical bowls, or make a bowl bar, with:

• sliced tomatoes
• fried tofu (some kind of gluten free panko? or else regular bread crumbs and the gluten free person gets no tofu. Sometimes there is gluten in tofu, so check that anyway.)
• Or bake the tofu with some garlic, green onion, broccoli, and sesame oil
• sliced chicken breasts
• slice the carrots and glaze them on the stovetop with some honey and balsamic
• sidle your Thai Curry Sauce among the bowl bar ingredients.

For "salad bowls" toss your spring mix and spinach together, rinse, and add

• goat cheese
• hummus
• thinly sliced onion
• sliced zucchini, which I would sautee in olive oil with the sliced bell pepper and some vinegar and and olive oil

As an additional offering, Sautee the Swiss Chard and the cabbage with the bacon fat, serve the bacon on the side

I can't give you advice on the plantains without knowing how ripe they are (I only eat them when they're really super ripe, like, past black all over)
I'd leave the fish sauce out of this feast, in deference to the vegetarian.
For the watermelon, have a seed spitting contest.
For the fruit juice, see if someone can rustle up an alcohol that is pleasant with it. Rum is often a good bet, your mileage may vary. You can also just serve it cold, cut with a little water if quantity/over sweetness is a concern, for folks who don't want to drink the wine.
For the random bits of cheese, I would just secretly eat them and not share, but maybe you can get or make something like crackers while you're picking up the rice.
posted by bilabial at 11:58 AM on July 20, 2017

OK, stick with the Thai curry as a main. I think I'd make two different ones: one using the chicken and a vegetarian one where the broccoli and bell peppers are the main attractions. These will only take minutes to make in a wok or on a very hot pan. Rice is good but not necessary. Flat bread is good but not necessary.

My focus would then be to make an appetizer buffet of salads or tapas or whatever you want to call it. A watermelon salad with the goat cheese and maybe the spinach. Marinated and grilled zucchini. Hummus. A tomato salad with finely sliced green onion. Carrots sliced and sautéed then sprinkled with bacon. Cabbage finely sliced and dressed with an Asian style dressing (sesame oil, lemon, soy sauce). I've never cooked with plantains, but I'm certain they can fit in here.

You make all the salads ready in advance and prep for the two curries, including cooking the rice if you insist. Then when people are in the middle of snacking and talking, you sneak out and cook the curries in minutes.
Bring them on to the buffet without comment and only remove empty platters. relax, be happy.
posted by mumimor at 12:14 PM on July 20, 2017

It's too late for me to edit, but - I would definitely make rice, probably jasmine rice by preference, and if you're going to add crackers or similar to the fruit and cheese plate, please consider just doing corn chips so that they're safe for the gluten-free person - one of the big risks for us with shared platters is crumbs and secondary contact, so if this were in front of me with gluten-based crackers I would either need to go first and grab everything I intended to eat or I wouldn't be able to touch it. Choosing something like corn chips, lentil crackers, or rice crackers (read the ingredients to make sure they're the tamari crackers with just soy, not soy and gluten), makes the platter safe and delicious for everyone, easier for you, and lets the person with allergies not feel singled out or paranoid. Also with anything packaged, keep the packaging so people can look at it just in case.
posted by bile and syntax at 1:03 PM on July 20, 2017

Once I came to "random other small pieces of cheese" in your list, I thought quiche. It's a very classy and easy way to make all your little odds and ends of meat, vegetables, and cheese into a meal. For six people, especially when you've got some fussy eaters, I would suggest making two quiches. And they're perfectly delicious when they're made crustless (here's a recipe for a crustless quiche), which would please the gluten-free guest and anyone who is carb-conscious. You can truly go wild tossing things into your quiche. The only caution is that items with a high water content (e.g., tomatoes, spinach) should be cooked a bit or otherwise forced to shed their liquid before they go in the quiche. Quiches can be served either hot or at room temperature, which can be handy when you're preparing food for a crowd.
posted by DrGail at 2:35 PM on July 20, 2017

Do a make your own lettuce wraps platter with Swiss chard instead of lettuce. Cut the ribs out (you can set those aside and use in something else) and do a selection of cut up vegetables and your chicken. For the carrots and whatever other vegetables you think would take well to it, lightly pickle in vinegar, salt and sugar (not much). Make a dipping sauce with fish sauce sesame oil and lime if you have it, vinegar if you don't. Have people assemble their own little wraps however and whenever they want, they can also add the pickles to your curry for brightness, or add some curry and rice to the wraps, and so-on.
posted by Mizu at 5:48 PM on July 20, 2017

Response by poster: Thanks! Love Mizu's wrap idea.

I found a few more ingredients and prepared stuffed bell peppers, Thai curry with tofu, and salad wth strawberries, almonds, goat cheese and a vinaigrette. Half the peppers had a vegan stuffing; the others, chicken. I prepared a couple of the sides you suggested. Gabe up needing it to be cohesive, and it turned out great.
posted by ramenopres at 9:18 PM on July 20, 2017

Seconding quiche. Or frittata, which is basically a crustless quiche crossed with an omlette; you start like you're going to make an omlette, where you're cooking things in a skillet on the stovetop, but right at the point where the eggs are just about set and you'd usually be flipping the omlette over, what you do instead is top it with cheese and stick the whole skillet in the oven for about 10-15 minutes. The garlic, spinach, green onion, bell pepper, swiss chard and zucchini would all go great in the frittata; cook them in the skillet first, then pour in the beaten eggs.

Then, use the spring mix, carrots, and tomatoes for a salad, dressing it with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. For dessert, briefly stew the cherries in a little fruit juice and wine until they're just soft, and serve in goblets with whipped cream.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:51 AM on July 21, 2017