I've Bean Travelling

The time has come for another Goodfood recap. Our recent week’s worth of meals included a great deal of variety, and we had the opportunity to pull out the grill for a few of the recipes again. From frango churrasco to pretzel bun burgers, we ate well this week.

MONDAY

Frango churrasco with potato wedges & charred corn.

Frango churrasco refers to the Portuguese rendition of barbecued chicken, which is also popular in Spain and Latin America. For this meal, we made chicken breast skewers that we cooked on the grill, alongside some corn on the cob, potato wedges, and sweet peppers. The piri piri seasoning was mild but went quite well on the corn in particular. This reminded me that skewers are an easy dinner option and something we should do more often!

Yum Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | Find the recipe here.

TUESDAY

Tomato, corn & basil risotto with parmigiano reggiano crisps.

Mr. Chuckles’ risotto is one of my favourite meals, so I was looking forward to making this version of my own via Goodfood. I’ve had some cooking disasters when it comes to risotto but the detailed step-by-step instructions with these meal kits makes it easier to produce an edible product. This risotto dish featured sweet summer corn, basil, and cherry tomatoes, topped with a parmagiano reggiano crisp made easily by simply baking small mounds of the grated cheese for a few minutes. The crisp was actually my favourite part; I found the rice with corn a bit too sweet, so this was not quite my favourite meal of the bunch.

Yum Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ | Find the recipe here.

WEDNESDAY

Chorizo-stuffed Turkish-style pide with garlic-yogurt drizzle & marinated sweet peppers.

Speaking of cooking disasters, the last time I made a flatbread type dish with Goodfood was my attempt at tomato pesto pizza, and that thing turned out to be something of an alien life-form. For this Turkish-style pide (oblong pizza-like flatbreads), I made sure to knead out the dough more, but it still baked into a pretty thick crust. The taste was a lot better though, featuring homemade chorizo topped with a garlic-yogurt sauce.

Yum Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | Find the recipe here.

THURSDAY

Fried pork katsu bowls with sesame vinaigrette, slaw & smashed cucumbers.

This fried pork katsu was another improvement from a previous recipe. Back in May, I made a tofu katsu in curry sauce, which looked nice but tasted bland. This time around, we did katsu the way it should be done – with meat – and turned up a deliciously crispy panko fried pork served atop a bed of jasmine rice, slaw, and marinated cucumbers. Redeemed!

Yum Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | Find the recipe here.

FRIDAY

Summer sweet-pepper rigatoni with walnuts, labneh & garlic string beans.

Our next vegetarian meal of the week was a rigatoni tossed in labneh (strained yogurt) based sauce. Mixed in were some toasted walnuts, a sweet pepper miscela, and side of string beans. We used fresh pasta that came out perfectly al dente. It was good stuff; I approve.

Yum Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | Find the recipe here.

SATURDAY

Peruvian-style grilled chicken with tangy cilantro sauce & arroz verde.

I’m not quite sure what made this dish Peruvian style, but it was yummy, like the food we enjoyed in Peru. We warmed up the grill again for this meal, consisting of chicken thighs seasoned with a blend of cumin, oregano, paprika, and garlic powder. I really, really liked the side of arroz verde rice, which was prepared by mixing in cilantro, scallions, the spice blend, and lime zest. It’s something I would try again on my own outside of the meal kit.

Yum Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | Find the recipe here.

SUNDAY

Smoked cheddar pork burgers on pretzel buns with dilled potato salad & creamy honey-mustard sauce.

Finally, our most recent Goodfood meal was a good ol’ cheeseburger. This one was made of pork, topped with smoked cheddar, and wrapped in a pretzel bun. The pretzel bun was denser than the usual potato buns, so this was a heavy meal. The sides were excellent as well, especially the dill-potato salad. That’s another component that I would reattempt outside of the meal kit, as it’s a pretty straightforward combination of boiled potatoes, dill, honey mustard, mayonnaise, and apple cider vinegar.

Yum Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ | Find the recipe here.