I've Bean Travelling

This past week’s worth of Goodfood meals featured some variety, but was capped on each end by meatballs. I love meatballs, so I’m not complaining! Here’s what we’ve been eating lately via our meal kit subscription.

MONDAY

Saucy scallion pork meatballs over jasmine rice with garlic sautéed greens & creamy slaw.

Our first meatball meal featured these saucy pork and scallion concoctions seasoned with a Korean-inspired spice blend and cooked in sweet soy sauce. On the side was a creamy cabbage slaw and sautéed Asian greens (gai lan), served atop a bed of jasmine rice. Overall a pretty simple recipe that tasted great. Who knew that Asian-style meatballs were a thing?

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

TUESDAY

Ginger-oyster glazed cod over soba noodles with baby bok choy & sugar snap peas.

Cod can be a bit tricky to cook but I managed to pull this one off. Our fish meal of the week included a cod filet prepared in a mix of ginger and oyster sauce, which gave it that coveted umami. The soba noodles were my favourite part though. I’ve usually had these Japanese buckwheat noodles in broth, but this recipe had us toss them in a stir-fry sauce seasoned with a blend of dehydrated vegetables, sea salt, seaweed, ginger, sunflower oil, and lemongrass.

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

WEDNESDAY

Balsamic & blue concord grape chicken over creamy mash.

Perfect as an end of summer/early fall recipe, this meal featured Concord grapes, which are typically in season through September. The grapes were cooked down in balsamic vinegar and garlic, and then used as a sauce to go with some chicken thighs. This was another successfully prepared chicken meal, which went well with the creamy mashed potatoes. A nice hearty start to autumn eating.

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

THURSDAY

Zucchini-butternut squash curry with lentils & basmati rice.

We had a few decent vegetarian meals with Goodfood on our last recap, but this one was not so great. We actually enjoyed a similar dish of coconut curry lentil daal back in July, so I was thinking that this zucchini and butternut squash variation would be just as good, but it turned out quite flavourless and bland. I suspect the spice blend was just not up to par. We also missed the naan bread. Gotta have naan.

Yum Rating: ⭐️| Find the recipe here.

FRIDAY

Spiced pork chops over “pad thai” with charred brussel sprouts & peanuts.

I put “pad thai” in quotations here because this recipe was really just pad thai “inspired”. For one thing, it used Shanghai noodles instead of flat rice noodles. And for another, it included brussel sprouts, which I have never seen in Thai cuisine. The meal did taste good, especially the seared pork chops, but this interpretation of a traditional ethnic dish raised some eyebrows in our household.

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

SATURDAY

Soy marinated beef chow fun with crunchy greens & scallions.

Chow fun is one of my favourite Cantonese dishes, so I looked forward to this meal. Commonly served in dim sum restaurants or on fast food takeout menus, chow fun is made of stir-fried wide flat rice noodles usually accompanied by marinated beef. My attempt at the noodles turned out pretty well with the sweet soy sauce. The beef was a touch chewy and could have been more flavourful. I would marinate the strips longer next time if I were to try this recipe again.

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

SUNDAY

Glazed meatballs with peanuts, Singapore-style slaw & jasmine rice.

Our final meatball meal of the week was pork seasoned with ginger; scallion; and a blend of brown sugar, sea salt, white sesame seeds, garlic, ginger, and black pepper. They were glazed with sweet soy sauce, and served over a Singapore-style slaw and spiced Jasmine rice. I quite liked the slaw but it required a lot of chopping. Need to get those knife skills tuned up. The meatballs weren’t as saucy as the first set but were a tasty variation. Would eat again.

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