It’s the age-old question: what should you eat tonight?
Sorting this thorny query out is a constant battle, and one that can often leave you reaching for the takeaway menu in frustration.
But it doesn’t have to be that way – and Australian cook Nagi Maehashi, AKA RecipeTin Eats, has made a name for herself with simple and tasty recipes you’ll want to make immediately. Half a billion people across the world now visit her website every year, including 2.5 million UK users a month.
The recipes in her second cookbook, RecipeTin Eats: Tonight, are “designed to be your go-to answer whenever your family, partner, flatmates or friends ask, ‘What should we have for dinner?'” she writes.
Whether you’re looking to whip something up from a few store-cupboard staples, or have a bit more time to buy some cheap ingredients, Maehashi has you covered – and here are three recipes you’ll definitely want to try for dinner tonight…
1. Creamy sausage pasta
Ingredients:
(Serves 4)
2tsp salt, for cooking the pasta
400g calamarata pasta, rigatoni or other largish short pasta
For the creamy sausage sauce:
1tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
½ brown onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely minced
500g pork sausages, removed from casings
125ml chardonnay wine
185ml low-salt chicken stock
250ml double cream
½tsp salt
¼tsp black pepper
90g kale, torn into bite-sized pieces
To serve:
Finely grated Parmesan
Pinch of dried chilli flakes (optional)
Method:
1. Cook the pasta – bring a large pot of water to the boil. Add the salt and cook the pasta according to the packet directions. Just before draining, scoop out a mugful of the pasta cooking water. Drain the pasta in a colander. Time the pasta cooking so it’s ready at the same time as the sauce.
2. Cook the sausage – meanwhile, heat the oil in a large non-stick frying pan over high heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook for one minute. Add the sausage meat and cook, breaking it up as you go as you would mince. Get some colour on the pork by leaving it undisturbed for 30 seconds. Toss briefly, then leave it for another 30 seconds.
3. Creamy sauce – add the wine and let it simmer rapidly for two minutes, scraping the base of the saucepan to loosen any golden bits stuck there (free flavour!). Reduce the heat to medium-high. Add the stock, cream, salt and pepper and simmer for five minutes. The sauce will still be quite thin, but it will thicken more in the next step.
4. Toss with pasta – add the cooked pasta, kale and 60 millilitres of the reserved pasta cooking water to the sauce. Use two spatulas to toss well for one minute or until the sauce is coating the pasta instead of being a watery pool in the pan.
5. Serve – immediately divide among bowls and serve sprinkled with Parmesan and a pinch of chilli flakes, if desired.
2. Spicy Korean kimchi noodles
Ingredients:
(Serves 1)
200g udon noodles, fresh or shelf-stable
1tbsp vegetable oil
1 garlic clove, finely minced
80g bean sprouts
120g cabbage kimchi, excess juice squeezed out
2 spring onions, cut into batons, white part separated from the green part
Sesame seeds, for garnish (optional)
For the sauce:
2tbsp kimchi juice from the kimchi jar (see above)
1tbsp gochujang
1tbsp honey
1tbsp light soy sauce (or all-purpose soy sauce)
Method:
1. Prepare the noodles – prepare the udon noodles according to the packet directions (usually soaked in boiling water for a few minutes), then drain in a colander. Time the noodles so they are tossed into the pan when hot – don’t leave them sitting around in the colander.
2. Stir-fry – heat the oil in a large non-stick frying pan over high heat. Add the garlic, bean sprouts, kimchi and the white part of the spring onion. Cook for one minute until the bean sprouts are almost wilted. Add (in this order): the green part of the spring onion, the noodles and all the sauce ingredients. Toss for two minutes until the sauce stains the noodles.
3. Serve – transfer to a bowl, sprinkle with sesame seeds (if using), then devour!
3. Indian lentil coconut stew-soup
Ingredients:
(Serves 4 as a soup, 8 as a stew over rice)
400ml coconut milk
2tbsp ghee or coconut oil
3 garlic cloves, finely minced
1 brown onion, finely chopped
400g can chopped tomatoes
750ml water
200g dried split red lentils
400g can chickpeas, drained
Spices:
½tsp cayenne pepper or chilli powder
½tsp ground ginger
1tsp ground turmeric
1tsp curry powder
1tsp ground cumin
1½tsp salt
2tsp ground coriander
To serve (optional):
Pinch of dried chilli flakes
Coriander leaves
Rice
Method:
1. Reserve the coconut milk – set aside 60 millilitres of the coconut milk for drizzling.
2. Saute the aromatics – melt the ghee in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and onion and cook for three minutes until the onion is translucent. Add the spices and stir for one minute.
3. Simmer – add the tomatoes, remaining coconut milk, water, lentils and chickpeas. Stir, then once it comes to a simmer, reduce the heat to medium-low/low. Simmer gently for 15 minutes, uncovered, stirring every now and then to ensure the base doesn’t catch, until the lentils are soft and creamy and mostly broken down.
4. Serve – ladle into bowls if you see this as a soup, or over rice if you consider it a stew. Either way, drizzle generously with the reserved coconut milk, a pinch of dried chilli flakes, if you like (I do), and coriander leaves if you have them (I did). Devour!
RecipeTin Eats: Tonight by Nagi Maehashi is published by Bluebird, priced £26. Photography by Rob Palmer. Available now.
