Cooking is often the last thing you feel like doing when you get home, but dinner doesn’t have to take an hour to cook. Here are some fast dinners you can prepare which are full of flavour. Use this cooking time to unwind and use all your senses to enjoy the ingredients you’re cooking with. Remember to keep the windows and curtains open to control light and have fresh air whilst you cook. According to researches, darkness make people eat more, and fresh air keeps you healthy.
• Salmon parcels with brown rice: This is a gorgeous main which can easily be used for dinner parties but it’s also delicious any night of the week.
Start by putting some brown rice on to boil as it takes about 20mins to cook. In a baking tray, place individual salmon fillets in aluminium parcels. Add a tiny splash of white wine, lemon juice and some fresh parsley to each parcel. Close them tightly so they look like Cornish pasties. Pop them in the oven for about 10mins on 200ºC. Serve the salmon parcels with brown rice on the side.
• Beef stir-fry: Cheaper and healthier than getting a takeaway!
Fry some thin beef fillets. Cut into strips. Boil some noodles. Chop up some mushrooms, red peppers, pak choi (Chinese cabbage). Place the boiled noodles, beef strips, vegetables in a hot wok. Stir and fry for a minute. Add soya sauce to taste (remember this is the Chinese equivalent of salt, so you don’t need to season with salt as well!). Enjoy!
• Home made soup: Soup is underrated — mainly because people eat soup from tins which isn’t that tasty — make your own! It takes roughly 40mins to make this dish but it’s well worth the effort! You can also make big batches and freeze some for another day.
Chop up a large onion, 2 carrots and 2 celery sticks (if you don’t like celery, add another 2 carrots). Add the same quantity of whatever other ingredient you like (tomatoes, leeks and potatoes, mushrooms) to make your soup that flavour. Fill a large saucepan with a slosh of olive oil and “sweat” the vegetables for 10 mins, until the carrots are soft. Add 200ml of vegetable stock and stir. Bring to the boil. Then let it simmer for 15mins. Serve with wholemeal toast and pepper!