Cooking my way through the Tenderheart Cookbook.

Kale Dumplings with Brothy Butter Beans

I’m not a fan of butter beans; I usually find them too dry and chewy, so I made this with cannellini beans.

The Quick Lowdown:

• Ingredients: All ingredients were either in my pantry or common veggies I’d often had in my weekly box. This makes it an excellent unplanned meal.
• Prep-work: This had a bit more prep work than some of the other recipes in this book because you made the broth and dumplings, but I made the dumplings in my food processor, so that was super quick.
• Dirty dishes: Cutting board, knife, food processor, large saucepan.
• Taste: This is yum!
• Family-friendly: yes, definitely.
• Regular rotation worthy: I’m always looking for vegetarian recipes that are substantial enough to be a complete meal in our house. Meals need to satisfy and fuel our running. This hit the spot.

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Sweet Patatas Bravas Salad

A familiar story … I had a bunch of sweet potatoes, the family were coming over, and I didn’t want to head out to the shops. I made this with buckwheat instead of barley because I didn’t have any barley, and a mix of sweet potatoes and potatoes to keep the family happy.

The Quick Lowdown:

• Ingredients: See above … no shopping for this one.
• Prep-work: This had very little prep work. Not much chopping, and I cooked the buckwheat in my steam oven. The potatoes are roasted, which takes time, but it’s hands-off.
• Dirty dishes: Cutting board, knife, roasting tray, saucepan and steam oven tray.
• Taste: Great.
• Family-friendly: yes, even though two kids aren’t keen on sweet potato, they ate a decent portion.
• Regular rotation worthy: This is another vegetarian meal that is tasty and hearty enough to satisfy on its own for dinner.

I was thrilled with both these recipes because they are different from the other vegetarian dishes, mainly curries currently in our meal rotation.