Have you ever had to serve a lot of people, but not known where to start with the recipe or what you can make without having to stress yourself out while still serving a variety of foods?
If so, our series, “Serving the Masses,” will provide you with delicious, yet healthy, meals you can make. These recipes will feature easy-to-source ingredients, few ingredients and ingredients that usually do not cost a lot of money. These recipes will be written in a different format from our usual recipes as we are publishing the recipe in the same way we suggest it should be cooked – in the way that takes the least time. Therefore, there will be points when you have multiple dishes or your main and sides cooking at the same time.
These recipes are filled with vitamins, minerals and a range of other beneficial nutrients. These recipes will also be great for meal preps as they can all also be eaten with other foods such as rice, pasta, lentils, beans and more.
Without further ado, here are our recipes for this Serving the Masses set meal.
Bon Appétit!
Ingredients (serves 6)
Broccoli
2 Heads of Broccoli, rinsed and cut into florets
Water, freshly boiled
2tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Garlic, minced (to taste)
Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
Sea Salt
Black Pepper
Red Aubergines (make 2 batches of this)
3tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Large Purple Onion, chopped
2 Red Bell Peppers, chopped
2-3 Garlic Cloves, minced
A thumb of ginger, minced
2 Large Aubergines, chopped
A pinch of Sea Salt
400g can/carton Chopped Tomatoes
2tbsp Tomato Purée
4tbsp Water
Smoked Paprika
Black Pepper
Ground Coriander
Ground Cinnamon
Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
Mushrooms
600g Closed Cup Mushrooms, thinly sliced (alternatively, use any mushrooms of choice)
1tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Soy Sauce
1-2 Cloves of Garlic, minced
Green Beans
4 x 220g bags of Green Beans, tops and tails sliced off
Water, freshly boiled
Sea Salt
Method (make the first batch of red aubergines before following all these steps)
Broccoli
- Place your broccoli florets in a pot then pour enough hot water to cover the broccoli and set the pot on a stove at high heat for 4 minutes.
Red Aubergines
- In a pot (preferably a cast-iron one), fry the onions, red bell peppers, garlic and ginger. Once the onions have softened and the contents of the pan are fragrant, add in the aubergines and sea salt and let them soften up a bit.
Broccoli
- Drain the broccoli and pour some cold water over it to enhance its colour.
- Drain out the cold water immediately.
Red Aubergines
- Stir in the chopped tomatoes followed by the tomato purée and water.
- Stir in the rest of the ingredients to taste and let the contents of the pot cook on a medium-high heat level with a lid covering the pot. If you are not using a non-stick pot gently stir every 5mins to ensure nothing is burning at the bottom of the pot.
Broccoli
- Using the olive oil, sautée the broccoli and garlic in a non-stick frying pan with the sea salt, crushed red pepper flakes and black pepper until fragrant and the garlic begins to soften.
- Transfer the content of the pan to a heatproof casserole dish or a baking tray and place in the oven at 150°C until the rest of the cooking is done. N.B. If the broccoli was spread out on a wide flat baking tray, check on them every few minutes and turn them over to prevent burning or the broccoli drying out too much.
Mushrooms
- In a non-stick frying pan, sautée the mushrooms and garlic for 2mins.
- Drizzle some soy sauce over the mushroom (approximately 1tbsp) and let them cook on a medium-high heat level. The mushrooms will release a lot of liquid during this process. Let the mushrooms cook, gently stirring occasionally, until the liquid evaporates from the pan.
Green Beans
- Place the green beans in a pot with enough hot water to cover them and salt (to taste).
- Bring the water to a boil and let the beans cook for 3-5mins or until at your desired consistency.
- Drain
Mushrooms
- Taste a mushroom to know if you would like to add a bit more soy sauce to it. Note that as the soy sauce adds more umami flavour to the dish, it will also add more salt to it.
Red Aubergines
- Take the lid off the pot and let the dish cook for 5 more minutes or until some of the excess water in it has evaporated and the sauce has thickened up a bit.
Serve all the dishes together or in addition to other meals.
Store leftovers separately in the fridge for up to 3 days of in the freezer for up to a month.
If you try the recipe, upload a picture of it to Instagram with the hashtag #lickyourplatesrecipe so we can have a look at and like it.
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