What to Cook this Week is a newish weekly recipe series we publish every Monday with weeknight meal ideas from the Grantourismo recipe archives. Suggestions include easy midweek dishes, ideas for upcoming holidays, and recipes that we’re developing and testing that we’d love you to try.
As our What to Cook this Week and What to Cook this Weekend have proved to be so popular since we launched the series last year, this month we tested out a new What to Cook this Month series with 28 Recipes to Cook in February.
Some readers have told us that while they thought the monthly post was fun, they missed the weekly and weekend series, which they looked forward to and found inspiring, so this week we’re bringing back What to Cook this Week, kicking off with Valentine’s Day dinner recipes.
Now, before you scroll down to our ideas for what to cook this week, I have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader-funded. If you’ve enjoyed our recipes, please consider supporting our work by buying us a coffee. We’ll put that coffee money toward cooking ingredients for recipe testing.
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What to Cook This Week from Valentines Day Dinner Ideas to our Best Cabbage Recipes
Monday Night – Valentine’s Day Recipes
Our Valentines Day dinner recipes for romantic dinners at home – because nothing says “I Love You” like a home cooked meal – include recipes for pre-dinner nibbles with glasses of sparkling, appetisers and mains. No dessert recipes. We recommend a decadent cheese plate or opening a box of chocolates and another bottle of bubbly.
If you’re one of the countless people around the world in a self-imposed lockdown of sorts due to Omicron, and are still avoiding restaurants, then browse our Valentines Day dinner recipes and enjoy dinner in with your loved-one tonight.
Let’s face it, anybody can pay for a restaurant meal, but nothing says “I Love You” like taking the time and care to prepare a delicious home cooked meal – whether it’s your loved-one’s favourite dish cooked to perfection with a good bottle of wine, or a three-course meal with snacks, starter and main.
Because who really needs dessert on Valentine’s Day? We recommend a decadent cheese plate with slices of two or three good cheeses or a box of chocolates and dessert wine, or perhaps opening another bottle of bubbly. We’ve also compiled a collection of Valentine’s Day breakfast recipes.
Valentines Day Dinner Recipes Because Nothing Says I Love You Like Home Cooking
Tuesday Night – Mexican Chilaquiles Recipe with Fried Eggs, Shredded Chicken and Green Salsa
Why not make this easy Mexican chilaquiles recipe with fried eggs, shredded chicken and green salsa for #TacoTuesday ? A popular dish eaten for breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner or supper in Mexico, chilaquiles was created to use up stale tortilla chips and other leftovers, and is a very versatile dish.
This Mexican chilaquiles recipe is my attempt to recreate the chilaquiles verdes (green chilaquiles) or, more correctly, chilaquiles con pollo en salsa verde (chilaquiles with chicken in green salsa) that I became addicted to at Café la Blanca in Mexico City many years ago.
A pre-Hispanic Aztec dish, chilaquiles – pronounced chee-lah-KEE-lehs, which comes from a Nahuatl word that meant ‘chillies and greens’ – has long been a popular Mexican breakfast dish, but it’s eaten at any time of day.
Filling and comforting, it makes for a fantastic lunch or dinner. Back in the day, my Mexican friends tucked into late-night (or early morning!) bowls of chilaquiles after a big night out. They swore it was the best hangover cure.
This Mexican chilaquiles recipe with fried eggs, chicken and salsa verde is the latest edition in our Weekend Eggs recipe series on quintessential eggs dishes from around the world.
Mexican Chilaquiles Recipe with Fried Eggs, Shredded Chicken and Green Salsa for Chilaquiles Verdes
Wednesday Night – Eggs Potatoes and Chorizo Skillet Recipe
This eggs potatoes and chorizo breakfast skillet recipe makes our favourite take on the classic American country skillet breakfast made in a cast iron skillet. It’s also called a cowboy skillet breakfast or farmer’s skillet breakfast, but we love to eat this for dinner.
Although there’s an infinite number of variations on the traditional skillet recipe – additions include anything from bell peppers to kidney beans – the essential ingredients of the classic skillet dish are eggs, potatoes, onions, cheese, and bacon or ham.
We prefer to make this hearty American dish with spicy chorizo sausage instead of bacon and ham, and specifically the Mexican-style soft chorizo sausage rather than the harder Spanish-style chorizo.
We love chorizo – who doesn’t? – and we especially love the combination of chorizo, eggs and potatoes, hence this traditional Spanish potato omelette recipe with chorizo, this Basque-style ‘messy eggs’ recipe for fried eggs with chorizo and potatoes, and our breakfast taco with fried eggs, chorizo and crunchy potatoes.
Eggs Potatoes and Chorizo Breakfast Skillet Recipe for a Twist on a Classic American Breakfast
Thursday Night – Chorizo, Cabbage and Three Bean Stew Recipe
Thursday is National Cabbage Day, so a dinner with cabbage is in order tonight. What do you think? We have loads of cabbage recipes, from my baboushka’s Russian cabbage rolls and a cabbage roll soup that would probably have her rolling in her grave, to my cabbage soup recipe for shchi (Щи) and red cabbage pickles recipe.
But you can only make one cabbage recipe on Cabbage Day, so I strongly encourage you to make this chorizo, cabbage and three bean stew recipe for my take on an old Eastern European stew. It’s so good.
This hearty chorizo cabbage and three bean stew recipe makes my spicy take on a traditional stew my Russian grandmother cooked called kapustniak, kapustnyak or kapusniak in Russia, Ukraine and Poland. Originally made with kielbasa and sauerkraut, I use chorizo to add warmth and deep flavours, and three types of beans to add texture.
Like all good Russian grandmas, my baboushka had an impressive repertoire of hearty soups and stews. In autumn and winter, there seemed to always be a big pot of something bubbling on the stove, steaming up the windows in a kitchen that was always cold, and filling the house with mouth-watering aromas, and her cabbage soups were some of my favourites. I’ve also compiled a collection of our best cabbage recipes for your convenience.
Chorizo Cabbage and Three Bean Stew Recipe for a Spicy Take on a Traditional Eastern European Stew
Friday Night – Russian Beef Stroganoff Recipe
I know I’ve shared this recipe before but it’s so good, it’s one of our most popular recipes on the site, and for me it’s one of the most comforting dishes and we all need comfort food right now. Two years. TWO YEARS! Is this pandemic ever going to end?
This authentic Russian beef Stroganoff recipe makes the deliciously rich and creamy braised beef and mushroom dish cooked centuries ago in the grand kitchen of St Petersburg’s glorious pink Stroganov Palace.
An aristocratic Russian dish with peasant roots – there were mushroom and beef stews centuries before this Russian beef Stroganoff recipe was created and refined in the Stroganov dynasty’s St Petersburg palace kitchen by a French chef – beef Stroganoff would go on to travel the world with Russian émigrés and World War II refugees like my grandparents, becoming popular everywhere from China and Hong Kong to Australia and the Americas.
Better known as a retro classic of the Seventies, beef Stroganoff is rich in history and incredibly comforting. It’s the dish that you need to make right now.
Authentic Russian Beef Stroganoff Recipe for a Retro Classic from a Saint Petersburg Palace Kitchen
Please do let us know if you’ve made any of our What to Cook this Week recipes in the comments below as we’d love to get your feedback and hear how our recipes turned out for you.
