For What to Cook this Week we’re sharing recipes for a warming cauliflower potato soup if you’re in the northern hemisphere where winter wants to linger, a tasty tacos al pastor for Taco Tuesday, classic chicken cacciatore with a luscious tomato sauce, Moroccan lamb tagine with prunes and almonds, and a hearty Irish stew for St Patricks Day on Friday.
If you’re visiting us here at Grantourismo for the first time – welcome! What to Cook this Week is a random-ish weekly-ish recipe series comprised of five delicious midweek dinner recipes I’ve dug up from the Grantourismo recipe archives, which is heaving with recipes from around the world.
For our What to Cook this Week round-up of mid-week dinner ideas we have recipes from everywhere from Mexico to Morocco and an Irish stew for St Patrick’s Day which is on Friday 17 March. If you’re cooking Irish food this week, do browse our collection of best Irish recipes.
For What to Cook this Week we try to mix things up with ideas for dishes to cook when you don’t feel like cooking, recipes that might require a little bit of an effort but will be worth it, and dishes to make on a Friday night when you’re looking forward to spending some time in the kitchen with loved-ones, a bottle of wine, and good music in the background.
Now, before you scroll down to my suggestions for what to cook this week, I have a favour to ask of you. Grantourismo is partly funded by its readers. If you’ve enjoyed our recipes, please consider supporting our work by supporting our epic Cambodian cuisine history and cookbook on Patreon, which you can do for as little as the price of a coffee.
Or you could buy us a coffee and we’ll use our coffee money to buy cooking ingredients for recipe testing; or buy a handcrafted KROK, the best mortar and pestle ever (we earn commissions on sales); or buy something from our Grantourismo store such as gifts for food lovers or fun reusable cloth face masks designed with Terence’s images.
Other options include using links on our site to purchase travel insurance, rent a car or campervan or motorhome, book accommodation, book a tour on Klook or Get Your Guide or buy something on Amazon, such as these cookbooks for culinary travellers, classic cookbooks for serious cooks, travel books to inspire wanderlust, and gifts for Asian food lovers and picnic lovers. We may earn a small commission but you won’t pay any extra.
What to Cook this Week – Potato Soup, Tacos al Pastor, Lamb Tagine and Irish Stew
Our ideas for What to Cook this Week include recipes from everywhere from Mexico to Morocco and an Irish stew for St Patrick’s Day which is on Friday 17 March.
Monday – Cauliflower Cabbage Potato Soup Recipe
Topping my list of suggestions for what to cook this week is soup, and this incredibly comforting and warming cauliflower, cabbage and potato soup recipe, which I’m sharing for our readers in the northern hemisphere countries where winter is lingering and the weather is unseasonably icy.
This creamy cauliflower, cabbage and potato soup recipe will make you a comforting vegetable soup, textured with homemade croutons, that tastes so rich and creamy you’d think there was cream in it – there isn’t! – and while you could happily tuck into a bowl on the sofa in your PJs on a Monday night (which is what I like to do), you could also make it a bit fancy.
No cauliflower? Browse this post on our best potato soup recipes where you’ll find recipes for everything from my easy chicken and potato soup recipe for a homemade potato and chicken soup with a stock made from scratch to a loaded baked potato soup topped with crispy bacon, sour cream, cheddar cheese, and chives.
If you enjoy slurping soups as much as I do, also check out our other soup recipes. We have collections of recipes for chicken soups, noodle soups, chicken noodle soups, and fish soups, along with warming winter soups and cold summer soups, depending on what hemisphere you’re on.
Cauliflower Cabbage Potato Soup Recipe for a Comforting Creamy Vegetable Soup
Tuesday – Tacos Al Pastor Recipe
Taco Tuesday is the best excuse to make tacos, which is why this tacos al pastor recipe is next on my list of ideas for what to cook this week. Terence created this recipe in the Mexico City apartment where we spent two weeks during the year-long global grand tour that launched Grantourismo back in 2010.
This recipe was inspired by the tacos al pastor we ate obsessively at Salón Corona, a few blocks from the apartment, and the tacos al pastor that Austin’s ‘taco mafia’ guys introduced us to for lunch at the humble Rosita’s Al Pastor the previous week.
Every time we ate tacos al pastor in Mexico and Austin, the simplicity of corn tortillas topped with pork, marinated with pineapple, spices and chillies, grilled on a vertical spit, and sprinkled with coriander (cilantro), reminded us of the wonderful shawarma we used to eat when we lived in the Middle East. Apart from the pork, of course.
A few tips: try to source soft corn tortillas for more authentic Mexican tacos although wheat flour tortillas work if you can’t. Long tongs come in handy. For a taco feast, serve with sides of guacamole, spicy red tomato salsa, Mexican corn salsa, homemade pickled jalapeños, pickled purple shallots, pickled purple cabbage, and Mexican pickled vegetables.
If you have leftovers, you could make some quesadillas. Whatever you do, make sure to wash all that food down with margaritas or micheladas. Click here for more Taco Tuesday recipes.
Tacos al Pastor Recipe Inspired by the Tacos at Salón Corona and Rosita’s Al Pastor
Wednesday – Italian Chicken Cacciatore Recipe
This classic chicken cacciatore recipe for a traditional Italian chicken stew with a luscious tomato sauce is my next suggestion for what to cook this week. Called pollo alla cacciatora in Italian, which translates to ‘hunter’s chicken’ – ‘pollo’ is ‘chicken’ and ‘cacciatore’ means ‘hunter’ – it’s a rustic old Italian dish typically eaten alone as a main course with crusty bread to mop up the rich sauce.
In different parts of Italy, hunter’s stew has long been made with different types of game, such as wild pheasant (fagiano alla cacciatore), wild boar (cinghiale alla cacciatore) and wild rabbit (coniglio alla cacciatore), while in Calabria it’s made with the addition of spicy Calabrian sausage and red peppers (salsiccia Calabrese al cacciatore).
Tips: use a can of the best quality canned Italian tomatoes you can afford and can source. Season with a good quality sea salt and while I prefer white pepper, use fresh cracked black pepper if you prefer.
Traditionally, in Italy, a salad would be eaten after the chicken cacciatore, but these days Italians, especially younger Italians in the cities, are much more relaxed about the rules of dining, especially when eating casually with family and friends. In the Italian diaspora, anything goes.
I think a panzanella – an Italian bread and tomato salad – is fantastic on the side. If I was feeding a group, I’d also be inclined to serve roast potatoes, such as these hasselback potatoes or creamy mashed potatoes. Leftovers? Make this Italian-Australian spaghetti cacciatore recipe.
Chicken Cacciatore Recipe for a Traditional Italian Chicken Stew with Luscious Tomato Sauce
Thursday – Moroccan Lamb Tagine with Prunes and Almonds Recipe
My next suggestion for what to cook this week is a classic Moroccan dish for lovers of Moroccan food. While this easy Moroccan lamb tagine with prunes and almonds recipe makes a slow-cooked dish using cheaper cuts of meat, it doesn’t need to be babysat.
Terence learnt to make this traditional Moroccan tagine from Jamila, the cook at the riad we stayed at for two weeks in Marrakech, Morocco, and it’s one of our favourite tagine recipes. A tagine is a slow-cooked stew made from meat, generally lamb or chicken, but can contain anything from duck to fish.
In the Moroccan Edition of Weekend Eggs Terence wrote about how there were many different versions of chakchouka. That’s nothing compared to the variations of tagine. You won’t find two cooks who’ll agree on exactly what should go into a tagine as most follow their family’s recipe, finely tuned in their ancestors kitchens over generations.
A Moroccan tagine is usually made in a tagine pot, a glazed clay base with a large conical lid designed to guide the condensation back into the pot. You could use a pressure cooker if you want, as it reduces the simmering time. Buy Ras el Hanout online if you can’t source the spices to make your own.
If you enjoy this, try our very moreish Moroccan chickpea soup recipe and this tangy Moroccan chicken tagine recipe with preserved lemons and olives. Traditionally eaten with crusty round bread called khobz, it’s also delicious with couscous. Just don’t tell your Moroccan friends! Click here for more of our best stew recipes.
Moroccan Lamb Tagine with Prunes and Almonds Recipe from Marrakech
Friday – Irish Beef Stew Recipe for St Patricks Day
Friday is St Patricks Day when we cook Irish food to channel our Irish friends who we haven’t seen in many years. So last on my list of ideas for what to cook this week is this recipe for Irish stew, which you can eat for days, or make pot pies with the leftovers.
This is the best Irish stew recipe for a deeply flavoured classic Irish beef stew with a rich gravy thanks to slow-cooking, an easy roux – and half a bottle of Shiraz. Dishes don’t get more Irish than this traditional Irish stew, considered by many to be Ireland’s national dish, making it the perfect dish to cook for St Patrick’s Day.
A traditional Irish stew is mostly made with lamb these days, but historically, beef, which was considered ‘winter food’, was used in stews. We cook our stews in a Dutch oven. We recommend either a Le Creuset Dutch oven if you can afford it or a more affordable Lodge Dutch oven. (We have more Dutch oven recipes here.)
We’ve got more Irish recipes, such as this divine crispy salmon fillet with Irish colcannon with prawns, if you’re not a meat-eater. It’s based on a dish by Irish chef Liam Tomlin, who helmed Banc, once one of our favourite Sydney restaurants. Terence has been making it for many years.
We’ll also be sharing new recipes for traditional Irish dishes between now and Friday, but in the meantime, I’ll pull together a collection of our best Irish food recipes for you later today.
Best Irish Stew Recipe for a Deeply Flavoured Traditional Irish Beef Stew
Please do let us know if you make any of our recipes from our What to Cook this Week recipe series this week as we’d love to hear how they turned out for you.
Leave a Reply