What to Cook this Week – Scallion Noodles, Corn Salad, Gazpacho and More

For this edition of What to Cook this Week we’re sharing recipes for easy ginger scallion noodles, a tasty Thai corn salad, creamy corn chowder, and Cambodian papaya salad. We’ve also got a Spanish gazpacho, chorizo potato croquettes, and Mediterranean chicken, roast broccoli, and cauliflower with hummus.

In this week’s edition of What to Cook this Week we’ve compiled recipes for dishes that you should enjoy whether you’re in the northern or southern hemispheres. We’ve got recipes for cooling late summer dishes for our readers in the sultry north and warming late winter dishes for those in the chilly south.

If you don’t find a recipe that appeals below, see our collection of 31 summer recipes to make in August if you’re in the northern hemisphere –  or these round-ups of recipes for summer salads, tomato recipes and summer corn recipes – or if you’re in the southern hemisphere, browse our top 31 winter recipes to make in August for warming soups, stews, chillies, and curries.

Our collection of 31 summer recipes to make in August includes everything from chilled summer soups to crunchy summer salads, fresh Southeast Asian spring rolls and dipping sauces to easy homemade dips and crackers, grilled meats, and vegan chillies. We also have more Vietnamese spring roll recipes here.

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 suggestions for five delicious weeknight dinner recipes I’ve dug up from the Grantourismo recipe archives, which is brimming with many hundreds of recipes from around the world.

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.

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What to Cook this Week – Scallion Noodles, Corn Salad, Gazpacho and More

Our ideas for What to Cook this Week include recipes for ginger scallion noodles, Thai corn salad, Cambodian grilled corn, Spanish gazpacho, chorizo and potato croquettes, Mediterranean chicken, and more.

Monday – Ginger Scallion Sauce Recipe for Ginger Scallion Noodles

Topping my suggestions for what to cook this week is this incredibly delicious but super easy ginger scallion sauce recipe for ginger scallion noodles. It’s one of the most popular recipes on Grantourismo right now.

The recipe makes the much-copied Momofuku homage to the classic Southern Chinese sauce that chef David Chang and food writer Francis Lam popularised outside China over a decade ago.

Before we knew it as Momofuku’s ginger scallion noodles from David Chang’s Momofuku: A Cookbook published back in October 2009, Chang said it was “the secret sauce” served up in Cantonese joints all over New York City.

Terence has been making these noodles since the book’s release. Sometimes he’ll serve them plain, other times with fantastic fresh prawns. For special dinners, he’ll slide pan-fried salmon fillets on top. Tonight we’re going to keep the noodles simple.

Ginger Scallion Sauce Recipe for Ginger Scallion Noodles, A Momofuku Take on a Chinese Classic

Tuesday – Thai Corn Salad Recipe, Smoky Grilled Corn or Creamy Corn Chowder

Next on my list of suggestions for what to cook this week is this easy Thai corn salad recipe for a fantastic filling summer salad. While it could serve as a light meal on a hot summer evening, it’s also an ideal side for a casual dinner when paired with spicy Thai fried chicken.

Our easy Thai corn salad recipe makes a simple tossed salad based on a popular Bangkok som tam style salad that’s pounded in a mortar and pestle. While we do love a good som tam – we have a classic Thai som tam recipe here – for us, this salad works just as well as a tossed salad if you don’t have a pestle and mortar.

It’s a fantastic use of the last of the fresh seasonal summer corn available in abundance right now, although if corn is not in season in your neck of the woods, canned corn kernels also work. Canned beans and tinned carrots will not.

Thai Corn Salad Recipe for a Filling Summer Lunch or a Perfect Side for Thai Style Fried Chicken

I might also make some of these smoky grilled corn cobs called poat dot here in Cambodia, which are served with a sweet and tangy coconut fish sauce. I can happily munch into this on their own. But they also go nicely with the Cambodian papaya salad, below.

If you’re in the chilly southern hemisphere, then I suggest you make our corn chowder recipe for a creamy potato corn chowder with Parmigiano Reggiano, scallions and croutons. You can make this corn chowder with fresh corn kernels sliced off the cob or canned corn.

Wednesday – Andalusian Style Gazpacho and Spanish Croquettes with Potato and Chorizo

I like the idea of a simple Spanish meal on Wednesday night as it’s going to be a busy week, so next on my list of suggestions for what to cook this week is our gazpacho recipe for an authentic Andalusian style gazpacho from southern Spain.

The recipe makes the kind of gazpacho that you’ll find in cities such as Seville, Granada and Cordoba, a vibrant orange gazpacho that tastes like a garden salad in the form of a cold summer soup. This chilled soup tastes even better the next day!

Best Gazpacho Recipe for an Authentic Andalusian Style Gazpacho from Southern Spain

As soup is never enough for Terence, who is very good and does twice-daily workouts at the gym to stay fit and healthy, we’ll make a few of our best Spanish tapas dishes or maybe a few Basque pintxos.

Our Spanish tapas recipes make some of the most popular Spanish tapas bar snacks: Spanish meatballs called albondigas, chorizo and potato croquettes, the classic garlic shrimp, a Spanish chorizo in red wine, and a simple calamari recipe.

They’re all delicious but I like the idea of following the gazpacho with dishes of albondigas, croquettes and maybe the garlic shrimp, all of which we can tuck into with the scrummy sourdough bread Terence has been baking.

Spanish Chorizo and Potato Croquettes Recipe for Croquetas de Patata y Chorizo

Thursday – Green Papaya Salad with Fried Chicken

Next on my list of suggestions for what to cook this week for Thursday is this Cambodian papaya salad with fried chicken. This green papaya salad recipe makes Cambodia’s Bok Lahong or Nhoam Lahong, a fragrant, crunchy salad that’s a little funky, spicy, sour, salty, and a tad sweet.

Typically eaten as a late afternoon snack, this bespoke Cambodian salad is made to order, and has cousins in Laos (Tum Som), Thailand (Som Tum), and Vietnam (Gỏi Đủ Đủ). But we love eating it for dinner with fried chicken.

You’ll need a wooden mortar and pestle to make this papaya salad and other pounded salads, as you want to soften the ingredients or bruise them, you don’t want to pound them to a paste. However, if you only have a stone or granite mortar and pestle, don’t let that prevent you from trying this green papaya salad recipe, just pound very gently.

Don’t feel like Southeast Asian food two nights in one week, then how about Japanese? This Japanese potato salad recipe is the perfect side to Japanese fried chicken, as well as pork tonkatsu, katsu burgers, or any Japanese comfort food dish.

Make This Green Papaya Salad and Fried Chicken to Transport You Straight Back to Southeast Asia

Friday – Roast Chicken, Roast Broccoli and Roast Cauliflower Recipes

Last on my list of ideas for what to cook this week is this Mediterranean style braised chicken with olives and capers, which is one of our most popular chicken recipes and one of my most favourite Mediterranean recipes.

I love serving a couple of sides with this dish, such as our roast broccoli with zucchini and sesame seeds and this dish of cauliflower florets below, which are roasted in gently spiced extra virgin olive oil, and served on creamy hummus, topped with crispy fried chickpeas, tangy pickled shallots, and fragrant fresh mint.

If you’re in the southern hemisphere and still experiencing icy winter weather, you might want to go with sides of Hassleback potatoes or creamy mashed potatoes.

If you want to lean into more of a MidEat meal, we have more Middle Eastern recipes on the site, from appetisers such as hummus and baba ganoush, salads such as fattoush and tabbouli, to mains like beef kofta.

Roasted Cauliflower Recipe with Creamy Hummus, Crispy Chickpeas, Pickled Shallots and Mint

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.