When life gets busy, it’s all too easy to fall into a food rut. Eating the same thing day in and day out can certainly keep your days organized and result in minimal preparation time, but slowly it becomes boring. If you’ve been in a food rut for a while, you might not even be able to think of something new and exciting to eat, having spent so long in the same dietary box.
The following will present a few meal ideas that are a bit out of the ordinary to help you get your creative cooking juices flowing. Feel free to swap out ingredients as you see fit to suit your personal tastes and what is available near you.
Cornish Pasties
While many people know a few British dishes, not enough people know about cornish pasties. These delicious meat pies that are designed to be handheld have been popular in the United Kingdom for quite some time but are only just making their way to North America en masse. Proper Pasty will give you an idea of the different fillings available (and they deliver if you were wondering). Once you try a cornish pasty, you’re likely to continue coming back to them for meals on a regular basis. Both hearty and filling but also full of real foods (actual meat and vegetables), this is a delectable meal that is often enjoyed by people of all ages.
Enchiladas
While many people are comfortable with taco night or have stopped to grab a giant burrito at their local Mexican restaurant from time to time, not enough people outside of Mexican culture are incorporating enchiladas into their meals at home. These cheesy, meaty, flavourful meals are perfect for people of all ages and social gatherings. Just be sure to note your own heat preferences before you start tossing in chilies. It’s always best to err on the side of less spicy and add a bit more chili flakes to your completed meal at the table than to create something that burns your mouth too much to enjoy.
Moroccan Lamb Stew
Moroccan cuisine is a staple for anyone who has already encountered it. It’s flavourful with lots of delicious herbs (that are insanely good for you, by the way), hearty with potatoes and meat, and colorful with lots of antioxidant-rich veggies. Moroccan lamb stew is the perfect introduction to this epic cuisine that you likely will be craving sometime again real soon. Once you begin to work with cinnamon in your non-desert meals, your chef’s mind is going to be open to a whole new world of delicious possibilities.
Sancochado
Sancochado is a Peruvian dish that roughly looks like a beef and vegetable soup. Of course, it’s much more than this. The meal can come deconstructed or all mixed together but will certainly alter your sense of what comfort food is. Thick, steamy broth, chunks of beef and root vegetables, that magical mix of mint and coriander with spicy peppers (again, be self-aware and only go for the heat you can handle) with tons of chickpeas, this meal equates to coziness in a bowl.
Thali
Thali is a similar concept to tapas if you’ve ever encountered that, but it’s Indian through, and through meaning, you’re getting all those powerful turmeric and curry flavors with it. Across India, there are countless regional thali dishes, but all of them involve having a few smaller dishes on a plate with naan bread for dipping and the occasional skewer or side fruit. The wonderful thing about thali is how flexible it is. You can take whatever recipes you like and leave the ones you don’t and still end up with a platter of rich flavors. As a bonus, Indian cuisine tends to have some of the most wonderful health benefits thanks to the roots and herbs used to bring out all that stellar flavor.
Spanakopita
Yes, there’s another type of pie on this list because there are countless ways pies can be prepared and most of them are not widely known outside their area of origin. Spanikopita is a Greek pie that has a lot of possible variations but is most widely known with lots of spinach and feta cheese. Flaky and light and full of cheesy goodness, this is another comforting meal.
The above list should help get you thinking outside your usual box when it comes to food. Once you begin searching for recipes outside your culture, you’ll discover a whole world of flavor.
Leave a Reply