i want to try some new foods

[icedgem30]

Hi everyone.

Right, I love my mum dearly but I was brought up on a diet mainly consiting of frozen convience food and a form of potatoes with every meal.

Now I am in my own home I tend to cook home made meals but theyre still very boring. Everything with some kind of potatoes, meat and veg in different styles. No sauces apart from gravy or cheese if doing pasta, absolutely nothing interesting ,I've never tried most of the stuff I see on here and its a hard habit to break.

Dp is very picky, onions, tomatoes and cream just top the huge list of food he doesn't like.

I dont like tomatoes,mushrooms or anything hot/spicy or fish, but I'm a bit more open to try something new. I dont want to be stuck with the same foods/meals over and over and I want my dd to have the varied diet I didn't.

So can anyone recommend food to try for a 'beginner'? I see things like chorizo and cous cous mentioned a lot on these boards but I have never dared to try them.

Thank you

Potato fritter sounds great tried them before and they failed but i probably wasn't doing it right. Will check out the recipe x

Or rostis?
www.bbcgoodfood.com/search/recipes?query=Rosti

The first two in this search should be familiar flavours.

Instead of goats cheese you can use good old cheddar.

Try Sophie Grigson's "First Time Cook"- lots of really good easy recipes with no weird ingredients

Fab thanks everyone for your ideas. Spoken to dp and he agrees we need to try my stuff, and hes even said he wants peanut satay chicken!

Now any ideas on how to jazz up a roast dinner? Meat is plain and veg are all just boiled alone, nothing fancy but making a mothers day roast and would love to make it special.

For a roast why not try roasting carrots, parsnips and potatoes with your meat? Perhaps the carrots and parsnips in a honey or maple glaze. I'd find that nicer and more treat like than standard boiled veg. If you eat Brussels they are lovely par boiled and fried with bacon for a special side dish.

Your DP might not like this, but maybe you will and it's easy to make.

Chop up chicken breast, fry in some olive oil. Then when done stir in some pesto and some crème fraiche. Lovely with steamed green beans and mash.

I've just done lemon & herb chicken for tea

Handful of chopped fresh parsley
Rind & juice of a lemon
Small pinch of chilli flakes (doesn't make it spicy)
Salt & pepper to taste
Chicken breast each

Chop the parsley, grate rind of lemon & squeeze out all the juice. Add the chilli flakes, salt & pepper. Marinate the chicken breasts for 3-4 hours. Cut into strips & griddle / fry till done.

We had ours with cous cous (made up with a herb stock cube) and some frozen Mediterranean veg.

Okay I've never tried pesto, or hummus come to think of it. What are they? God I feel like a child learning how to cook!

Love sprouts and I'm going to try them with the bacon and carrots in the oven with the parsnip. I dont eat carrots on their own but I love swede and carrot mashed together, I could eat that all day!

Hummus and pesto are both great dips/sauces. You can buy them in supermarkets. Pesto in the section wirh pasta sauces. Hummus in the fridge near the ham etc.

Pesto is great stir into pasta. Hummus is great for spreading onto bread. How about try a pitta bread. Toast it in a toaster or oven to get it a bit cruchy if you prefer.

Get the mini pots of hummus to try first. They do different flavours - plain, red pepper, lemon etc. Not a lot of waste if you don't like them.

Love pitta bread, have a pack in the freezer atm so will give that a try. Doing the online shop in a minute so can't wait to put a few new things on the list

I have learnt so much since I started using Hello Fresh (there are a number of these services now).

You get all of the ingredients to make 3 or 5 meals, so no waste and it comes with recipe cards so you can make the ones you like again. You can also opt out of things you would find horrible.

Before I used them I hadn't ever made a rue or cooked cous cous, now I feel really confident with all of their recipes when they come and have cooked things like duck at home, when that was something I'd have only ordered when at a restaurant.

I have a referral code where you can get £20 off your first box and they give me £12 off my next box if you use it. www.hellofresh.co.uk/?c=B98PQS (I only ever order the boxes when they are on offer, but they do send 1/2 price box codes by email a few times a year).

i use lentils as a "bulker" i put them in spaghetti bolognaise to bulk it out and give me more sauce!

cous cous is great. instead of just using water, add a stock cube.

Chicken paella recipe should hopefully be attached!

Hi OP, in addition to books from the library, take a trip to the local supermarket (or farm shop) with cheese and cooked meat counters and ask to try a couple of things eg feta/goats cheese/manchego, chorizo/salami etc. The staff are usually happy to offer a bite for you to try. I would recommend Jamie Oliver's books for a good variety of ingredients and new flavours. How about trying some warm ciabatta dipped in olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Good luck - and enjoy! PM me if you want to chat - I could talk about food all day

Pesto is usually made from basil, pine nuts, Parmesan and oil, all whizzed together. You can get different types, but this is the normal green one.
Houmous is made from chick peas made into a paste with garlic, lemon and tahini (sesame seed paste). So that's plenty of new things but in an easy package! My kids love both pesto and houmous and are adamant they don't like chick peas or basil.
Let us know how you get on when the shopping arrives!

One of our faves is chicken pieces roasted with chorizo, baby potatoes, and whatever veg you fancy. Dead easy - chuck it all in the oven in one pot, and tastes lovely!

We like courgette, red onion, cherry tomatoes and peppers but can just use whatever you like.

This recipe is very easy and can be easily adapted. Always goes down a treat! It's a Spanish risotto but baked in oven so no constant stirring. Tastes similar to a paella.

www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/bakedspanishrisotto_70241

Shopping is coming Saturday so I will update everybody then . I will be looking at everybodys suggestions, thank you all so much.

I think you run the risk of ending up with a load of random ingredients OP. Try to come up with some recipes. Lentils, quinoa and chorizo in your cupboard is just going to leave you stumped.

For your jazzing up a roast suggestion could you try this? Its our quick roast option when we've been out on Sunday morning and I don't have loads of time.

Take a pork tenderloin joint, place it on foil and spoon on one teaspoon of lazy garlic, one teaspoon of lazy chilli and one teaspoon of lazy ginger (see its so easy). Mix it all up so that its all covering the meat. Flip the meat over so that some goes onto the bottom of the foil, flip it over again. The meat is no all covered in the marinade. Close up the foil. Leave for an hour (although this isn't essential) and then cook as normal. Cooks very quickly since the joint is long and thin.

Its a favourite in our house and really makes the meat taste nice. It just adds a different flavour to the usual roast so it would be an easy way to make the roast dinner a bit different.

Another easy saturday night meal in our house is easy moroccan chicken.

Chop chicken, half a butternut squash and carrots into small pieces (all about the same size). Cover in a jar of tagine paste and stir around. Bung it all on a pan and roast. Fifteen minutes before the end of the cooking time throw in half a tin of chickpeas and a handful of cherry tomatoes (halved) and mix in so that some of the paste covers the chickpeas and tomatoes (don't worry, the tomatoes mush down). Finish cooking. Serve with cous cous (here the favourite is Ainsley Harriott Spice Sensation which comes in packets and you just add water and a blob of butter).

I agree watching cookery shows is a great idea. If you know what every ingredient is and see the finished result you can be more confident of whether you'll like it.

I adore puy lentils, I fry chopped onion, celery (you could try the liquidising idea), finely diced carrot and lots of garlic in olive oil then add a sachet of cooked puy lentils and a bit of stock and heat through. Add a squeeze of lemon before serving to give a bit of freshness.

They have a comforting, savoury flavour and are delicious with thick-sliced baked ham and mustard or a fried chicken breast with lots of black pepper and a lemon wedge. It's one of our favourite meals.

Couscous is semolina made from wheat. It's nice served with roasted vegetables. I roast large chunks of pepper, courgette, carrot, red onion and whole garlic cloves (you can use any veg you like though) in olive oil with lots of herbes de provence for about 40 mins, stir into couscous made up with a veg stock cube and serve with roast lamb.

Did you see the thread recently about what to do with vegetables except boiling them? There were some great suggestions: roast vegetables, or try braising them with olive oil in a pan to give you a different and enhanced kind of flavor.

How about salads with all kinds of trimmings? Like a Nicoise?