Writing a cookbook really involves a lot of different things. I actually had no idea of all the things involved in such a project. And why would I never have thought that? Because I always just buy cookbooks in a store or online. They are, of course, ready to use and all done. That is very nice and handy of course. In a way, it feels the same way that buying ready-made meals does, I will get to that later in my story.
What do I want to present, how do I want to present it, what will it look like, what do we need to achieve that look? Which ingredients should I get? Do I actually have the right pans? Those are all questions that come up naturally, and believe me when I say that there are hundreds more. And the worst question of all: what am I doing with all the leftovers?
You don’t usually have leftovers with ready-made dishes, that’s for sure. All you have is some packaging, and you recycle that, or at least I hope so. Voilà, for a few euros you have a delicious meal. But do you actually know what you just ate? That is often the disadvantage of ready meals and my first cookbook is intended as an introduction to several world cuisines, with easy, tasty meals. And yes, I just said my first, because I have a lot to plan!
Let’s go back to the leftovers. Since I am preparing certain dishes for the book, I have lots of ingredients left over that I usually don’t have because I usually use everything in one go, such as cooking cream, certain vegetables and sometimes even certain types of cereals or pasta.
Luis will now think or want to add “you really always have too much at home and we can eat for a month without shopping.” He is correct, but then we would never eat fresh vegetables. We always have pasta, rice and more in stock because we have a household of three people and I never want to run out of something because I often suddenly get hungry for something.
And to prove the contrary and actually at the same time prove Luis is right, I crawled all the way into the back of my cupboards and found a few things that I still have from the Netherlands. I actually thought it was funny and I decided to make a quick meal with vegetable leftovers, cream and an Asian marinade. This way we can finish the leftovers with a dish that I love, and it’s fresh too!
Fast and delicious, a peanut butter cream sauce with delicious Dutch noodles and fresh vegetables! This recipe had been planned for a while but I hadn’t made it yet and apparently today was the day! So let’s get into the kitchen!
Ingredients
- 1 pack of noodles of your choice
- 1 broccoli
- 2 carrots, sliced
- 1 spring onion, thinly sliced
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- parsley, chopped
- 200 g mushrooms, in half
- sunflower oil
- sesame oil
- chili oil
- salt and pepper
- 3 tablespoons of soy sauce
Sauce
- 3 tablespoons of soy sauce
- 3 tablespoon of peanut butter
- 20 ml of milk
- 250 cream
- chili flakes
- sesame
Preparation
First put two pans on the stove. Boil water in one of them for the noodles. In the second pan you add all the ingredients for the sauce together. Let it heat up slowly while stirring occasionally so that the peanut butter dissolves well. My peanut butter was pretty hard so it took 20 minutes for the sauce to really become one.
When the water boils in your other pan, add the noodles and prepare them as the package indicates. Then rinse them well with cold water so that they do not stick.
Bring another pan with plenty of water to a boil. Meanwhile, clean the broccoli, cut it into florets and add it to the now boiling water. Let the broccoli blanch for a few minutes or to desired hardness, then rinse well with cold water. Don’t forget to keep stirring the peanut sauce in between and to cut the carrots into cubes or half rings.
Place a large frying pan or a wok on the stove and heat some sunflower oil. Add the garlic, broccoli and carrots to this pan and let them fry for a few minutes. Add the sesame oil, spring onion, chili flakes and sesame seeds and stir well. Finally, add the mushrooms and cook for a few more minutes, stirring every now and then.
Add the soy sauce to the wok, then the noodles. Stir everything together so that the noodles are completely mixed with the vegetables. Now it is time to add the peanut sauce. Turn off the heat, stir the sauce well through the noodles or noodles. As a last step before serving, sprinkle some toppings such as spring onion, chili flakes or sesame seeds (or red cabbage, which we still had) over the dish, and then you can put it on the dinner table. Of course you can also add a little sambal or sriracha if you want to add some spiciness.
Voilà, a delicious snack that is just healthy enough, but in any case really delicious!
The result
Whenever you hear the word leftovers you only think of the remains of a fully prepared meal, but that’s not really what it always has to mean. A leftover can be something like blanched broccoli florets or homemade passata, something that you can still use in another meal yourself. And it is all equally delicious of course!
Of course you can replace the cooking cream in this recipe with a vegan product such as soy cooking cream or coconut milk, without making it less tasty! It really seems like a chore to make this dish with all these pans and steps in the process, but it is definitely worth it! Especially if you are a peanut butter fan like me! I just think it’s a shame that you can’t really find multiple varieties in Spain.
Or maybe I just don’t look in the right stores, but of course I also come across new stores often enough! Now it’s time to enjoy a few hours of free time again before duty and the kitchen call again! Have a nice day and see you soon, friends!
The big question of the day is of course once again, do you like to eat peanut butter and with what natural? As you know, I am always curious about your wishes or crazy flavor combinations!
