Our ideas for what to cook this week include everything from a comforting dumpling soup to a gently spiced white chicken chilli. What to Cook this Week is a recipe series we publish on occasional Mondays with ideas for weeknight meals from our recipe archives. Recipes might include easy midweek dishes, suggestions for upcoming holidays, and recipes we’re testing that we’d love you to try.
It was my mother’s birthday on Saturday and Mothers Day on Sunday, so I’ve spent the weekend cooking for Mum here in Australia. I absolutely loved it. Few things give me as much pleasure as cooking for loved-ones. Mum adores smoked salmon, so I made everything from devilled eggs with smoked salmon and caviar to French toast with smoked salmon, pickled onions, capers and gherkin.
We’ll be sharing a lot of new recipes this week, including more scrummy mezze recipes that we haven’t published yet – which are perfect for Memorial Day, which our American readers will be commemorating later this month. So do bookmark that mezze post if you’re looking for delicious easy dips to make, as we’ll add them there as we publish them.
If you’re new to Grantourismo (welcome!), for What to Cook this Week, we like to share weeknight meal ideas for those nights when you don’t want to spend a whole of time in the kitchen, dishes that make even better leftovers, as well as meals requiring a bit more effort for Friday night, when you’re happy to while away the evening in the kitchen with loved-ones, a bottle of wine and good music.
From time to time we also share recipes that we’re testing for the cookbooks we’re developing, and invite you to test them out and let us know how our recipes turned out for you. No matter what you cook from our site, we welcome your feedback and we answer every question promptly in the Comments below posts. We’d also love you to rate our recipes and like the ‘hearts’ bottom right.
Before you scroll down to our ideas for what to cook this week, I have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader-funded. If you’ve enjoyed our recipes, please consider supporting our work. We have lots of options for you to do that, such as using our links to book accommodation, rent a car, buy travel insurance, or book a tour on Get Your Guide. Alternatively, you could you could buy a handcrafted KROK, the best mortar and pestle ever or shop our Grantourismo store at Society 6 for gifts designed with Terence’s photography.
Another option is to make a small donation to our epic Cambodian cuisine history and cookbook on Patreon or purchase something on Amazon, such as these award-winning cookbooks, cookbooks by Australian chefs, classic cookbooks for serious cooks, cookbooks for culinary travellers, travel books to inspire wanderlust or gifts for Asian food lovers or picnic lovers. Now let’s give you some ideas as to what to cook this week.
What to Cook this Week from Dumpling Soup to White Chicken Chilli
Here are our suggestions for what to cook this week from a comforting dumpling soup to a gently spiced white chicken chilli.
Monday Night – Dumpling Soup Recipe for Siberian Pelmeni Soup with Fresh Dill and Sour Cream
This dumpling soup recipe for Siberian pelmeni soup with fresh dill and sour cream tops our list of ideas for what to cook this week. It makes the delicious Russian dumplings called pelmeni in the Siberian style. Petite pelmeni stuffed with a savoury ground beef, minced pork and soft fried onion filling are served in a buttery broth with cracked pepper, dollops of sour cream, and plenty of fresh fragrant dill.
As a child, I only knew three things about Siberia – it was one of the coldest places on earth, it was home to horrific gulags where people were forced into back-breaking work until it killed them, and that Siberia was the reason my Russian great-grandmother never smiled. My great-grandfather had been sent to a gulag in Siberia.
What I didn’t know was that Siberia was the birthplace of Russian pelmeni and Ukrainian vareniki, also eaten in Russia and other neighbouring Slavic countries. This pelmeni soup recipe makes the dumpling broth I swooned over at a Siberian restaurant in Moscow many years ago.
The recipe makes around 50 dumplings. Use a 7cm diameter cookie-cutter – or rim of a glass turned upside down – to create the casings. You could serve the soup as a starter to dishes such as beef Stroganoff, chicken Kiev, Russian kotleti, or stuffed cabbage rolls or serve alone with sour cream, bread, dill pickles, perhaps a classic garden salad.
Dumpling Soup Recipe for Siberian Pelmeni Soup with Fresh Dill and Sour Cream
Tuesday Night – White Chicken Chili Recipe with Shredded Chicken, White Beans and Avocado
This white chicken chilli recipe with shredded chicken and white beans is next on our list of ideas for what to cook this week. It makes a gently spiced chilli that’s incredibly versatile. You can dial up the heat with green chilies or chilli flakes. The first night, dish up bowls of the hearty chicken bean chilli, and top with avocado, grated cheddar, sliced radishes, and fresh coriander. The next day, eat leftover chilli on tostadas or tacos.
If you cooked and enjoyed the depth of flavour and level of spice of our white bean chilli, then you’ll love our white chicken chilli recipe. It’s so addictively delicious, I can never stop eating it when I make it and have it on everything: tostadas, tacos, nachos and quesadillas.
As with the white bean chilli and my vegetarian chilli, this white chicken chilli recipe is one of our best canned beans recipes. It’s not only more affordable than a traditional meaty chilli con carne, the cannellini beans, butter beans and poached chicken breast make it super healthy.
I like to serve the bowls of chilli with dishes of sliced medium green chillies or jalapeños, pickled shallots or pickled cabbage, sour cream or Mexican cotija (white cheese), and red salsa or our favourite hot sauces. We love to wash the chili down with classic margaritas or micheladas. Enjoy!
White Chicken Chili Recipe with Shredded Chicken, White Beans and Avocado
Wednesday Night – Spicy Italian Sausage Pasta Recipe from Calabria in Southern Italy
One of our best pasta recipes, this spicy Italian sausage pasta recipe is another one of our ideas for what to cook this week. It comes from Calabria, Italy’s southernmost mainland region, where the rich, spicy, tomato-based sauce is made with the spreadable Calabrian chilli pepper and pork sausage paste called ’nduja.
Along with Sicilian cuisine, Calabrian food boasts some of Italy’s spiciest food, courtesy of Peperoncino Calabrese or Calabrian chilli. The peperoncini or chilli peppers are used in everything from bomba Calabrese, a spicy chilli relish, and Calabrian soppressata, a spicy salami, to ’nduja.
We use a skinless spicy Italian pork sausage and shallots in this recipe, but definitely use ’nduja and Tropea onions if you can find them. You can also buy ’nduja online and you can read more about it in our guide to ’nduja and how to use it.
If you’re already a fan of ’nduja, see these recipes for Calabria’s take on eggs in purgatory; an easy nduja bruschetta with goat’s cheese and sweet red capsicum, which makes a perfect snack, brunch, lunch or finger food; our take on Australian chef Christine Manfield’s legendary eggplant ‘sandwich’ with ’nduja (instead of basil pesto); and our ’nduja pizza made in a Dutch oven.
Spicy Italian Sausage Pasta Recipe from Calabria in Southern Italy
Thursday Night – Chicken Salad Recipe with Peanut Sauce, Sesame, Peanuts and Coriander
One of our best chicken recipes, and one of our best recipes with peanuts, this easy chicken salad recipe is another of our ideas for what to cook this week. It will make you a deliciously simple year-round salad that you can eat cold during spring-summer and warm during the autumn or fall and the winter months. Eat it as a light lunch or serve with steamed rice or noodles for a more substantial meal for dinner.
We love our shredded chicken salads and this Southeast Asian style chicken salad is one of our favourites. Made with shredded poached chicken breast, drizzled with an addictively delicious homemade peanut sauce, sprinkled with sesame seeds and peanuts, and garnished with fresh coriander and slices of red chillies, it’s one of our best poached chicken breast recipes.
While the salad comes together quickly, make the peanut sauce and poach chicken breasts ahead of time and you can get this salad on a plate in ten minutes. Poached chicken breasts last a few days in the fridge, and a jar of peanut sauce even longer. We often poach 3-4 chicken breasts and eat them in everything from chicken salads to chicken soups and rice porridges.
Chicken Salad Recipe with Peanut Sauce, Sesame, Peanuts and Coriander
Friday Night – Basque Pintxo Recipes for Basque Style Tapas
Our Basque pintxos recipe will make you classic Basque snacks of tasty toppings on toasted baguette slices, typically served buffet-style on counter-tops in bars in Spain’s Basque Country, most famously in the city of San Sebastian.
These Basque snacks are called ‘pintxos’ in Basque or ‘pinchos’ in Spanish, pronounced ‘peen-chos’, and are often likened to Spanish tapas but are more like Italian crostini.
Effortless to prepare, as affordable or as expensive as you like, and easy to eat, Basque snacks make fuss-free meals that are perfect for easy entertaining, casual gatherings or just a relaxed evening at home. This is what I’ll be making on Friday night.
Basque Pintxo Recipes for Basque Style Tapas for Easy Entertaining
Please do let us know if you’ve made any of our What to Cook this Week recipes in the comments below as we’d love to get your feedback and hear how our recipes turned out for you.
