Recently I surprised myself ( and everyone that knows me ) by subscribing to a fresh food delivery service. I know what you are going to say. “ Voahangy, you love menu planning, shopping for food, prep and set up, etc…How can you ask someone else to do it for you, let alone PAY them??”
Well, I will say that they are clever marketing people, who appeal to my love of cooking but also happened to call in when life was super hectic at home. With new projects on the go and travelling, I liked the idea of having some meals already worked out for me: ingredients are already weighted, apportioned and conveniently packaged in a bag ( one bag per meal) with step-by-step recipes included. Just keep the bag in the fridge until ready to use.
This is no TV dinners though, all food is fresh ( meat, cheese, vegetables, fruits, spices and nuts ) and all meals still require some amount of prep like peeling, chopping, stirring, etc…but the recipes are easy enough to have dinner ready within 45 minutes and even have my teenage daughter interested in taking over the stove occasionally!
We are still testing the service and the recipes and I plan to write a more complete review later, but as we are wrapping up the week I wanted to at least give you an idea of a meal we had.

It was a Japanese flavoured Broccoli and Pea Miso Soup, which was perfect for a cool winter’s night. All fresh ingredients for the soup were provided, except for the staples like oil, water and soy sauce. The only thing was that I was not sure it would be filling enough for the teenagers in the house. I had some steak that I purchased earlier, so wanted to serve that as well but without having to cook another side dish ( that would defeat the entire purpose of making a quick and simple meal!!)
So, I ended up “deconstructing” the recipe: using the ingredients provided, I cooked the vegetables in the stock but instead of serving a vegetable soup, I strained them and turned them into a mash served the stock separately as a soup, along with the cooked steak.
While the flavour and taste of the original recipe remained, the dish had a completely different texture and became Fillet steak with Broccoli and Pea Mash and Miso Soup.
As for the quantities, adding the meat meant having vegetable mash left over, so enjoyed the vegetarian lunch the next day. Happy days!

Broccoli and Pea Mash with Miso soup

Adapted from a recipe by Marley Spoon

As I mentionned most ingredients were already supplied, but they are easy to source from the supermarket or any Asian grocery store.

Serves 4 as a main, plus leftovers vegetables for 2or 3 for lunch

Ingredients:

1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 leeks
3 garlic cloves
1 knob of ginger
4 heads of broccoli
8g dashi powder ( about 1 tbsp )
4 cups water
800g frozen green peas
60g pepitas ( about 1/3 cup )
5 g sesame seed mix ( about 1 tbsp )
2 tsp soy sauce
5 g shichimi togarashi ( about 1 tsp )
75g white miso paste ( approx 1/2 cup )
Roasted seaweed

1. Trim, clean and slice the leeks thinly. Peel and crush the garlic, grate the ginger. Cut the broccoli into small florets and roughly chop the stems.
2. Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the leeks, garlic and ginger, and cook stirring for about 3 minutes until softened a little.
   Add the broccoli, dashi powder and the water. Bring to the boil then reduce to a simmer and cook, covered, for 8 minutes or until broccoli is soft. Add the peas and cook for another 2-3 minutes until heated thru.
3. In the meantime, put the pepitas and almonds in a cold skillet and toast over medium heat for 3-5 minutes until golden. Stir in the sesame seed mix, then add the soy sauce and stir constantly until liquid is evaporated. Remove from heat and sprinkle with shichimi togarashi to taste ( it is spicy! )
4. Stir the miso paste thru the broccoli mixture and cook for another minute until well combined. Remove from the heat. Using a potato masher or a fork, roughly mash the vegetables.
   Place a large sieve over an even larger bowl and strain the broccoli mixture, keeping the miso stock aside.
5. Divide the mash over 4 plates and scatter over the seed topping, more shichimi togarashi if desired, and roasted seawee. Serve with grilled fillet steak ( cooked to your liking ) and a small bowl of miso soup.