After a month of Ramadan meals followed by Eid celebrations, we were ready to get back into our normal family dinner routine.
As a family of nine, I’m always looking for meals that are filling, relatively straightforward to prepare and that everyone will actually eat!
For this particular week we had a mixture of old favourites and simple comfort food:
- Simple chicken curry with rice
- Crispy jacket potatoes with different fillings
- Chicken & potato pilau
- Homemade crispy chicken burgers
- Friday night takeaway
I also had lots of dates left over from Ramadan, so I turned them into a banana, date and walnut loaf cake for dessert.
Here are the recipes.
Monday: Simple Chicken Curry & Rice
We started the week with one of the easiest dinners in our house – a simple chicken curry served with boiled white rice.
This is pretty much how I make my everyday curries nowadays. Once you’ve got your basic method down, it’s a really useful family meal.
Ingredients
- 1kg chicken thighs, cut into small pieces
- ¼ cup sunflower oil
- 1 tsp coriander seeds
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 3 small onions, sliced
- 3 tomatoes, sliced
- 1 tbsp garlic & ginger paste
- ½ tbsp salt
- 1 tbsp garam masala
- 1 tbsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp ground turmeric
- ½ tsp red chilli powder
- 300ml water
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 finger chilli, sliced
- 3 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped
Method
Heat the sunflower oil in a large pan over a medium heat.
Add the coriander and cumin seeds and roast briefly before adding the sliced onions.
Cook the onions until they’re soft and browned.
Add the tomatoes and continue cooking until they’ve softened.
Next, add the garlic & ginger paste, salt, garam masala, ground cumin, coriander, turmeric and chilli powder. Mix everything together thoroughly.
Add the chicken pieces and cook for around 5 minutes, until the chicken changes colour and releases its liquid.
Add the lemon juice, sliced finger chilli and approximately 300ml water.
Bring to the boil before reducing the heat to its lowest setting.
Cover and simmer for approximately 20 minutes. Because the chicken is cut into fairly small pieces, it cooks quite quickly.
Finish with chopped fresh coriander.
We served ours simply with boiled basmati rice – perfect for a weekday dinner.
Tuesday: Crispy Jacket Potatoes
After all the Ramadan food, I found myself really craving a good old jacket potato!
They’re one of those incredibly simple dinners we hadn’t eaten much during Ramadan.
How I Make Crispy Jacket Potatoes
Wash your baking potatoes thoroughly.
Pour a little sunflower oil over each one and sprinkle generously with salt.
Use your hands to rub the oil and salt all over the potato skins.
Prick each potato several times with a fork.
Arrange the potatoes on foil-lined roasting trays and bake at:
220°C / 200°C fan for approximately 90 minutes.
The result should be wonderfully crispy on the outside and soft and fluffy inside.
Jacket Potato Filling Ideas
We had a choice of two fillings.
Tuna Mayo & Sweetcorn
Simply mix drained tuna with mayonnaise and sweetcorn.
Prawn Marie Rose
Combine:
- 2 tbsp mayonnaise
- 1 tbsp ketchup
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
Add your prawns and mix together.
We also served plenty of grated cheddar alongside them.
Everyone can then choose their own filling, which is always handy when you’re feeding a larger family.
Wednesday: Chicken & Potato Pilau
Wednesday is often pilau night in our house.
I’ve shared my pilau recipe many times over the years, but it’s one of those family staples that’s always worth having written down.
Ingredients
- 750g basmati rice, soaked for at least 30 minutes, washed & drained
- ¼ cup sunflower oil
- 1.5kg chicken niblets or whole chicken cut into pieces
- 600g potatoes, quartered
- 3 small onions, sliced
- 3 tomatoes, sliced
- 1 tbsp garlic & ginger paste
- ½ cup low-fat Greek yoghurt
- 1 finger chilli, sliced
- 1.5 litres water, divided
Whole Spices
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 tsp fennel seeds
- 1 tsp coriander seeds
- ½ tsp brown mustard seeds
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 2 bay leaves
- 4 whole black peppercorns
- 4 green cardamom pods
- 1 star anise
- 4 cloves
Powdered Spices
- 1 tbsp salt
- 1 tbsp garam masala
- 1 tbsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp ground turmeric
- ½ tsp red chilli powder
Method
Heat the oil in a large pan over a high heat.
Add all the whole spices and allow them to roast for a few minutes.
Add the onions and cook until soft and golden brown.
Add the sliced tomatoes and cook until they’ve broken down and softened. If the mixture starts sticking to the bottom of the pan, add a small splash of water.
Add the garlic & ginger paste, salt and powdered spices and stir well.
Next, add the chicken.
Cook for approximately 5 minutes, or until it changes from pink to white and begins releasing its juices.
Add the potatoes and Greek yoghurt and gently mix.
Add the finger chilli and approximately 500ml water.
Bring to the boil, reduce to the lowest heat, cover and simmer for around 20–25 minutes.
Once the chicken and potatoes have cooked, turn the heat back up and add the soaked and drained basmati rice.
Pour in 1 litre of hot boiled water.
Once the pan returns to the boil, reduce to the lowest heat, cover and cook for approximately 10 minutes.
Turn off the heat but resist the temptation to lift the lid!
Leave the pilau covered for another 10 minutes so the rice can finish cooking in the residual steam.
Serve with yoghurt and salad.
Thursday: Homemade Crispy Chicken Burgers
Thursday’s dinner was a treat – homemade crispy chicken burgers.
The trick here is marinating boneless chicken thighs in seasoned buttermilk. I prepared mine the night before so they had plenty of time to marinate.
Ingredients
Buttermilk Marinade
- 1kg boneless chicken thighs
- 300ml buttermilk
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp garlic granules
Crispy Coating
- 2 cups plain flour
- 1 tsp mixed herbs
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp onion granules
Method
Add the buttermilk, salt, paprika, cayenne pepper and garlic granules to a large bowl.
Mix well before adding the chicken thighs.
Make sure every piece is thoroughly coated.
Cover and refrigerate for at least four hours. If you can prepare the chicken the night before, even better.
When you’re ready to cook, combine the flour, mixed herbs, paprika, baking powder, salt and onion granules in a large bowl.
Take each chicken thigh from the buttermilk mixture and coat thoroughly in the seasoned flour.
Deep-fry the chicken until crispy, golden brown and completely cooked through.
Mine took approximately 5 minutes per piece, although cooking time will depend on the size and thickness of your chicken. Always make sure the chicken is fully cooked before serving.
Pop the crispy chicken into brioche burger buns with mayo, cheese slices and salad.
A very tasty homemade fakeaway!
Bonus Recipe: Banana, Date & Walnut Loaf
On Thursday I also decided to tackle the large amount of dates we still had left after Ramadan.
My husband had bought another box shortly before Ramadan ended, so they definitely weren’t disappearing anytime soon!
I decided to throw them into a loaf cake along with bananas, walnuts and oats.
It’s one of those recipes where you’re sneaking quite a few ingredients into something the children see as cake!
Ingredients
- 625g dates, pitted
- 200g walnuts
- 2 eggs
- 2 large bananas, sliced
- 70g butter, melted
- 100g porridge oats
- 100g plain flour
- 100g light brown soft sugar
- 100ml milk
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Method
Wash and pit the dates.
Add them to a large mixing bowl along with the walnuts, eggs, sliced bananas, melted butter, oats, flour, brown sugar, milk, baking powder, salt and vanilla.
Using a hand blender or standing blender, blend the mixture until the larger pieces of dates, walnuts and banana have been broken down.
You don’t need to make it completely smooth.
Divide the mixture between two greased and lined loaf tins.
Bake at:
180°C / 160°C fan for approximately 25 minutes.
Check the centre before removing the loaves from the oven, as cooking times can vary depending on your tins and oven.
Allow to cool slightly before slicing.
It turned out to be a great way of using up our leftover Ramadan dates – and the kids were getting dates, bananas, walnuts and oats without giving it too much thought!
Friday: Takeaway Night
After four nights of cooking, Friday was our regular takeaway night.
This week we went for pizza and chips along with a bowl of lamb shawarma.
And that’s it – a very normal week of dinners for our family of nine.
Easy Meals for a Large Family
When you’re feeding a large family, I don’t think every dinner needs to be new or elaborate.
In fact, having reliable meals that you know your family enjoys makes weekly meal planning much easier.
This particular week had a good mixture: a quick curry, an inexpensive jacket potato night, our regular pilau, a homemade takeaway-style meal and then an actual takeaway to finish the week.
Hopefully our week gives you a little inspiration if you’re stuck wondering what to cook for dinner this week.
And if you have leftover dates sitting in the cupboard after Ramadan, definitely give the banana, date and walnut loaf a try!
What’s one dinner that appears on your family’s meal plan almost every week?
