Midweek Meals: Five tasty dinner recipes ready in 20 minutes or less

Fish fingers, chickpea burgers and more

These dishes take 20 minutes or less to prepare.

Spicy Sichuan Pork Noodles

The trick here is to get your green beans nicely blistered in the pan and a good bit of caramelisation on your noodles.

Servings

2

Preparation Time

 10 mins

Cooking Time

 8 mins

Total Time

 18 mins

Course

 Main

Cuisine

 Chinese

Ingredients

• For the spicy Asian sauce:

• 1½ tbsp oyster sauce

• 1½ tbsp kecap manis*

• 4 tsp sambal oelek*

• For the noodles:

• 250 g fresh Shanghai or hokkien noodles

• 2 tbsp vegetable oil

• 2 cups (200 g) green beans, ends trimmed and cut in half

• 3 ½ brown onion, finely diced

• 1 garlic clove*, finely minced

• 2 tsp finely minced ginger*

• 200 g pork mince

Method

1. Mix the ingredients for the spicy Asian sauce in a small bowl.

2. Cook the noodles according to the packet directions. Drain, then rinse briefly under tap water. Leave in the colander until ready to use.

3. Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large cast-iron frying pan6 over high heat until it is almost smoking. Add the green beans, spreading them out in a single layer. Leave to cook for 2 minutes, stirring only every 30 seconds, until lightly charred and just cooked through. Tip the beans into a bowl and set aside.

4. Cool the frying pan for 15 seconds, then place it back over high heat.

5. Heat the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil, then cook the onion, garlic and ginger (if using) for 30 seconds. Add the pork mince and cook, breaking it up with a wooden spoon until it mostly changes from pink to white, about 1 minute. Add 1 tablespoon of the sauce and continue cooking the pork for another 1 minute until it is nicely browned.

6. Add the noodles, green beans and remaining sauce. Toss for 2 minutes with two wooden spoons, ensuring that the noodles get some nice caramelisation.

Perry Street's chickpea burgers

Ready in minutes and full of flavour, these veggie burgers are a great way of introducing one meat-free day to the weekly menu

Servings

4

Preparation Time

 10 mins

Cooking Time

 8 mins

Total Time

 18 mins

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• 400g chickpeas can, drained

• Zest of 1 lime, plus juice of ½ lemon

• 1 tsp ground cumin

• Small bunch coriander, chopped

• 1 egg

• 100g grated carrot

• 1 medium red onion, ½ diced, ½ sliced

• 1 tbsp olive oil

• To serve:

• 4 small whole-wheat buns

• 1 large tomato, sliced

• ½ cucumber

• Chilli sauce

• Natural yoghurt or crème fraiche

Method

1. In a food processor, pulse the chickpeas, lime zest, juice, cumin, half the coriander, the egg and some seasoning.

2. Scrape into a bowl and mix with 80g of the grated carrot and the diced onions.

3. Form four burgers and press the remaining grated carrots onto both sides and chill for at least 10 minutes.

4. Heat the oil in a frying pan until hot.

5. Fry the burgers for four minutes each side, keeping the heat on medium so they don’t burn.

6. To serve, slice buns and fill with a tomato slice, a burger, a few red onion slices, cucumber slices, a dollop of chilli sauce and the remaining coriander.