Instead of ‘What are we eating today?’, TV presenter Rani De Coninck (52) asks herself the question ‘What are we eating this week?’ It brought about a different dynamic in her family and in her pantry. Thanks to meal prepping, everything goes according to plan and there is never a lack of food on the table. She shares 3 recipes from her book ‘Rani’s Goed Plan’ to successfully meal prep herself this week.
Together with food stylist Elise Van de Poele, Rani De Coninck made a cookbook full of recipes that will easily get you through the week. She has already shown Flanders in an episode of ‘Over Eten’ about how healthy fish is, and that she carefully thinks out what she is going to eat and is already making the necessary preparations for it. Now she bundles some handy recipes in ‘Rani’s good plan’ to make it work herself.
Okonomiyaki: Japanese pancakes with cabbage
Preparation time: 20 minutes
For 4 persons
Ingredients
For the pancakes
• 350 g green cabbage
• 1 thick carrot
• 3 spring onions
• 1 clove of garlic
• 150 g flour
• 3 eggs
• 150ml water
• sunflower oil
• pepper and salt
For the dressing
• 4 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp walnut oil
• 1⁄2 tsp chili flakes
• 1 lime
That’s how you make it
First make the dressing: mix the soy sauce with the walnut oil, the chili flakes and the juice of 1 lime with 2 tablespoons of water.
Chop the green cabbage very finely.
Peel the carrot and coarsely grate. Cut the spring onions into fine rings. Peel and crush the garlic. Mix the flour with the eggs, water and 2 tablespoons of sunflower oil. Stir the vegetables through this mixture and season with plenty of salt and pepper. Heat a dash of sunflower oil in a frying pan and spoon a ladle of the mixture into the pan. Spread the mixture into a pancake.
Fry over a low heat until golden brown on one side, turn over and let it cook slowly for a few minutes again. Bake all the pancakes, cut into pieces and serve with the dipping sauce.
Can be eaten warm, lukewarm or cold.
Tip from Rani: These pancakes are the perfect lunch, a refreshing afternoon snack or a surprising snack!
Oven tray with carrot, couscous, halloumi
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Oven time: 35 minutes
For 4 persons
Ingredients
• 1 sweet onion
• 800 g carrots
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 tsp garam masala or baharat
• 1⁄2 tsp chili flakes
• 1 tsp curry powder
• 1 handful of raisins
• 350 g couscous
• 500 ml vegetable stock
• 1 Berloumi or halloumi
• handful of flat-leaf parsley
• olive oil
• pepper and salt
That’s how you make it
Preheat the oven to 185°C.
Peel the onion and cut into strips. Peel the carrots and cut into strips. Halve the longest ones lengthwise.
Peel and crush the garlic. Mix the onion, garlic and carrots with 4 tablespoons of olive oil, the garam masala, chili flakes, curry powder and a pinch of salt. Place in a large baking dish and place in the preheated oven at 185 °C for 25-30 minutes, until the carrots are tender and lightly golden brown. Remove the baking dish from the oven. Scoop everything out and set aside.
Pour the raisins, couscous and stock into the baking dish. Stir well and put in the oven for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven, mix the carrots and onion well with the couscous and let everything rest covered for 5 minutes.
Heat a dash of olive oil and fry the Berloumi or halloumi in slices briefly. Serve the couscous with the Berloumi and coarsely chopped parsley.
Tip from Rani: Try replacing the carrots with sweet potato, parsnip or kohlrabi, whichever is best.
Spaghetti pie
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Oven time: 35 minutes
For 4 persons
Ingredients
• 250 g chestnut mushrooms (or regular)
• olive oil
• 100 g smoked bacon cubes
• 500 ml ready-to-use tomato sauce of your choice (ThinkTomato, arrabbiata sauce…)
• 350 g spaghetti
•1 chicken stock cube
• 3 eggs
• 120 g ricotta or fresh cream cheese
• 150 g ground mozzarella
• nutmeg
• pepper and salt
That’s how you make it
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Cut the mushrooms into fine cubes. Heat a dash of olive oil and fry the bacon cubes and mushrooms until golden brown.
Add the sauce and season with salt and pepper if necessary. Boil the spaghetti with the stock cube until al dente, drain and let drain.
Beat the eggs with the ricotta or fresh cream cheese and half of the mozzarella. Season with nutmeg, salt and pepper. Mix the spaghetti with the tomato sauce and pour everything into a greased oven dish. Pour over the egg-cheese mixture and sprinkle with the remaining mozzarella. Place in the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes.
Turn off the oven and let rest for another 5 minutes.
Tip from Rani: Ready in no time and can be prepared perfectly the day before. By letting everything rest overnight, all ingredients enhance each other’s taste and this dish only gets better.
These 3 recipes appeared in NINA magazine in the HLN weekend newspaper of Saturday 15/10/2022.
Also read:
From pita with garlic sauce to Indian Dahl: 5 recipes by Piet Huysentruyt, Sandra Bekkari and Jelle Beeckman that will make you look forward to dinner
FOOD VIDEO. This is how you make a creamy apple cake according to Piet Huysentruyt’s recipe
In 5 steps to baking the perfect steak according to meat chef Jules Koninckx: “A lump of real butter in the pan is a must” (+)
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