Veggie dinner inspo from Mindful Chef

From chatting to people who send me messages every time I post a Mindful Chef dinner on my social media (they’re obviously very popular - I always get a flurry whenever I mention them), it seems that people’s reasons for using a recipe box service can be as varied as the meals themselves. Recently I’ve had chats with people who were stupidly busy at work but still wanted to eat well, people who were trying to kick start themselves into a healthier eating regime, and - increasingly - people who are interested in eating less meat (for whatever reason). Think about it: if you’re planning dinner, most of you will generally have quite a few meat-based recipes that you cook on a regular basis (I would always fall back on chicken breast roasted with veg in the oven, a chilli, shepherds pie, that sort of thing), but if you’re making a change, you don’t have those recipes to hand, so it’s really helpful to get some veggie dinner inspo from Mindful Chef.

I’ve mentioned recently that we’re a bit of a divided household. At any dinner time, there can be a couple of meat eaters, a pescatarian and a vegan or two (I don’t actually see myself as a vegetarian - I might have meat when we eat out, but I don’t buy meat or cook it at home very often), and while I’ve been enjoying the challenge of creating more plant-based meals (see my veggie chilli, and creamy vegetable bake) it’s been lovely to get some veggie dinner inspo from Mindful Chef. I also love that once you’ve cooked the different Mindful Chef recipes, you’ve then got a new recipe in your collection that you can customise. For example, with the pescatarian recipes, like the Spanish style rice, haddock and peppers (which was delicious), you can swap out the fish and just serve it with veggie burgers, or even some slices of griddled halloumi. Or I thought the Spanish style rice would be nice on its own, but with added chickpeas and some extra vegetables.

Mindful Chef Spanish style rice with haddock and peppers

The aubergine and pesto bake is another recipe that I’ll definitely make again. It’s brilliant for feeding a crowd, and there’s plenty of scope for swapping things out and replacing them, so if you’re not an aubergine fan, you could use slices of courgette or butternut squash instead and it would still be delicious. I also thought that it could be made more lasagne-like with an added layer of cheesy sauce (which is just as easy to make with vegan cheese and plant milk).

Mindful Chef aubergine and pesto bake

Our favourite so far, though, has been the seriously delicious veggie shepherds pie with butterbeans, kale and chestnuts, and topped with sweet potato (I’d love to know where they source their white sweet potatoes - they have the most amazing starchy texture). I’ll definitely make this one again, and honestly, the only change I would make would be to swap out the kale (I’m just not keen, it’s too chewy and I find the taste too strong) and replace it with either spinach or finely chopped savoy cabbage. This was soooo delicious though, and everyone loved it - even mushroom-hating Charlie, who didn’t even notice them in the recipe.

Mindful Chef veggie shepherds pie with butterbeans, kale and chestnuts

About Mindful Chef

Mindful Chef deliver recipe boxes to your door, with prices from about £4.50 a meal (and absolutely no food waste). The company are strong on provenance, with most of the produce sourced from West Country farms near them. You can specify what you want and don’t want (fish/no fish, vegetarian, vegan, etc). The packaging is recyclable and they offer a label so you can save up a few weeks’ worth then post it back to them for free so that it can be reused.

If you fancy giving the Mindful Chef recipe boxes a go, there’s currently a deal where you can get £10 off your first two boxes with the code SEPTEMBER (or just click this link to take you straight there).

Many thanks to Mindful Chef for letting me try some of their recipe boxes.