"Cooking Every Recipe" Thug Kitchen Edition: Week One

Last week, Robby and I decided to challenge ourselves by picking one of the awesome cookbooks we received for our wedding and making every recipe in that cookbook. We landed on Thug Kitchen. We were originally going to try to cook every day until we got through it, but soon realized a) we kind of picked a bad time to do that with his sister's wedding coming up and b) we don't cook every day on a normal basis anyway. If anything, we cook Monday-Thursday, sometimes Sundays, but Fridays are for pizza and the rest of the weekend for leftovers.

Regardless, so far, with having only cooked two recipes (we're not doing this front to back - we're jumping around, but no worries, we're keeping track of what we've made), we're pleasantly surprised. Every recipe in Thug Kitchen is . . . vegan. Something that neither of us are. But surprisingly, we're both eager to try the recipes as they are without too many modifications.

As we go through this, though, I will mention what we preferred, what we maybe ended up modifying, or what we would do if we made the recipe again. They'll be rated out of four stars (or little plant guys to make it interesting 🌿), and I won't be posting the full step-by-step recipes because that's what the actual cookbook is for. Go buy it, ya cheapskates! Haha. Let's get into this!

Day 1: Mango Curry

Rating: 🌿🌿🌿🌿

First of all, this has been our go-to recipe from the ​​moment we got this book, which is why we kicked off this adventure with it. I mean, it is like so go-to that we always have the ingredients for this recipe in our fridge/pantry for a quick meal during the week. And it's only quick for us because we've made it so much by this point (normally, it's slightly time consuming, but what curry isn't?). Our only modifications to this recipe are we exclude the tofu and bell peppers and instead include baked Tilapia. (I know, so not vegan.)

It's great during the summer when the mangoes are in season. It's great during the winter when you need something to warm you up. It's literally great any time and all the time. It's easy enough to make, and the flavors are fantastic. If you have a favorite way to make red curry instead of using pre-packaged paste, even better. They also suggest using brown rice, which of course has more nutritional value than jasmine rice and probably something my husband would prefer. But I'm still warming up to the texture, so we just stick with traditional jasmine most of the time.

Overall, we love this recipe. Leftovers get better and better as the flavors develop more. Great for beginning cooks (or novice cooks? Not ones who have never cooked a day in their lives, but kind of know what's going on). I highly recommend!

Day 2: Cauliflower Pasta

Rating: 🌿🌿🌿

This recipe threw me, and here's why: miso paste. I've had miso soup before, but I've never cooked with miso paste. The recipe said it adds a creamy, cheesy texture to whatever you use it in, which in this case, was going to be the "Alfredo" sauce. We followed this recipe to its exact specifications, using cauliflower out of our garden too (which was the coolest part). And just to be clear, you're not making pasta out of cauliflower -- the sauce is made with it. You use whole wheat pasta (angel hair in our case) for the dish.

Everything turned out really, really well. Super simple to make, especially on a weeknight, and packed full of flavor. You don't feel like you're missing out on a rich, flavor-packed Alfredo sauce because the homemade version has that creamy miso paste, garlic, milk (almond/soy/other plant-based milks), salt, and pepper. I was stunned with the final result!

The only thing I would do differently, because this recipe calls for raw spinach, is saute it first with garlic and maybe a butter substitute. Although it suggests you mix it up with the hot pasta as soon as it's drained, I couldn't handle the strong bland taste of spinach mixed in with everything else. There needed to be something more with such beautiful flavors. And really, that's the only reason I gave this three plants out of four. I would probably also make a tad bit more of the sauce just because it didn't quite cover the pasta as much as I would have liked. Other than that, we both looked at each other after the first bite, nodded, and said, "Wow, this is a lot better than we thought." This could easily be a comfort food for me.

Yay for turning skeptics into believers, one recipe at a time!

Coming Up

In the near future, we have handmade ravioli with housemade marinara, Pozole Rojo, and brown rice with mango and . . . something else (I'm drawing a blank right now). We're currently on the hunt for a few of the more "natural" ingredients such as tempeh, whole wheat pastry flour, and nutritional yeast. We had to order a ravioli stamp too. As well, we also had family stay with us last night. So our cooking goals haven't played out the way we wanted them to (I guess like I mentioned in the very beginning), but it's not a problem. I'll aim to take time at the end of every week and give thoughts on what we've made!

Thanks for following along! xoxo