Meal Matching

If you’re making a meal plan, its important to think about how much of each ingredient will be used. By planning ahead and matching the ingredients in your meals, you can make the most of any foodstuff and ensure that all of your meals are something special. Sunday’s leftover roast chicken can be the base for a quick and easy Monday evening chicken curry. Remember to plan ahead to ensure you have the other ingredients at home.

A small stock of store cupboard essentials such as rice, noodles, pasta, tinned tomatoes, tinned pulses, baked beans, and seasonings will mean you will always have the ingredients for a recipe that will use up leftover vegetables, meat or fish.

Recipes are useful, particularly for intrepid cooks. But following recipes with a long list of unusual, fresh ingredients can cause a jumble of odds and ends growing old in the fridge. Remember, with savoury cooking there is always room for clever substitution and a bit of deviation. If you set out to produce a dish using only a fraction of what you bought to produce it, try and incorporate the remaining foodstuff into other meals.

For a fun example of meal matching, check out our Foodoku game.

The Flavour Thesaurus, a book written by Niki Segnit (2010) is a terrific reference book of flavour combinations which is sure to give you some new ideas.