Three great meals that don't need cooking!

So your cooker has broken down, but it's fine, because you're totally on top of it. You've located the source of the problem, Googled it, and ordered a replacement part from the Cooker Spare Parts team. No sweat!

Except...what are you going to do for dinner tonight? Even if you selected 'Next Day Delivery' and completed the order before 3.30pm, your cooker will still be out of action until tomorrow. You don't want to ruin your diet with a takeaway, and you haven't got the money for a meal out, so what to do?

Well, we can help on that score as well. Here are a few alternative meal ideas for those broken cooker evenings.

(N.B. For the sake of this blog post, we're assuming that your cooker is completely busted; that is, you can't use the oven, the hobs, or the grill.)

• Salad
  If salad has only ever been a side dish for you, it's high time you upgraded it to the rank of Main Course. Start with the basics: cucumber, lettuce (or rocket if you're feeling fancy) and celery. Once you've laid the foundations, you can get creative, throwing in more or less anything you fancy. Peppers, croutons, walnuts, sesame seeds, chicken pieces, pine nuts...it's all fair game!
  
  
• Chicken Wraps
  You may not be able to cook anything yourself, but you can buy pre-cooked chicken from most supermarkets. If you're reasonably easy to satisfy, just put some chicken, lettuce and mayonnaise in a tortilla wrap and tuck in! If, however, you want to add a little more flavour, you can add cashew nuts, chopped spring onions, and even grated coconut to the mix.
  
  
• Boxing Day Buffet
  If you've got leftovers - chicken, cold cuts, salad, that sort of thing - then you've got yourself a meal, no cooker required. Just pretend it's the day after Christmas, spread all your leftovers out on the dining table, and make a buffet out of it. And if you don't have any leftovers...go out and buy some! Grab a French stick while you're there, too; nothing ties a spread together like a nice, crusty baguette.

Image Credit: Andrew Skudder

A lot of people seem to think that vegetarianism means that you can’t eat anything but lettuce. In actual fact, choosing not to eat meat is no more limiting than choosing not to eat cake – there’s still a whole world of marvellous mealtime options that you can enjoy!

To prove that point, here are three of our favourite vegetarian dishes for you to try at home. They’re all meat-free, and even inveterate meat-eaters have admitted that these meals taste amazing!

Quorn Wraps with Nando's Sauce

Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Serves: 2-4
Suitable for Vegans? No - Quorn contains egg.

You will need:

• Nando's Peri-Peri Marinade (the spicier the better!)
• Quorn Chicken Style Pieces
• Peppers (x2)
• Flour tortillas
• Cooking oil

Fry the Quorn pieces in a little oil.  Chop the peppers and add them to the frying pan, along with a generous helping of Nando’s marinade. Sizzle it all for a little longer, and once everything’s cooked, spoon the mixture into flour tortillas and serve as wraps.

Macaroni Cheese

Recipe taken from chefchloe.com

Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Serves: 4-6
Suitable for Vegans? Yes, as long as you buy vegan-friendly pasta, milk, and margarine.

You will need:

• Egg-free macaroni (1lb/450g)
• Alpro soy milk (680g/24oz)
• Broccoli florets
• Vegan margarine (55g/2oz)
• Flour (43g/1.5oz)
• Yeast (64g/2.25oz)
• Tomato purée (2tbsp)
• Sea salt (2tbsp)
• Garlic powder (1tsp)
• Lemon juice (1tbsp)

Cook the macaroni and broccoli in boiling water (bear in mind that the macaroni will take longer than the broccoli). Whisk the margarine and flour together in a saucepan on medium heat; then, add the soy milk, yeast, purée, salt, and garlic powder to the pan and boil this mixture while continuing to whisk frequently. Lower the heat and simmer so that the sauce has time to thicken. Stir in the lemon juice, and add this sauce to your macaroni and broccoli.

Rice Muck-Up

Preparation Time: 10-15 minutes
Serves: Depends on the amount of rice you make
Is it vegan? Yes, unless you add any non-vegan ingredients

You will need:

• Rice (preferably saffron rice)
• Curry powder
• Whatever you've got in the fridge!

Rice muck-up is a great way of using up your leftovers. Simply cook the rice, add a bit of curry powder, and throw in anything you've got handy! Try it with peas, onion, egg, herbs, peppers, Quorn, nuts, mushrooms, aubergine...anything that comes to hand. This is a good Monday night dish if you've got lots left over from the weekend.

For more veggie inspiration, check out our Vegetarian Meals board on Pinterest!

Products like Quorn allow vegetarians to enjoy a lot of dishes that would otherwise be off their menu. The Quorn range is pretty extensive, covering everything from ham and sausages to chicken breast and burgers; there are hardly any meat dishes that can't be convincingly veggified using some strategically-served mycoprotein!

One of Quorn's most popular products is their mince, which is ideal for meals like spaghetti bolognese and chilli con carne. Here's the recipe for another great veggie-friendly mince dish...

Quornchiglioni
Giant pasta shells stuffed with Quorn mince

You will need:

• Jumbo-sized pasta shells
• A packet of Quorn mince
• Tomato and basil pasta sauce
• Grated cheese
• Garlic (optional)
• Rosemary (optional)

Cooking Instructions:

1. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees celsius.
   
   
2. While the oven heats up, cook your pasta shells in a saucepan of boiling water. Don't cook them for too long - they'll finish cooking in the oven, so make sure they're still nicely al dente when you take them off the boil.
   
   
3. Fry your mince in a pan until it's nice and brow. Then, add your pasta sauce (not too much, mind - you don't want the mince to be swimming in it!) You can also add a bit of garlic and rosemary to the mix if you so desire.
   
   
4. Once your pasta is cooked and the sauce is ready to go, it's time to start stuffing! Arrange the pasta shells in a baking dish, and spoon a generous helping of mince mixture into each one.
   
   
5. Sprinkle the grated cheese over the top of your stuffed pasta shells (use as much as you like!)
   
   
6. Pop the dish in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes. The shells should be nice and crispy by the time you take them out.

At Cooker Spare Parts our lives revolve around cookers, which means that naturally we're a big bunch of foodies. We love discovering new recipes and cooking scrummy feasts in our kitchen, but occasionally we don't have the time to create a masterpiece. Through a dash of experimentation, a sprinkling of some of our favourite meal components and a sprinkling of trial and error, we've managed to come up with a delicious recipe which is super quick and easy, yet doesn't compromise on flavour in the slightest. The secret ingredient? Sweet Chilli Philly.

Sweet Chilli Philly Meatballs

Ingredients:

1 x Pack of Meatballs (of your taste - we like the ones with herbs and garlic or a little chilli kick, but any will work)
1 x tub of Philadelphia Light: Sweet Chilli
1 x Red Pepper
1 x Red Onion
1 tspn Mustard 
1 x Stock Cube
1 x Clove of Garlic 
1 x Portion of Pasta (we think Linguine works perfectly with this dish, but the choice is entirely yours!)

Instructions:

1. Fry the meatballs in oil until they are thoroughly cooked through. If you like your dish to be a little spicy then we'd recommend frying in chilli oil - it gives it a delicious kick, but if not then stick to the good old fashioned olive stuff.

2. Begin to cook your pasta - keep an eye on it though, chewy pasta is not cool!

3. Chop the red pepper and red onion into long, thin strips. Once the meatballs are cooked - throw them in the pan too.

4. Finely dice your garlic clove and whack that in. 

5. Stir your stock cube in some boiling water until you get a consistent liquid. 

6. Sprinkle a splash of your stock cube mixture over the meatballs.

7. Add in your Philly. A little to start with, make sure that the meatballs and vegetables are coated. 

8. Add the pasta to the pan and mix.

9. Continue to add the Philly, evenly and regularly until you have a good coating.

10. Gradually add the stock cube mix, a splash at a time to thin the sauce

11. Add the teaspoon of mustard and ensure the mixture is thoroughly stirred.

12. Dish up and enjoy your little splash of heaven!

We love that the philadelphia is a light option so you're enjoying a relatively low-calorie meal. You can substitute the pasta for gluten-free or whole weat, and add as many different veggies as you see fit. The beauty of this dish is the simplicity - it can be dressed up or down as you wish. Ensure it's piping hot before serving and any leftovers the next day will taste just as good. 

At Cooker Spare Parts we spend a lot of time examining, probing, and talking about cookers, so if there’s a chance to create a sublime dish that doesn’t require one, we’re all-ears! Plus, if your cooker is kaput, it’s nice to know there are still some delicious and divine recipes available to you.

Tomato and Basil Bruschetta

There are about a million variations on this Italian classic, but we like authenticity here at Cooker Spare Parts so have kept it simple. Now in the original Bruschetta you would use hot coals or a griddle to lightly char your ciabatta, but as we’re steering clear of the cooker your toaster will do the job just fine!

Cut a ciabatta loaf into manageable slices and toast them so they’re nice and crisp. Then rub an open clove of garlic on the upside of your toasted ciabattas, and glug a generous helping of good olive oil on top. Add some sliced ripe plum or cherry tomatoes to the top, along with a few sprigs of fresh basil, and some salt and pepper – enjoy immediately!

Prawn Cocktail

This 1970s classic is anything but dated, and as long as each individual component is good, you have yourselves a winner! Mix some ready-cooked prawns – you can go shrimp or king for this one – along with a basic Marie-rose sauce: 4 tbsp of mayonnaise, 4 tbsp of crème fraiche, 1½ tbsp tomato ketchup, and a dash of Tabasco and Worcestershire sauce. Simply add this mixture to a cocktail glass full of little gem lettuce leaves, and garnish with a wedge of lemon (and be sure to actually use your lemon as it loves this dish).

Antipasti

We’re back to the Mediterranean for this last no cook starter, and if you thought the others were easy, this one is simpler still. Antipasti simply means ‘before the meal’ and is a platter consisting of any number of the following: cured meats, olives, crostinis, olives, artichoke hearts, stuffed peppers, and some Italian cheeses such as pecorino. Everything here is all ready to be eaten, so all you must do is simply arrange it in small bowls or on a platter, and watch just how sumptuous your guests find this simple starter!

They say eating well doesn’t have to be difficult, and it’s so simple you needn’t even wait for your cooker to be fixed! Any one of these no-cook starters will tantalise the taste-buds terrifically – not bad for a 5 minute stroll in the kitchen, huh?