Are the same-old dinner recipes bringing you down? It’s easy to get bored with the monotony of the tried-and-true meals you have as a family, or even on your own. If you’re looking for a way to bring people to the dinner table with enthusiasm, you might find these five spicy methods useful.
1. Egg Noodles with Rich Chicken Curry Sauce (Khao Soi)
This Burmese-influenced Thai dish includes complex flavors that are altogether chewy, crispy, and fragrant. It is a specialty in the city of Chiang Mai, which is in Northern Thailand.
The hot sauce is made from coconut milk, curry powder, and Thai red curry paste, which can be found in Thai markets, specialty sections at grocery stores, and online.
2. Spicy Panzanella Salad
Panzanella or panmolle is a Tuscan chopped salad of soaked stale bread, onions and tomatoes that is popular in the summer. It often includes cucumbers, sometimes basil and is dressed with olive oil and vinegar. It is also popular in other parts of central Italy.
3. Kerala Coconut Chicken Curry
This chicken curry is made with semi thick gravy and well-flavored with spices and coconut milk. It’s an easy and delicious nadan kozhi curry recipe. According to thekitchn.com, “South Indian food tends to be lighter, with drier and less rich gravies than the creamier curries of the north.
The curries often rely quite a bit on toasted and ground coconut in the “masala” (the spice paste that is prepped before the curry itself is made). There is more use of tamarind, the intensely tangy fruit, and of curry leaves. Curry leaves add a fragrant, slightly spicy flavor to dishes like this, and for me they are one of the key notes of authenticity in South Indian cooking.”
3. General Tso’s Chicken
General Tso’s chicken is a sweet and spicy deep-fried chicken dish that is served in North American Chinese restaurants. The dish is named after Zuo Zongtang, a Qing dynasty statesman and military leader, although there is no recorded connection to him nor is the dish known in Hunan, Zuo’s home province.
The sauce for General Tso’s chicken is so simple to make with pantry staple ingredients: rice vinegar, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, water, sugar, and some corn starch to thicken the sauce.
5. Country Blackeyed Pea Soup
If you haven’t tried spicy jam in any of your recipes, you want to do so right away. Spicy jam comes in flavors like Habanero, Jalapeño, and Southwestern Chipotle. Fusing sweet, spicy, and sour, it brings an excellent kick to this hearty soup. Here is an excellent recipe from the creators of Pepper Jelly at pepperjelly.net:
Ingredients
- 1/2 lb. – smoked bacon, diced
- 1Tbs – Butter
- 1 + 1/2 Tbs – Chipotle PepperJam
- 2 cups – chopped celery
- 2 cups – chopped green pepper
- 2 cups – chopped onion
- C2 cups – concentrated stock or broth
- 2 cups – water
- 2 cans – diced tomatoes
- 2 cans – blackeyed peas
Instructions
- Sauté vegetables in butter, bacon and Chipotle PepperJam.
- Add tomatoes, peas and stock.
- Simmer 30-40 minutes.
