Five autumn dinners, one shopping list

The dinners, in pictures

Monday: garlic mushroom and spinach orzo

Brown the mushrooms in batches before the orzo goes in. Their golden edges are what make this a proper mushroom dinner. Spinach wilts into the pan at the end, and parsley finishes this dish and two more dinners later in the week.

Read the orzo recipe. 45 minutes · serves four.

Tuesday: mustard salmon with leeks and lentils

The leeks soften into the lentils, then a little cream and lemon bring the ragout together. Double the published two-person recipe for this menu. The salmon needs an air fryer; keep the fillets in a single layer and allow extra time for batches.

Read the salmon recipe. 35 minutes for two; four may take longer.

Thursday: creamy mustard chicken with mash

The Dijon is already open from Tuesday. Here it makes a cream sauce for the chicken, with buttery mash to catch it and broccoli alongside. All three parts are included in the shopping list.

Read the chicken recipe. 55 minutes · serves four.

Friday: roast squash and chickpeas with tahini yoghurt

Let the squash catch and caramelise at the edges. The cool tahini yoghurt, parsley and pomegranate go on at the end. Warm flatbreads make it dinner, and they are included in the list too.

Read the traybake recipe. 55 minutes · serves four.

Sunday: beef and sweet potato cottage pie

Give this the longer Sunday slot. The beef and lentil filling cooks beneath a sweet potato lid, with forked ridges that turn golden in the oven. Make the full six portions: that is dinner for four and two extra portions.

Read the cottage pie recipe. 2 hours · makes six portions.

One shopping list

This list covers the five dinners above for four people, plus the pie's two extra portions. Quantities are what the recipes use, not supermarket pack sizes. Keep the cooked and dried lentils separate: they are for different recipes.

Vegetables, fruit and herbs

• 1 large butternut squash, about 1.2 kg, skin on
• 400 g mixed mushrooms
• 800 g potatoes
• 1 kg sweet potatoes
• 300 g cleaned leek
• 200 g carrot, plus 2 carrots for the pie
• 140 g celery, plus 2 celery sticks for the pie
• 300 g baby spinach
• 300 g tenderstem broccoli
• 2 red onions
• 2 onions
• 2 shallots
• 8 garlic cloves in total, including 1 small clove for the yoghurt sauce
• 55 g parsley
• 80 g pomegranate seeds
• 1 lemon for the traybake, plus 65 ml lemon juice and 2 g finely grated zest for the other dinners

Meat, fish and chilled ingredients

• 4 salmon fillets, about 125 g each
• 4 chicken breasts
• 600 g beef mince, 15–20% fat
• 80 g vegetarian Italian-style hard cheese
• 250 g Greek yoghurt
• 210 ml double cream
• 145 ml whole milk
• 65 g unsalted butter, plus 1 tbsp butter for the orzo

Tins, grains and frozen food

• 300 g orzo
• 4 flatbreads
• 2 × 400 g tins chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 500 g cooked Puy lentils
• 100 g dried green or brown lentils
• 200 g frozen peas

Check the cupboard

• 110 ml olive oil in total (6 tbsp plus 20 ml)
• 650 ml prepared vegetable stock
• 150 ml prepared chicken stock
• 300 ml prepared beef stock
• 30 g Dijon mustard, plus 2 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 2 tbsp plain flour
• 2 tbsp tahini
• 2 tbsp tomato purée
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 2 tsp coriander seeds
• 2 tsp dried thyme
• 1½ tsp chilli flakes
• Salt and black pepper

The salmon also uses 240 ml water, plus any small splash needed during cooking. Optional extras outside this list: the orzo's ciabatta, mixed leaves and dressing, and the pie's chives.