I want a recipe for an original family dish!

When we start cooking, we often stick faithfully to the recipe so as not to make mistakes. As we gain experience, we dare to make incongruous associations, we change the ingredients and we have fun with conventions. This is all that makes the beauty and the salt of cooking: launching into the unknown without hesitation. Because after all, what is the risk of venturing into risky marriages? Maybe we’ll create the next tarte tatin!

How to add originality to a dish?

The originality of a dish can lie in its form, its execution, or its ingredients. Or even all three at once.

If we talk about shape, we can deconstruct your dish and present it in a way other than that for which it is known. Desserts, like lemon meringue pie, lend themselves perfectly to this exercise. The execution is linked to the change of form, this is similar to the technique(s) used. In the pan, deep fryer, in the oven, or in the panini/croque-monsieur machine, we can have fun with the different cooking utensils at our disposal to dare new things.

But the easiest way to make your family dish original is to focus on the ingredients. Singular land-sea or sweet-salty associations; transformation of a carnivorous dish into a vegetarian delight; adding herbs, spices, or other to an already known preparation, anything is possible. If you are cold, you don’t have to tempt the devil and combine Roquefort and chocolate, you can go little by little. Preserved lemon with a classic roast chicken; red lentil flour in a pizza; beets in a salty tatin; sweet potato in falafel; pulled pork in a shepherd’s pie, originality can be minimal or excessive. It all depends on your desires.

We must also keep in mind that the family dish must please both young and old. Originality must therefore not hold back tasters. The simplest is to start from a known dish, and integrate a spice, an herb, or replace one ingredient with another, to preserve the strong markers of the recipe. They are the ones who will reassure the tasters, especially the little ones.

Whether it’s pie, burgers, pizza, gratin, or blanquette, here are 22 proposals that will add originality to the menu.