Adding flavour to plain sides.

Coriander and pea rice... Cook rice. In a wok get some ginger, chili and garlic until fragrant. Egg or two in with splash of seasoning (golden Mountain, magi, etc)and then add bowl of peas, cook, add fluffed rice and massive bunch of chopped Coriander. 👌

Salt and chili potatoes... Boil tatties. Drain, add knob of butter, pinch dried mixed herbs, splash of toasted sesame oil and glug of chilli oil. Couple of tsp of salt and chilli seasoning (recipe online). Lid on, shake vigorously. 👌

Mash - bung in a small handful of sage and onion stuffing

Left field answer: try eating less carbs. I know it doesn't answer your question, well it sort of does, but I've given it a try to lose weight and it turns out there's tons of extra benefits- the main ones being your plate is full of tasty stuff instead of the dull stodgy stuff, and the post meal coma is now a thing of the past. Worth a try maybe!

I sometimes thrown some cinnamon and a handful of raisins into rice it I think it might get boring. With mash, just salt, maybe a touch of pepper.

Mash - either just with potatoes then add  Dijon wholegrain mustard. For the whole hog, make root veg mash - cook the potatoes with Carrot and Parsnips then mash with Dijon mustard.

For rice, cooking with coconut can work well if appropriate to the dish.

Mash: Fry some spring onion or shallots with the butter you'd use to make the mash, then use that instead. Or just add a bit of mustard.

Mash? Add corned beef, onions and the occasional veg scraps. Then fry.

Left field answer: try eating less carbs. I know it doesn’t answer your question, well it sort of does, but I’ve given it a try to lose weight

The bulk of my diet is carbs, I practically live off pasta. I have the opposite problem - I can't put weight on.

Mash? Add corned beef, onions and the occasional veg scraps. Then fry.

Yum! minus the veg scraps that's what we're having tonight, with a dollop of butter and a couple of fried eggs on top. (I asked one of my daughters to peel potatoes for it this morning. It's rare treat!)

Stilton and leak in mash.

Or just be a bit more interesting in general, swap rice for Bombay potatoes, mash for other mashed vegetables (or a tray of mixed roast veg takes the same effort)), pasta for gnoci, chips for saute potatoes etc.

Siracha mayo fixes everything. Even pineapple.

Bay leaf for the rice.

Need to get a bay tree myself actually.

@IdleJon Try a couple of strips of bacon on top and a poached egg or two.

Tomatoe Sauce?

Fixes everything

Cook rice in stock or

Mash: stilton or champ style

Sorry Cougar. Just remembered you're a veggie (I think).

I am. It's fine though, others might find the info useful even if it's not directly relevant to me.

Oven chips:

Toss the frozen chips in lemon juice and oregano before you put them in the oven, go heavy on both, the lemon will glaze the chips.

Mash:

I like to keep mash moist - cook the potatoes in barley enough water to cover them - so that its the bubbling thats covering them -  until they're falling apart then mash the water cooking water  into the potatoes - in the first instance it seems like you;ve made a terrible mistake and basically made potato soup but keep mashing / whisking and you get a lovely smooth mash. Just adding about a garlic granules works very well

Rice:

look up recipes for cooking rice in coconut milk

Sorry Cougar. Just remembered you’re a veggie (I think).

He does seem to have a suspiciously good understanding of sausage rolls. Fallen off the wagon a bit?

Its a bit marmite but if you can find some Chaat Masala  its great on boiled potatoes - ideal for left over potatoes,

a bit like coriander being very divisive as some people can't stand it  theres a sulphur note from the black salt used  in the mix that is either delicious or revolting but if you like it its the quickest easiest way you can put something delicious on your plate, espacullay alongside curry dishes

Add a stock cube to rice, & coconut rice is lush.. both of which have been suggest, too slow!

Mash ideas:

mustard
parsley
olive oil
leave the skin on
bubble and squeak type things
as much butter as you dare will fit in the pan
use a ricer not a masher
bake the potatoes whole instead of boiling / steaming
different potato varieties

(not all those at once, just pick one or 2)

Mash - take the top of a whole bulb of (ideally smoked) garlic and wrap in foil. Put in oven next to potato's. When potato's are done, scoop the insides into a bowl and squeeze the garlic 'puree in to the bowl then mix.

Optional Step - put back into potatoes skins, sprinkle with cheese and grill until golden brown.

Roast potatoes or wedges cooked in the oven taste good with rosemary on them.

As it's been courgette season recently I'd forgotten how good courgettes fried in garlic were until recently. A side dish / veg in their own right but delicious all the same.

then stand looking at my spice drawer wondering if I could’ve done it differently / better.

perhaps if you want to be methodical about it there’s an interesting book called “the flavour thesaurus’ which is about flavour pairings rather than recipes and laid out liike thesaurus- A~Z by each ingredient you might be cooking with all the flavours that work well with it.

It’s better written than that sounds 🙂

smoked paprika ftw

For the rice - are you using brown or white? Brown is far nicer IMO, it actually has a taste rather than just being bland. Black rice has a lovely taste too. And they’re both healthier than white.

But for an accompaniment to curry -  pilau rice is easy to knock up. Or coconut rice as mentioned above. And peas… always add peas. And fresh coriander obvs.

For the rice – are you using brown or white?

White. I never got on with brown rice, and my partner isn't keen either. I don't mind brown over white generally, I like wholewheat pasta and I'm fairly easy either way with bread, but brown rice had an odd texture. Maybe I need to try it again.

Most recently I've been experimenting with trying to make sweet chilli rice as accompaniment to the salmon steaks my OH likes. That's been interesting, and is what set me thinking to start this thread in the first place.

Mash – bung in a small handful of sage and onion stuffing

Good idea, im a bit of a mash fan, sage and onion too. Never occurred to me to combine the two.

Have you tried roasted buckwheat, it's similar to rice but has more flavour. I like it as an alternative.

With the mash, I just like to make sure it's well seasoned with salt and pepper and got a good knob of butter in.

Mash: pinch of ground white pepper.

For rice, there’s a spice mix you can buy, dunno, think it’s called “Mediterranean Spice Mix” in sainsbury’s. Some of that with a veg stock cube/pot jazzes up rice quite nicely for a chilli.

For mash throw in a handful of chives. Any left over can be fried the next day with whatever you have kicking about, for me its usually cheese, chilli and ham.

Most recently I’ve been experimenting with trying to make sweet chilli rice as accompaniment to the salmon steaks my OH likes.

Actually this was the point I didnt really make clear in my post about the Flavour Thesaurus  - were talking about things that make carbs taste of something. But its a side - so theres something else on the plate and you want both those things to bring out the best in each other.

Paprika and cayenne pepper on everything, as well as the obvs salt and pepper.

Stir some mint sauce through mash potato, goes well, especially on a shepherd's pie.

As someone said above sriracha makes everything better.

Cook rice or pasta in stock to get flavours in there.

Lime juice and coriander in rice