Overnight, I soaked a big ass bag of pinto beans. This morning, I washed them out, threw them and some ham hocks in the instantpot, grabbed some chicken stock from the cellar, cut an onion in half and threw in some bay leaves, and then just ignored it for the rest of the day. And hot damned, I am hear to tell you it was delicious.
And that was my dinner. Nothing else. Complete price- maybe 4-5 bucks (beans were 1.50 for the bag, onion maybe 50 cents, the ham hocks marked down to three bucks, and the chicken stock I made last summer). And I will be eating it for a long while, because it is just a boatload of food.
Recipes like this are my favorite. I enjoy cooking more complex things and having fancy dinners, but I just love a recipe that is nutritionally sound, simple, and cheap. You could feed an army on this kind of recipe.
What’s your favorite few ingredient recipe that is also healthy, nutritious, and delicious?
Unfinished Business, Until Today: Biden Signs Into Law the Emmett Till Antilynching Act
HinTN
Gumbo – requires a roux but that’s easy peasy. Great with rice and salad.
ETA – the trinity plus garlic is always a winner. Add something to the pot anytime.
zhena gogolia
Chicken, onions, celery, carrots, dill, egg noodles, water, salt and pepper. Chicken soup. I know it’s not the way you’re supposed to do it, but it’s easy and heartwarming and we love it.
schrodingers_cat
Do you count spices as separate ingredients?
schrodingers_cat
Dal and rice. (Dal == hulled lentils)
HinTN
@schrodingers_cat:
No, SATASQ
Roger Moore
Not quite as simple, but I am really digging hummus made from scratch. I cook garbanzo beans in the instant pot. While the pressure is going down, I toast some sesame seeds in a skillet. Then I process the seeds in the food processor until they’re a smooth paste. Add some olive oil and fresh lemon juice and process for maybe 30 seconds more. Add the garbanzos, a little salt, and some cumin, and process again. If it’s too thick, add some of the cooking water from the garbanzos to thin it out. I could, and occasionally do, just eat the stuff with a spoon.
satby
Lentil salad: cook the lentils (whatever color but green is traditional) in a vegetable broth or water, rinse and cool, add chopped onion, bell pepper (I like red or yellow), chopped fresh parsley, diced tomato if you feel like it, lemon juice, olive oil; season to taste, toss. Let it sit overnight for the flavors to blend. I could eat this every day.
BSR
@HinTN:
Ditto on the gumbo. You can make it as fancy or humble as you like, and as long as it has the roux, okra, and some decent ingredients, it will be great.
Plus I make about 15 quarts at a time – it feeds an army plus leftovers forever.
ant
My mother used to make that same thing with the pintos. Always served with corn bread, and hot sauce. Also, greens.
She called it soul food. After I grew up, I missed that stuff, so I made some one day.
My husband turned up his nose, and said it “was poor people food”, or something like that. Not fancy pants enough for him.
It had never even occurred to me all those years growing up that these meals were really cheap to make, and that it was, in fact, peasant food. I just figured it was a different ethnic dish. I certainly wasn’t paying for it.
All grown up now, I like peasant food. One dish that I was recently introduced to, and really like, is the Mexican soup called Menudo. Just wonderful, that soup. I haven’t tried to make it yet though. Haven’t hunted down the meat, and not sure where to get it.
satby
And of course, Cajun red beans and dirty rice, or Cuban black beans and lime-cilantro rice.
I eat a lot of vegitarian.
@schrodingers_cat: and I love dal and rice too ?
lowtechcyclist
Just made chicken chili this evening.
2 lbs. ground chicken
1 package apple chicken sausage (10-12 oz., somewhere in there)
1 can garbanzos
1 can kidney beans
1 can ro-tel chilies
1 can tomato sauce
~3 tbsp chili powder
~1/2 tbsp cumin
Brown the chicken, drain the beans, toss everything into a big pot, stir, simmer.
Sure Lurkalot
@Roger Moore: Your hummus is the real deal! But it is a few ingredient tub of delicious. I use canned beans and tahini, no cumin but lots of Italian parsley. It freezes ok too!
bbleh
Chili. Diced onion, protein of choice, tomato paste, salt, couple garlic cloves, lotsa water, then about 3 hours later some beans and spices. Scales to infinity, delicious immediately, freezes well.
ETA: spices roughly same as lowtechcyclist, except lighter on the chili powder, and I add a tbsp-plus of molasses, but details, details …
RSA
During the spring and summer months, my most common dinner is probably a Caesar salad with some protein. If I make the dressing from scratch it lasts a week or so; a commercial bottle goes much longer. I sometimes bake a tray of chicken thighs on the weekend. On a weeknight I’ll broil or saute the chicken a bit, break up and wash the lettuce, toast up some croutons, toss it all together, maybe grate some more Parmesan on top, lay on some anchovies, and I’m set.
satby
@ant: menudo is tripe. “Tripe is a type of edible lining from the stomachs of various farm animals. Most tripe is from cattle, pigs and sheep”
eversor
Split pea soup
zhena gogolia
@ant: Peasant food is the best. I’m a proud peasant.
I always watch all these British period dramas, knowing full well that I would have been the maid who had to clean out the fireplaces in the morning, not Elizabeth Bennet.
Doc Sardonic
Think my favorite few ingredient meal is Spanish Bean soup. When I cook it, the memories of my childhood roaming Ybor with my uncle are right there. The smell of it cooking, damn, now I’m homesick for 1968.
zhena gogolia
@RSA: That sounds good.
PaulB
Chicken Corn Chowder: chicken, onion, red bell pepper, corn, potatoes, flour, milk, shredded cheese, chicken broth, salt, and pepper, garnished with bacon bits.
Also, try a little thyme in your ham and bean soup recipe next time.
Sure Lurkalot
@zhena gogolia: My chicken soup recipe too! So easy and a comfort. I switch between noodles and matzo balls. My sister gets lovely kreplach (sp?) at a deli near her and that’s probably my favorite add in. I’ll have to remember to see if I can find some next time.
la caterina
High-protein penne pasta, a little olive oil in which I quickly sauce a couple of crushed garlic cloves, some grated Parmigiano or Romano cheese and whatever veg I have at the moment- cherry tomatoes, broccoli, onions, etc.
Jim Bales
My wife was under the weather a few weeks ago, and I needed to put together a soup with whatever was on hand.
So … Chicken stock and a can of shredded chicken. I chopped up the veggies that were on hand (a bit of onion, celery, carrot). Stirred it all together, brought it to a boil & let it simmer.
Then, about five minutes before serving, brought it to a boil again, threw in some couscous, turned the heat back down and put a lid on it.
Nothing fancy, but it was tasty and filling and the couscous gave it some substance :-)
Best,
Jim
bbleh
@RSA: suggest a sprinkling of brewer’s yeast — adding it to all my salads these days, protein or no.
zhena gogolia
@Sure Lurkalot: I used to make dumplings. They’re easy too, but you need Crisco to do the Fannie Farmer recipe, and I don’t really like having it around for some reason.
Roger Moore
@schrodingers_cat:
I wouldn’t count spices as separate ingredients unless you have to prepare them separately, e.g. some are grated, others are ground, and others toasted. I would probably say the same thing with vegetables that are all cut and cooked at the same time. OTOH, I would probably count a single thing as multiple ingredients if you have to divide it and process separately. So the flour you put in a roux is a separate ingredient from the flour you use as a dredge.
Jim Bales
@zhena gogolia: @ant
Three cheers for peasant food! In fact, the first birthday present my wife bought for me (when we were dating) was a book entitled, “50 great mashed potatoes recipes”
What’s not to like?
Jim
Sure Lurkalot
@RSA: Caesar with steak or chicken is a go-to for us too. I make a mock dressing using mayo, anchovies or paste, lemon, oil, garlic, parm. I think it’s on Epicurious.
Roger Moore
@Sure Lurkalot:
I got my recipe from someone who recommended making your own tahini rather than using store bought. One of the things I like about it is I can get all the ingredients except the salt and sesame seeds from my local farmers market. Using top quality ingredients is very important for simple dishes, because the flavor depends so much on them.
schrodingers_cat
There are n variations of the basic chicken curry with the same basic ingredients. My personal favorite is butter chicken.
I make a big batch of tomato sauce that lasts me for about a month. I have ginger, garlic, chilies and cilantro processed. So putting together a chicken curry by varying the spices is a cinch. YouTube is your friend for down home goodness especially if you can understand Hindi.
Basic ingredients : Onions, garlic, ginger, cilantro and chilies
Souring agent : Tomatoes or Yogurt
Fat: Cream, Coconut milk or butter or a combination there of
Spices: Cumin, Coriander, Cayenne and Turmeric.
dmsilev
Pesto, with good fresh basil. Make a big batch of it, have some over pasta when it’s made and then freeze the rest in small chunks (an ice cube tray works well here, and then transfer to a freezer bag or whatever). Instant flavor boost for subsequent soups or whatever.
(nb: don’t add any cheese to the portions going into the freezer; that’s best done after defrosting)
Jager
Small casserole, olive oil on the bottom chopped onion a couple of layers of thin-sliced potatoes, any veggie you have handy, a handful of cheese, lay a chicken breast on top (or sausage, or…) some more cheese. put it in a 350 oven for 30-40 minutes, halfway through the cooking time, take the lid off, let it brown. One big breast is enough for two. Spice it to taste.
Sure Lurkalot
@Roger Moore: I always say one of these days I’ll make the 2 main ingredients from scratch and then my laziness sets in. But you have inspired me! I just made hummus this weekend, so maybe next time.
I make a hummus sandwich with cucumber lettuce tomato, maybe thinly sliced onion or avocado too. Lightly toasted bread.
OzarkHillbilly
Tim F’s Pork Tenderloin recipe. I swear to dawg, it is so good every time I think about doing something else with a pork tenderloin? I can’t. It is perfection.
JMS
Japanese “breakfast for dinner”. The whole family eats it as is, even the pescatarian daughter and the picky “Asian food is gross” son. Misoyaki salmon, miso soup with tofu, rice, and cucumber with rice vinegar/soy sauce/sesame oil. Serve with green tea. It’s good when I feel like I’ve been eating too much greasy food. You have to marinate the salmon ahead, but the meal easily comes together in the time it takes the rice cooker to finish.
Kent
@eversor: Yes, split pea soup. Even faster and easier if made in an Instant Pot and with an immersion blender. My recipe is basically:
A cup each of chopped carrots, celery and onions lightly sautéed. Add a couple of cloves of diced garlic towards the end of the sauté. I just sauté on the stove not in the Instant Pot.
While the veggies are sautéing I add a cup of split peas, about 6 cups of chicken broth, a teaspoon of salt, a bay leaf, and a teaspoon of Costco no-salt seasoning to the instant pot.
When the veggies are done I add to the instant pot and cook on pressure for 20 min.
When finished I blend with an immersion blender and serve with fresh French baguettes
schrodingers_cat
Pan seared fish: Tilapia or Cod
Spices: Cayenne, Turmeric and salt to taste
dust with rice flour for crispness.
sab
I am annoyed at that marmot rodent that said winter was almost over when it wasn’t, but I will miss winter soup when we throw the ingredients in a pot early and let it burble slowly all day, cooking the soup and heating the house at the same time.
Evap
My diet is mostly vegan. Tempeh and sweet potatoes: cut a block of tempeh into cubes or triangles and marinate in a mixture of soy sauce, mirin, sesame oil, balsamic vinegar, ginger and garlic. Meanwhile peel and cut up a couple of sweet potatoes and toss with oil, salt and pepper. Remove tempeh from the marinate, toss with the sweet pots and cook in a hot oven (400F) until potatoes are cooked through. Boil the marinade until it thickens Inyo a sauce. Tossed cooked sweet pots and tempeh with the sauce. Serve with sautéed greens. Delicious and filling!
Math Guy
Fix some fettuccine, steam broccoli florets, toss it all together with butter and/or olive oil and some grated Parmesan, salt and pepper to taste. Serve with a glass of wine.
Jharp
I have a couple of gallons of frozen tomatoes that I don’t know what to do with.
Skins on. Assorted tomatoes chopped into quarters or less.
I’d be grateful for any suggestions.
sab
@dmsilev: Thank you!!!. I always have unused pesto that rots in its little container in the fridge. I never thought of freezing it in small accessible quantities.
schrodingers_cat
@Jharp: Make tomato sauce. That’s the mother sauce for many of my dishes. From chicken to chickpeas and everything in between.
Eduardo
@eversor: yeah! This South Indian one is super easy to make and delicious
Scout211
@Jharp:
salsa, tomato soup, tomato bisque, or I would make marinara sauce and then freeze it in containers for a quick meal in the future.
ETA: Or tomato sauce, per schrodinger’s_cat @43
CarolPW
@Roger Moore: I agree about ingredients. I bought sesame seeds from Penzeys for my upcoming adventure in attempting chicken mole (not an easy recipe).
Fair Economist
I don’t have anything quite as simple as that bean recipe. Like several other people, I like gumbos – roux plus the trinity plus whatever. Also pasta sauce – brown 1 lb meat, then add onion, celery, and bell peppers, cook until veggies are soft, pour in a jar of store sauce and a teaspoon of basil, and simmer for 15-30 minutes (longer is better but sometimes I don’t want to wait).
Fair Economist
@sab: Pesto makes a good flavoring for basic vegetable soups. Chuck in a tablespoon or so when serving.
Pete Mack
I picked up a few pounds of bone in chicken breasts and a couple more of tomatillo. Plan tomorrow is to bone them and throw them in the crockpot with onion, jalapeno, cumin, coriander. Pull the chicken, add lime juice and cilantro. It is just amazing, and lasts days.
Then use skin and bones for stock.
RSA
@zhena gogolia: Easy, filling, and as long as I don’t go overboard, I think it’s reasonably healthy. Also, maybe most importantly, I don’t get bored of it.
@Sure Lurkalot: Thanks for the pointer! I’ve been using Bon Appetit’s “easy” recipe, but sometimes it seems a little too rich. I’ll find it and give it a try.
@bbleh: Ooh, I never would have thought of that. Thanks for the suggestion.
Roger Moore
@CarolPW:
I’m going to have to check if I can find sesame seeds at the farmers market. There is one farmer who specializes in dried seeds.
El-Man
Don’t know if this counts as a recipe, but simple roasted veges have been doing it for us lately. Cube some potatoes, combine with broccoli, cauliflower, capsicums, onions, anything suitable for roasting, pour over a bit of olive oil, salt, and some Chinese Five Spice, and cook for 30-40 minutes. Add some meat which was cooked separately, and there’s dinner. Fast and easy.
schrodingers_cat
@Jharp: Sliced onions, garlic, cayenne, turmeric, oregano, 3 cans of whole peeled tomatoes, 4 cups pasta water, sugar 1 tbsp and salt to taste. Cook until the sauce reduces to half. Then use a blender to pulverize and blend everything together.
*turmeric is optional but it gives the sauce a brighter color and keeps it fresh longer.
Kalakal
@schrodingers_cat: That’s one of my 2 gotos.
The other is sate sauce and rice
Sure Lurkalot
@RSA: Checked out the Bon Appetit recipe, it’s very similar. I do thin a bit with water.
scav
@Jharp: Just boil them down into an ultra concentrate — bit thicker than a sauce. Can then just use it like tomato paste or even just use it direct (with some basil maybe) as a sauce on pasta. At least with the tomatoes my mother did it with, it really needed nothing other than the concentrated pure tomato taste to be good.
satby
@Evap: A mug of miso soup is my go-to when I know I should eat something but don’t really feel like cooking. I mostly use red miso, I like the stronger taste.
karen marie
You had me up to “nutritionally sound.” I’m sorry, a meal of beans and nothing else is WHAT?
Kelly
Salad Nicoise cheerfully diverging from any traditional recipe. A bag ready to go salad greens, bite size boiled potatoes, boiled egg halves, small, skinny green beans barely cooked, usually thin sliced red onions because we like’em and always have them around, cherry tomato halves or whatever tomatoes are around, pitted Kalamata olives. Seared tuna if we’re feeling fancy, canned if we’re camping. Most often surimi for the seafood component, occasionally cocktail shrimp. Dress with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Great for a hot busy day since the potatoes, eggs and beans can be cooked in advance and the whole thing gathered together at dinner time. Oh yeah anchovies, black pepper to taste
Raven
Camellia
beans, red or black-eyed peas with the trinity and smoked turkey necks in an instantpot.
satby
@scav: @Jharp: a slow cooker is really good for that. It may take several hours (it’s like making apple butter from scratch) but dump them in, set it to low, and give it a stir every few hours. I used to cook apples for apple butter overnight, about 18 hours total. You can use a hand blender to puree it. Don’t even have to take the skins off.
Martin
@Math Guy: Have you seen the news lately? Better make it a bottle of wine.
schrodingers_cat
My quick meal when I am too tired is an omelet, toast and a quick salad.
Suzanne
My ultimate comfort meal: pasta (usually spaghetti but fusilli col buco is also excellent), tossed with fresh squeezed lemon juice, olive oil, shredded Parmesan cheese, and chiffonade basil leaves. Salt and pepper. Extra points for lemon zest or garlic salt. But really, just simple is the best.
I am eating much less pasta these days because I am trying to look better naked, but this is just my absolute favorite home meal.
satby
@karen marie: it has protein, complex carbohydrates, fiber, vitamins, iron… And that’s just the beans.
Poe Larity
I just throw hoisin on shredded cardboard or whatever is laying around and I’m good. lots of fiber.
E.
Well I was going to give y’all my vanilla sable recipe but then I ran into that word “. . . nutritious.”
Suzanne
My go-to meal when I have completely run out of both energy and fucks is those madras lentils in a packet from Costco. Surprisingly good for ultimate laze.
sab
Leftover rotisserie chicken and leek soup. Much improved with diced potatoes.
satby
@E.: I think nutritious includes feeding the spirit
sab
@Suzanne: I love those, over rice.
ETA My local organic grocery (who knew Akron Ohio had such a thing) also has them.
bcw
Interestingly, a sloppy boeuf bourguignon is surprisingly easy.
A.
1/3stick butter
1.5lbs stew meat or cut-up chuck
~1/2 cup flour
pepper,salt
B. chopped up:
1 onion
3/4 cup carrots
1 lb mushrooms
C. spicing:
2 tablespoons ketchup
6 bay leaves
bottle red wine
D. bag frozen pearl onions
Instructions:
A. melt butter in big pot, shake meat, flour, pepper, salt in bag to coat, brown meat.
pot should be big enough meat can touch bottom
B,C. stirring, brown meat, throw in onion and when everything is browned add wine. Don’t burn flour.
As you get them ready add mushrooms. add spices
D. meanwhile, use a saucepan that can take it, on high and when hot at frozen pearl onions.
stir some. Once the water boils off the onions will brown rapidly, turn over until semi-blackened, toss in pot.
Simmer for 1.5-2 hours, then add carrots and cook for 40minutes more until carrots ready.
Eat. Tastes better reheated after cold.
Steeplejack
Warm-weather salad: chickpeas, black olives, scallions, feta cheese, vinaigrette dressing or even store-bought Italian. I like soaking the chickpeas and cooking them myself rather than using canned.
Also: red beans and rice.
Ella in New Mexico
Hatch Green Chile Stew with chicken or pork—
But since 90% of you all can’t purchase relatively fresh/frozen roasted green chile you’ll just have to come to New Mexico to try some ;-)
But my Mom’s “Spanish Rice” was a staple I made for our kids growing up for dinner and after school “snacks”. I usually used brown rice but lately I’ve used pearled barley because it’s higher in fiber and is a fantastic probiotic, resistant starch–
Browned ground beef, canned tomato sauce, onion(diced) garlic (minced), green bell peppers (diced), oregano, salt and pepper to taste, rice and topped with cheddar cheese.
And yes, as evidenced by my “recipe” you can see how I cook–no amounts or numbers I just go with the Zeigeist of how it tastes.
bcw
Chicken soup? whole chicken, white parts of 2-3 leeks, 5 carrots, 5 celery, salt, pepper, 1/3 box of pastina.
The more vegetables you can cram in the better. Add enough water to just cover the bird, heat, adding the vegies as ready, simmer 60-70minutes, pull out bird and peel meat off bones, put meet back in. You need to cut up and wash the leeks or you’ll get dirt.
satby
@satby: I forgot, the lentil salad can also be made with corn and green peas (I’ve used frozen and thawed) instead of or along with the diced tomatoes. It’s a kitchen sink salad, the base is the lentil, onion, bell peppers, lemon juice, and olive oil.
Dammit, I’m getting hungry now.
Omnes Omnibus
@bcw: No ketchup. Worcestershire sauce. A few more spices. More onion and fewer carrots. Otherwise that’s one of my go-tos as well.
Also easy. Guacamole. Ripe avocados. A little chopped, fresh jalapeno. A little chopped onion. A little lemon juice. Put in a bowl. Mash with a fork.
Kristine
Red lentils. Eggplant. Canned tomatoes/paste. Onions. Garlic. Various spices: cumin, berbere blend. A slug of pomegranate molasses. Let it cook down. I love it alone or with a starch like couscous.
trollhattan
“Uh-huh, uh-huh, he said, ‘ass bag.’ Uh-huh.”
Jeffro
Easiest thing in the world: season and grill, bake, or sauté some chicken, then put it in/on a
I have been doing complicated recipes far too often for far too long; my resolution for this year is to keep things simple here and try to pull Fro Jr into the kitchen while I do it, so that he knows how to make basic stuff for himself. He’s already a huge fan of making very simple chicken fried rice and ramen with chicken!
cope
Sweet and sour cabbage soup with cabbage, onion, canned tomatoes, stock, seasonings and maybe some browned slices of chicken sausage if I’m feeling flush.
ETA: almost forgot the carrots, my wife’s favorite soup veg.
Jeffro
@eversor: I LOVE making that in the crock pot! So easy and so good!
Ruckus
JC
You could feed an army on this kind of recipe.
I wish you had been the ship’s cook when I was in the navy. We had an amazing E7 head cook for the first couple months of the 2 yrs I spent on board that ship but then he retired with 30 in. He served it, you ate it and yes you actually liked it. No really, amazing food. It went downhill from there, less than a year later we almost had a mutiny over dinner. And no I’m not kidding, the lifers were pissed off and were the ones talking of mutiny.
Jeffro
@dmsilev:
@sab:
I do the same thing with chipotles in adobo sauce…no way can I use more than 1-2 at a time with the
tender palatesfolks I live with, so I just make Ziplocs w/ 1-2 chiles + a tablespoon of sauce each and freeze them for the next time around.Kristine
@Roger Moore: I make hummus from scratch as well—it’s not as creamy as store bought, but I prefer it that way. Scratch cooked garbanzos have more flavor and aren’t mushy—in fact they’re dry enough to grind for falafel. Haven’t tried making the tahini but that’s next on the agenda assuming a food processor can do the job.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Risotto with fresh peas, chives, parmesan and chicken stock. Add braised mushrooms if you like.
Jeffro
speaking of simple recipes and comfort food: I’ll be making sopa de fideo before too much longer…I think it’s going to be a hit here
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Jharp:
I’d be doing a true bolognese every week.
NotMax
Just a note that when using the Instant Pot, pre-soaking the beans is optional.
FelonyGovt
Olive tapenade (black and Kalamata olives, capers, lemon juice, thyme, mix it all up in the blender) with toasted bread or crackers.
NotMax
@Jharp
Chicken cacciatore. Also too, cabbage soup will use up some of that bounty.
I also use lotsa ‘maters when cooking up a big pot of a wintertime favorite, curried eggplant.
Suzanne
Right now, I am eating a dinner of strawberries and plain Greek yogurt. I am simple.
Kim Walker
cauliflower, carrots, chicken broth, coconut milk, curry powder and cumin. Cook until the veggies are soft. Blend it up how you like it (chunky or smooth). 6C soup- my own invention!
p.a.
Frittata of whatever you like, fresh or leftover. Don’t bust your balls flipping it, just finish it under the broiler.
Keith P.
@Roger Moore: The cooking water is the secret to creamy hummus. It really elevates the end result.
Benw
Potato, leek, and fennel soup. A big ol’ potato, 2 leeks, 2 fennel bulbs, some veggie broth, salt, and pepper. 6 ingredients, so simple even I only fuck it up half the time but when it works it’s so damn satisfying.
NotMax
@Suzanne
Strawberries in March? Decadent!
;)
PJ
@Ella in New Mexico: Zia’s Hatch green chiles (in a jar) are available at Whole Foods. I just made a batch of green chile stew with lamb last night.
NotMax
@Benw
And that’s when the fennel begin.
;)
Carlo Graziani
I’m not a vegetarian — perish the thought — but I do happen to know a few things to make that vegetarian friends can eat. Here’s a classic Italian pasta sauce that can be made by the vat, frozen in quart-sized zip-lock bags, and defrosted for easy mid-week meals:
(The proportions of the ingredients don’t really matter, don’t sweat it)
A couple of sweet onions
Two to four carrots, depending on the size
Two to four celery stalks,
Some garlic cloves, I would use four or so
A couple of 28 oz cans of preferably Italian peeled tomatoes.
A can of tomato paste can add vavavoom if you like, not mandatory.
Extra Virgin Olive Oil, don’t sweat the virginity, this is for sauteing, not for salad dressing.
Pour the canned tomatoes into a large bowl and smush them with a potato masher.
Chop the onion, medium, saute on medium heat.
Chop the carrot, add to the onion.
Chop the celery, add to the pan.
Mince the garlic, add to the pan, let it saute’ for no more than about a minute.
Add the mushed canned tomatoes.
If you have tomato paste add it now. If it’s in a can, I find that it’s best to use a can opener on both ends of the can and shove the wad of tomato paste out onto a cutting board, remove the can ends, and slide the tomato paste into the pan.
Add salt and pepper, to taste. When you read that in a recipe, that means that you should taste it.
Let the lot cook for about a half an hour.
Then it’s time to blend it. If you have an immersion blender lucky you! But don’t be an idiot (I have been an idiot!) Either transfer to a deep pot (or start off in a deep pot in the first place), or move the pan to the sink before you hit it with the immersion blender. Otherwise you will leave your silhouette on the wall behind you in lovely pasta-sauced colors.
Alternatively, transfer the sauce in batches to a food processor and process it.
About 2 cups makes a very satisfying dressing for 1lb of any pasta — spaghetti, penne, orecchiette, whatever. I would add some good-quality freshly-grated parmigiano directly on the pasta, and some advise some on the side, but I never saw the point.
Some fresh chopped basil is nice.
The recipe can be scaled up to arbitrary amounts. Really, if you like, you can make regimental quantities of the stuff if you buy zip-lock bags at Costco, and you have the freezer space that you are willing to commit for that long. Make sure that you squeeze the air out of each bag as best you can (a little bubble doesn’t matter).
Narya
I’m a Rancho Gordo bean club member, so I make two pots of beans at a time then freeze in portions. Dinner 4 nights/week is beans, a grain (Kamut, barley, farro, rice; made in batches and frozen in portions), whatever veggies from the farm share (often roasted and portioned), and some cheese. I’ve been throwing in a spice mix from Penzeys to change it up a bit night to night.
JoyceH
I don’t make stock, and the stuff sold in the store is bland, but I recently discovered Better Than Bouillon. It comes in jars, is a paste, and a variety of yummy flavors. I’ve been on Weight Watchers for a few weeks, and a few days ago, I created an easy ‘zero point soup’ with ground turkey, veggies and BTB.
Narya
PS—I never soak my beans; I just cook them til they’re done, with onion, garlic, and carrot.
zhena gogolia
@trollhattan: Haha, that was the first thing I noticed.
Dan B
@Carlo Graziani: My extras for tomato sauce are Fennel seeds smashed in a mortar and pestle or not, Herbes de Provence, and a bit of fish sauce especially the stellar Red Boat, to ramp up the umami and enhance the umami of the cheese. For company I grate Pecorino Romano con Tartufe (black truffles). And adding a decent red wine to the sauce makes a subtle variation.
Salty Sam
What, no love for Bubble’n’Squeak?
Pork and/or ham hock and/or bacon, stock with onions, lotsa black pepper, cabbage and or any greens, and quartered potatoes at the end. The longer the greens cook, the better. I like to use lots of stock- I can just drink the pot liquor and feel my strength return…
Wapiti
@zhena gogolia: I use a Betty Crocker dumpling recipe, cutting butter into the flour instead of shortening. The dumpling come out fine.
NotMax
@JoyceH
Better Than Bouillon is da bomb. Note: If never used it, refrigerate the jar after opening. Usually only chicken (and sometimes beef) in the markets here. One of these days will try ordering their mushroom base online (they also make a pork, an onion and also a lobster flavor, among others).
Jay
@Jharp:
Break up bag of frozen tomatoes, throw it in a pot.
Put it on simmer to reduce,
Stir somewhat often,
Then, make chilli, a tomato pasta sauce, a red curry, make cabbage roll soup, strain it for tomato soup or bottle it as posada.
I really don’t care about skins or seeds, that’s why floss was invented.
NotMax
@Jay
Two words: immersion blender.
prostratedragon
Well, all mine are here in some form. But then I’ve been thinking lately about how most dishes are variations on a few themes. My go-to mostly involve braising or simmering, for which I use an iron Dutch oven or heavy stock pot, respectively, although I have an Instapot. Have stock on hand most of the time, and sometimes make tomato soup from scratch, simmering with some herbs and garlic until it no longer resembles tomatoes in water, and serve with sprinkled cheese or a little cream.
Simplest: pan seared salmon, 10 ounce slice from the thick end of the filet, in a hot skillet with olive oil. Cook skin side down for a moment and then cover a couple more minutes. Result should be crunchy on the bottom and about medium rare. Serve over rice with vegs. Filling meal in the time it takes the rice to cook.
Kalakal
@Narya:
They’re great.
Duhakaman
Pinto beans, cornbread, coleslaw. I still love it. WVA public school lunch for 12 years and a memory shaker. We had it 3-4 times a week at school and home. With fried baloney and poor man’s gravy when times were good.
2nd choice–chicken liver fried in bacon grease. Down the road, down the road, down the road a piece.
realbtl
Beef. Water. Carroll Shelby’s chili mix. Crockpot. If you are energetic Rotell, onions and Pasilla peppers.
Sandia Blanca
Our easiest one-dish meal: Cut up some cabbage (red or green) and some potatoes (white, yellow, red, or sweet) and saute them together in a large pan. When they are mostly cooked, add some sliced or crumbled (precooked) sausage of your choice and heat until vegetables are soft and sausage is hot. You can season with rosemary, caraway seeds, or just salt and pepper. Add some apple cider vinegar to finish, if desired.
Uncle Jeffy
Bone-in pork chops (not too thick, trimmed of fat). Slice up a couple of apples (vertically, in wedges) and an acorn squash or two (cut in half vertically, scoop out seeds/fibrous center, then cut horizontally into 1/2 – to 1-inch slices. Put apple slices and squash in a Pyrex 10×13 baking dish, dot with butter and sprinkle on a goodly amount of brown sugar and some cinnamon, top with pork chops and bake at 350 until the chops are medium and the squash is moderately soft. Oh, wait – wasn’t this supposed to be healthy?
Jay
@NotMax:
I actually like seeing chunks of skins and seeds in tomato based stuff, let’s you know they used “real” tomatoes.
but then, I’m the guy who just wipes off the dirt from a garden carrot before eating it.
When we left Kamloops for the LML, we left about half the kitchen stuff behind. No room. Our kitchen is about 40sq feet, with a total of 3 cabinets and 8 drawers.
JoyceH
@NotMax: There’s also a garlic flavor! I use that one a lot, but hadn’t even heard about the lobster variety. I might have to give it a try. (They’re on Amazon if your local store doesn’t carry.)
BeautifulPlumage
I’m really liking white beans lately. They get so creamy when cooked. Latest batch was soaked overnight then cooked in chicken stock. When soft I added sauted carrots & onions, and some hunks of pork shoulder I had cooked in the crock pot the day before. The pork had been rubbed with a mix of salt, pepper, tumeric, smoked paprika, and garlic. Also used liquid smoke for a kalua pork flavor. Yum!
NotMax
@Jay
Small kitchen as well. I keep the immersion blender in a chest of drawers elsewhere. No law it must be stored in the kitchen.
;)
BeautifulPlumage
I never understood bay leaf. What does it add?
NotMax
@BeautifulPlumage
A subtle soupçon of earthiness.
Xavier
@karen marie: Tortillas. Or corn bread.
Craig
Freezer Ceviche. 8 med./lg frozen shrimp. 1 decent sized talapia fillet. 1/2 cup frozen corn. Chopped red pepper, green pepper, onion. 4 large lemons. 4 large juicy limes. Defrost and wash seafood and corn in warmish water baths while chopping veggies and squeezing citrus. Slice seafood into medium bits, and add to citrus juice in an appropriate pyrex bowl. If you don’t have enough citrus squeeze more, or use that lime juice that comes in a plastic lime to cover all the seafood. Cover with film and refrigerate for 1 hr. Add veggies, stir ,recover and back in the fridge for an hour. Drain and serve with restaurant style tortilla chips. Serves about 3 people. Just about everything is optional in this.
RSA
Yes! A friend recommended BTB as part of a recipe, and I was surprised at how much difference it made compared with bouillon cubes.
My sister mentioned doing this and it’s become my favorite easy lunchtime dish or dinner side. A quarter head of cabbage (green for better aesthetics, but red is fine too), sliced thinly, sauteed in olive oil, with whatever I feel like adding: more veggies, quinoa or another starch, sausage or maybe chicken, etc. Today it was some leftover deli salami (sliced into strips) from the freezer. A drizzle of something astringent once the cabbage has softened, vinegar or lemon juice, and you have a nice healthy meal.
BeautifulPlumage
@NotMax: isn’t that already there in the pinto beans?
Emma
Rice, kana chai (Chinese-style preserved olive leaves, can buy jars of it at any Asian/Chinese grocery), fried egg, boom. Maybe fry the rice in the kana chai first, if feeling up to it. Similarly, pasta tossed with kana chai, onions/shallots, garlic, and chili.
RSA
@Craig: Nice. Ceviche seems fancy, and it surprised me that it’s not hard to do it at home.
Betsy
I nuke or bake a sweet potato, cook some plain old white rice in a pot, and nuke some canned black beans, a good brand with lots of flavor. Then I put each on the plate, slather the steaming hot nice and sticky rice and the sweet potato with butter and dig in. Easiest, most nutritional meal for a working person. A little spoon ful of maple syrup or brown sugar on the sweet potato makes it a treat. Glass of milk on the side.
I also like to make a pot of red lentils. They melt down to a delicious, heartwarming mush. Add olive oil, or some fresh pork sausage links from the farm down the road for extra deliciousness. Or sauté a side mess of turnip greens or arugula in some bacon or sausage grease and serve that cooked goodness atop the lentils.
Toast some good rustic or French bread and butter it, and use that to mop up the last of the lentil-sausage mush from the hot bowl.
Betsy
@BeautifulPlumage: Tastes like sweet spice. If yours lack flavor, they may be old and stale. Crack one in half and sniff. It should smell like bay, sweet and aromatic. I keep a bay tree in a pot for the purpose of having fresh aromatic leaves .
NotMax
@BeautifulPlumage
Acts as more of an aromatic than the beans alone will.
Peale
Made some InstaPot carnitas on Sunday that were great. 3-4 pounds pork shoulder. 1 onion. 5 cloves of garlic. 3/4 cup of mainly orange juice with the juice of a lime. The rub was 1tsp cumin, x 1tsp oregano, x 1/4 tsp green chili pepper x 1/2 tsp cayenne. Pressure cook on high for 90 minutes. When its done, pull the meat apart. Ladle some of of the sauce in a pan on medium high heat and fry the meat in batches on one side as the sauce boils off. Do not stir or flip the meat. The point is to brown one side only.
When that’s done, reduce the remaining sauce by about 1/3 in the fry pan. Its at that point that you can add those things you add to make things hot and spicy. But I didn’t.
Jay
@NotMax:
first month in the LML, we lived in the Econoline High Top we moved in, with everything we kept, still stacked in the back, plus two cats and a litter box in the cab.
40 years of assorted kitchen stuff, collected over the years, abandoned.
then we basically alternated between van life, ( living in the cab) and “couch surfing” of a sort, until aspects of Covid settled out, and we managed to rent an apartment. 420sq feet.
to be honest, we are still in the “just surviving” mode, which sucks in your 60’s. Sad to say, I don’t eat these days. Today, breakfast, lunch and dinner was a tuna fish sandwich. At work, a breakfast sandwich, if I am lucky, a ham sandwich, yoghurt, a fruit, but I only manage to get lunch 2 maybe three days a week
a proper “supper”, 2 maybe 3 days a month.
Jay
@NotMax:
until the next day, in an enclosed elevator, then the beans win, ?
Xavier
Lentil soup, flavored with garlic, cloves, black pepper and lemon. Lentils and water, simmer with the garlic, cloves, pepper and a little Better Than Bouillon (no salt). When the lentils are tender, pulse it in a blender, serve with a lemon wedge, toasted 9 grain bread and a Chianti style wine.
BeautifulPlumage
@NotMax: @Betsy: ahhh, as an aromatic makes sense. Guess I need to get some fresh ones and experiment.
Benw
@NotMax: dammit I hate missing the pun but I can’t get this one! Argh
NotMax
@Benw
Say it aloud. Culinary jape of “And that’s when the fun’ll begin.”
Argiope
Late to the thread but: easy delicious soup with canned cannellini beans, Italian sausage, onion, kale, chicken broth, Penzey’s herbes de Provence. It’s a crowd pleaser. Sauté the sausage & onion, add the canned beans with the chicken broth & herbes. Bring to a boil & simmer about 30 minutes. Throw the kale in at the end for another 15. Mmmmmm.
Cathie from Canada
@bcw: Mark Bittman’s stew recipe doesn’t require flouring the meat first and I love it.
Just brown some stew beef in a pot until the edges of the pieces are a bit caramelized. Include salt, pepper and a chopped clove of garlic. Then set the meat aside and make an onion gravy (brown some chopped onions in butter, sprinkle on flour to make a roux, add enough beef broth until you have gravy. Flavour with some soy sauce and tsp of dijon mustard, shake of tabasco, some Worcestershire, and whatever else you want)
Then add the meat back into the gravy and let it all cook for an hour or more. Add a small chopped turnip (very important in a stew!) and other veggies (potatoes, carrots, whatever) and cook for another 45 minutes or more.
Make dumplings and enjoy!
Miki
Crazy late to the thread, but here’s my simple Salsa Pinto Beans recipe for the IP:
1 lb dry pinto beans, picked over and rinsed
2 tsp Better Than Bouillon Chicken Broth Base (veg broth base to make it vegan)
4 cups water
2 to 3 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium onion, chopped
1 16-oz jar of salsa
1 heaping tsp cumin
1 bay leaf
Add everything to pot – stir. Place lid on pot and set valve to sealing. Manual/high pressure – 75 to 90 minutes. NPR.
Lately I’ve re-discovered Large Lima Beans (aka Butter Beans), and have been making this recipe for Brothy Lima Beans & Greens. I sub spinach occasionally (just stir in), or another green if I’m feeling adventurous.
BobinPDX
Also late, but here’s something simple with a crock pot.
Chicken (I use thighs as they don’t dry out like breasts can)
Your favorite salsa.
Place chicken in crock, cover with salsa. Cook on low for 6 hours. Shred chicken and roll up in tortillas. For a little extra flavor, I’ll add some cumin and red pepper flakes.
Emily B.
My go-to is an Italian tomato and white bean dish that originally came from my grandmother’s spiral-bound edition of the Time-Life Foods of the World series.
Mince and saute a couple of cloves of garlic in olive oil. Add a cup of chopped tomatoes, a can of cannellini beans, a little chopped sage, and pepper, and cook on medium heat for a couple of minutes. Finish off with a generous dash of balsamic vinegar. Total comfort food.
fancycwabs
As long as you’re screwing around with your instant pot you should use it to make risotto:
Set your instant pot to saute and saute the onion in olive oil until it’s translucent. Add the mushroom and rice, and stir, then add the chicken stock, seal and cook for seven minutes on high pressure. Do a quick release, stir again, and add the parmigiano and some black pepper.
It’s a good bit of work, but it’s not nearly the work (or the cleanup) of risotto on the stovetop, and all the picky eaters in my house really love it.
SWMBO
I follow Glen and Friends on facebook watch and he does a lot of simple, easy to follow recipes.
This is simple, easy, tasty and I’ve made it a couple of times.
chef john chicken piccata recipe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsn1ionkHEU
SWMBO
JC. If you get tired of plain pinto beans, add a can of tamales. Heat through and serve with cornbread and salad. You’re welcome.
For those using bay leaf, be sure and take it out when you’re done cooking. Old people (like me) and young children can choke on it. I choked on a bay leaf at a restaurant and had to have the heimlich maneuver.