Inspire me

[ChrissieJ93]

I’ll be the first to admit, I’m lazy. I’ve been looking at cooking subscription boxes. So it’s a few simple steps and there’s an amazing meal. Some of them looked great. But the price tag doesn’t agree with my bank. I’m looking for quick easy meals that don’t taste like I’m chewing grass. I don’t mean to offend anyone but I like flavour and colour.

Thanks for reading x

[TheAwfulToad]

You might want to look at the way Chinese cooking works. The typical routine is to prepare a lot of dishes - somewhere between five and eight for a family - and keep them in the fridge for the next 2-3 days. These are often very simple and rapid, such as vegetables fried with some basic seasoning, or one-pot recipes, so preparing them takes little time. More importantly, they can be reheated with little loss of texture and flavour.

The idea is that you then come home from work, take a selection out of the fridge, put them in the microwave or give them a quick stir-fry (some are designed to be eaten cold, similar to an Italian antipasto), and just sit down and eat. It's pretty efficient!

[andyswarbs]

I tend to cook a big pot once a week. I eat some straight away, some goes into a plastic pot in the fridge for the next day. The rest goes into similar portion sized pots in the freezer. Cooking a pot up tends to take an hour, including chopping veg. So one hours work keeps me going all week.

It is a very cheap way of liviing. My pot often starts with lentils and water which take around 15 mins to cook through. If I was using dried whole beans then would probably need soaking overnight first. However for ease these can be as simple as a can of ready-cooked chick peas etc, a tray of these can usually bought for next to nothing prices. Also add a sprinkling of chai seeds, quinoa or pot barley - these add great body and nutrition.

Put the heat on under the pot, add a flavouring base eg cumin, coriander, turmeric, black pepper in generous amounts. If you want a herby flavour thyme, organo, marjoram are great.

Then add chopped onion and garlic and ginger. Don't worry about chopping too much, quick and easy rough chopping rules okay.) Then add harder veg such as root veg such as potatoes, carrots, sweet potatoes, chopped stems of broccoli and leaves of cauliflower. Whatever veg you have in the cupboard or is cheap to buy. Continue adding more water as you add veg (which can be pre-boiled from a kettle) and keep the pot simmering.

When you have added all the veg you are aiming to get the pot around 2/3rds full. Always make sure there is enough water to just cover the veg. Use a blitzer device on some of the veg to help break down the larger chopped veg. (Be careful you don't want boiling water spilling everywhere including over you.)

Now add any greens, such as chopped broccoli florets, spinach and mushrooms. Cover for the last few mins, perhaps 5 minutes only.

Check seasoning eg add salt & black pepper depending on your palate. (If you are used to an oily diet then adding creamed coconut can give you a creamier dish.)

Note this kind of recipe does NOT require oil and according to plant-based doctors such as Dr Joel Fuhrman is at amongst the healthiest styles of cooking.

If you want to you can reuse this kind of veg pot into things like burritos, taco shells. Just add sides of rice and salad to make this into a meal to share with friends at the drop of a hat.

Note of de-freezing. I just put this into a microwave for fast thawing and then finish off in a pan stirring and adjusting for taste again. Because it contains no meat/dairy there is so very little risk of poisoning that I don't worry how long things have been in my freezer.