Keeping food simple

Stream lining anything makes it easier to manage.  This is why I like to keep my food simple.  If I was to make lots of difficult and sophisticated meals every week, it would cost a fortune and become a chore.  Equally, I have stopped doing that when people visit.  I am no longer trying to impress any one, and it makes people visiting less stressful.  I therefore like keeping food simple.  A simple meal can easily be made to look sophisticated with a nicely set table, a garnish, and good presentation.  Taste is more important.

When making food I therefore stick to these rules.

Use recipes with five or less ingredients when possible

The fewer ingredients in a recipe, the less there is to go wrong.  It also means that I have to buy and store less ingredients, which in turn saves me space and money.

A pasta with sauce is so easy to make with few ingredients

Buy good quality ingredients

If I am only cooking with a few ingredients I need to make sure that they are good quality as they have nothing to disguise them.  Examples are that I will buy good quality meat or use good quality vegetables from my garden.  My bread will use organic flour, and my sauces will be cooked from scratch rather than out of a jar.  The simple ingredients have to shine.

Have a pantry of staples and main ingredients that I use in most recipes

This might seem boring, but we use a limited amount of ingredients but still eat a very varied menu.  We just use the ingredient  in different ways.  The more ingredients that you buy, the more storage room will be needed.  It will also cost more, and need better management to make sure that things do not get wasted or go out of date.  To make our meals I use the same ingredients and supplement them with spices, herbs from the garden, and what ever I can grow or is in season and I can get from the food waste project.

I switch these ingredients depending on the season.  We eat cous cous in the summer, but rice in the winter. Another example is potatoes.  They will be cooked in different ways each time that I serve them and not repeated in a two week period.  How I serve potatoes changes with the seasons.  Having a pantry with a few basic ingredients means that you can always throw together a meal, even if you have very little to work with.

Make the same meal but switch it up with spices or sides.

I often make a kind of bolognaise or ragu type meal in the slow cooker.  This will then make 3 or 4 meals.  Chilli may be added to make nachos or a chilli con carne.  The bolognaise sauce will be put in a lasagne or be served with spaghetti.  With or without spices it will be made into pasties or a pie.  The sky is the limit to how a meal like this can be served and changed.  Keeping food simple saves so much time and effort.

Batch cook

I don’t often batch cook  full meals, but I will make things that will enable me to make meals easily at a later time.  Example are making waffles to have at a later date, compote, cooking a big pot of rice or mashed potato. Yoghurt might need using up.  I can make bagels, pizza bases, flat breads, scones, etc, to put in the freezer.  Although they are made from just yoghurt and flour,  they all taste very different due to the spices and the herbs that I use.  A big batch of dough is therefore made, and I will add spices and fruit, wild garlic and cheese, herbs, or use it on it’s own.   I am keeping the ingredients simple and few, but batch cooking. These will be good for different meals all week/month.

Another example is potatoes.  I will make a big pan of mash to use in lots of different ways.  Some will be turned into fish cakes, some will make potato scones, some will be used to thatch a cottage pie, some will have cheese added to it as a side dish, for example.

Meal plan around your responsibilities and life

If I know I am going to have a busy day I will plan to have something made in the slow cooker, or something quick to prepare like fajitas.  On the days that I have plenty of time I will make something that takes more time and effort.  When I know that we can not both eat at the same time, I will make something that can easily be warmed up, or something that is cold.  We are then less likely to pick up a take away, and more likely to eat a proper meal rather than snack.

Look for old fashioned recipes.

I love recipe books from the 40s to the 50s as they were often simple and frugal due to rationing.  Even recipes from the 60s and 70s had fewer ingredients and following them helps in my quest to keep food simple.  Many people now frown at the old fashioned meals.  Not many people would like to be served Egg and chips for a main meal, or macaroni cheese  There is a kind of snobbery about it.  I see it as real food without the UPF.  I like meals from Victorian times as well and have learned a lot about preserving from recipes from time past.

Make Soups and Casseroles

I call these Pauper stews.  They are usually cooked in the slow cooker.  We throw in what ever I have, including fridge gravel.  They are nourishing, healthy, and versatile.  There is nothing better on a cold day.  They can be made with meat, with pulses or beans, or literally anything that you can find.  Some times I will put rice or pasta in them to bulk them out.  Soups will also keep for a number of days if stored correctly. and can be served with different things like croutons, bread, flat bread, or cheese on toast, for example.

Don’t try making too many new recipes

I probably introduce 3 or 4 new recipes a month into our meal plan.  Sometimes there are more when I am doing a no spend challenge and using up what we already have.  That can lead to some strange concoctions, but has led to some meals being added permanently to our meal plan.  An example of this is when I only had chorizo, cheese, some left over mash, and some cooked onion.  With the help of tomato puree and some smoked paprika, we made some gorgeous pasties that we now make regularly when we go away.

Cooking from scratch, foraging, and growing my food helps me to keep my food simple.  There are no long lists of unrecognised ingredients.  They also keep my costs down.  Making food, and eating lovely tasting dishes does not have to be complicated.  Everything in the world seems fast and complicated at the moment.  By keeping my food simple, I feel that my life has a more simple vibe, and I am definitely healthier.  How do you keep your food simple?