What are the foods that everyone here eats day to day?
I'm looking for more to add to my arsenal.
In my head there's a big difference between staple foods and the kind of food that you make when guests come over.
I suppose it's an increased emphasis on being easy/practical to make, or make in bulk as well as as nutrition. I guess it's the staples that largely decide how the kitchen is stocked too.
Beans and lentils. Could eat them for every meal 24/7/365
I love beans and lentils? How do you cook them? I really need to make dahl curry again, it's been a while!
Dal, chole, rajma, rice, and roti are always my go to when I'm not feeling like cooking anything elaborate.
Surprised no one's saying tempeh. I've been eating a laughable amount lately. You can cut it en julienne and poach it in stock with some spices for a protein-rich grain replacement, so I often have that with some rocket in a wrap.
Tempeh is great but kinda expensive where I live so I only buy it occasionally. But I love it otherwise, could eat a whole slab "raw" (as far as a fermented food can be raw)
My breakfast is almost always:
- A very spicy pepperoni (the paprika like plant, not 🐮)
- a tomato
- some cucumber
- bread with hummus
- a different vegan spread but it looks like I'm settling on a cream cheese with herb (again 🌾not 🍼)
- turkish olives (marmarabirlik)
My lunch when I'm not at home and even typically at home is bulgur salad:
- 3 parts of the coarsest bulgur to 4 parts water by volume. Add salt and bring to boil, then turn off, let it cool on the stove with a lid on.
- dice: tomato, leek, pickled cucumber, red paprika and/or whatever else you like
- once bulgur is at most luke-warm stir it so the drier bulgur ln top gets mixed in with the wetter bulgur. It still takes water while cold, so don't worry about homogeniety. Add loads of tomato paste and paprika paste (I go for 50/50 but it's up to you). Like loads. Whatever spices you want, I typically go for pepper, rose paprika, the mediterranean combo (thyme, basil, oregano and rosemary) and cumin. Gotta watch out with the cumin though, you can't really overdo the other spices but cumin has a very strong flavor. Also pul biber because I like it spicy.
- dump olive oil all over it again hard to overdo and add lemon juice, vinegar or my favorite variant: pickle juice.
- Parsley. Loads of it. Impossible to overdo, the arabic variant is mainly parsley with some bulgur. Doesn't matter which type or how finely diced, I buy deep frozen because it's already cut up and I dump half a box into it, but obviously fresh is better.
- mix it all and taste it. It should be a bit too spicy and salty since we're gonna add all the veg and a bit too dry since it will soak up the veg juices later. You don't want a weird slosh later at the bottom but you can dump it or try to mix it in if there is.
- mix in the diced veg and some chickpeas and let it sit on the fridge. I typically go for 50/50 veg and bulgur.
There are loads of variants obviously, but the main ingredients are tomato&paprika paste, olive oil, some kind of souring agent, PARSLEY(important!), veg. Seriously though don't forget the parsley.
It keeps at least a week in the fridge so it's perfect for meal prepping, it's eaten cold so perfect to pack while away, it has carbohydrates veg and protein (mainly the chickpeas but bulgur has a bit as well), and it doesn't make me feel drowsy like when I eat too much of some other carbs (looking at you noodles).
I love my bulgur salad.
Tofu, soy curls, tvp, rice, black beans, lettuce tomato onion garlic. That list is probably 90 percent of my diet.
Most common dinners are crispy tofu (in various ways; citrus, salt+pepper, Mongolian) or salad (lpts of varieties here; 'chicken' salad with soycurls, black bean salad, warm grain salad probably being the top 3)
These sound great!
How do you make the crispy tofu? Do you cut into cubes and then dip in flour + herbs and spices?
Flour tends to not get crispy, starch is better.
In general, I'll press the tofu, cube it, toss it in starch, pan fry with oil, then toss with salt+pepper or other seasonings, or top with a sauce. Most common sauce is something like:
dab of oil, briefly fry minced garlic, ginger, red pepper flakes
1/4 cup lemon juice
3 tbsp brown sugar
tbsp each of: soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil
finish with tbsp starch in 1/4 cup water
Sometimes add extra seasoning to sauce, like 5 spice
I have three meals on rotation:
- Oatmeal = instant oats, Chia seed, hemp hearts, and either jam, fruit (fresh/frozen/dry) or sugar.
- Noodles (rice or vermicelli) + peanut/soy/hot pepper sauce + veg
- Rice + bean slop (also includes legumes) + veg
These sound great!!! Our breakfasts are very similiar, I have oats with chia seeds, hemp seeds, sliced banana and cinnamon usually!
How do you make your bean slop? Just fry them with a bunch of spices?
Bean is typically beans that have been soaked and then cooked in the pressure cooker. I typically cook them in tomato/broth and then add different spices depending on how I feel!
Pressure cooker stuff (Instant Pot here, but anything works)!
Beans are dirt cheap and homemade refried-style beans are fantastic. Don't be shy with the oil (neutral/canola, avocado, refined coconut all great). MSG also helps. Play around with pinto and black ratios (or go more exotic!).
Add to that some Mexican style rice --- toast in a pan (before putting in rice cooker) with tomato paste, veggie bouillon, salsa, whatever, and then cook in rice cooker as usual. I like jasmine the best for this.
Can't go wrong with Mexican style beans and rice IMHO. (And in addition, you can feed them to dinner guests if you like --- who doesn't like to build their own burritos?).
1000% agree on instant pot. Every Sunday, I make myself something in my instant pot. It could be a pasta dish, a curry, etc. it’s so good for making a big low effort meal/dish that leaves me enough leftovers for a few days worth of lunches/dinners, and it never requires a lot of active cooking time
It's also super easy to make, and so inexpensive! I can't handle gluten but I used to make it so often.
the dry vital wheat gluten keep for years, freezing would just be an extra step.
i just add water until it's a thick paste and scoop bits into an oiled frying pan on med.
Most days I eat pretty much the same thing for breakfast and lunch and only really vary my dinner
Breakfast its oats with a banana microwaved then I add frozen berries to it
Lunch I eat beans and rice.
I've described it in other posts but I like to take 1 cup of beans and 3 cups of water and blast it for 1 hour in the pressure cooker. Then I open it and put it into saute mode and add mix-ins and let it simmer for 20 minutes. I use a rice cooker for rice.
Some of my favorite mixes are can of chopped tomatoes, home made taco seasoning
Tomato paste, curry powder, ginger garlic paste and frozen vegetables
I do not feel well or satiated if I don't eat at least some rice and beans every day!
That sounds great, it's making me think I should get some kind of pressure cooker. What kind of rice do you eat?
If I am making Persian or Indian food then I use basmati, if I am making Mexican or Chinese style food I use Jasmine. I grew up eating only Persian food so I tend to fall back on that most of the time
My slavic blood might be showing, but I consume plenty of root veggies. Carrots, potatoes, beets, parsnips, kohlrabis, what have you. Also cabbage. All these are usually dirt cheap too.
I can share one pseudo-recipe, for carrots. A super easy but very comfy side meal: cube the carrots, put in some (not too much) water with salt, cook for like 15-20min. Throw in green peas (frozen or canned), then add some potato starch (preferably by premixing it with water before adding it to the cooking pot so it doesn't clump). Stir vigorously to make sure the water gets a nice creamy consitency. You can add herbs like marjory too. Very tasty, sweet side for savory dishes.
rice and udon noodles mostly. also sourdough bread.
