I love cookbooks. I have hundreds of them – plant based, vegan, vegetarian, even non-vegetarian (for inspiration). Thanks to so many talented cookbook authors, I have learned so much and am forever grateful. While I’ve benefited from their attention to detail and inspired ingredients, I recently got to thinking – what if cookbooks have it backwards? What if recipes should come at the very end of meal preparation, especially for those of us who want to spend less time preparing food and more time enjoying it?
Rather than starting with a list of recipes and ingredients that require careful planning, shopping and prepping (sometimes for hours), what if we had another choice? What if we could prep individual ingredients all at the same time, recipe-free and with ease, and later in the week assemble a delicious and healthy dinner in minutes, building a new creation every night without a recipe?
For those of us enjoying a plant-based diet, why is recipe-free a good idea?
More Seasonal
Most cookbooks offer year round recipe options that might not be easy to find or affordable during the off season at our local grocery. What’s the problem with recipes that feature ingredients that are not in season? Recipes don’t know what month it is. Asparagus in November may be chewy (unless it is peeled taking more effort) and will likely cost more. The size of zucchini will vary by season so if you prepare something that calls for 3 zucchini at the wrong time of year, you may be over or underestimating. The flavor difference between freshly picked tomatoes and herbs vs foods that have traveled a long way and ripened en route is very noticeable. For those foods you prefer to buy organic, the cost can be lower in season and as much as 2-3x higher in the off-season.
Less Work
I remember preparing a gourmet recipe, seafood lasagna, for a holiday event many years ago when I was still learning how to cook and still eating fish. I followed the recipe steps, one at a time. The recipe took me over 5 hours to prepare! I knew there had to be a better way. Even when I shifted to preparing plant-based recipes, I found that most recipes as written were still taking too much time and effort for everyday meal planning.
Less Food Waste
Individual recipes often don’t take into account likely food waste. A half of a can of something may require that you store the rest, some spoiling before getting eaten. A unique ingredient may be the star of a dish on Sunday and the remainder may wilt in the back of the crisper drawer days later. And if you pick several recipes and try to build a menu list for the week to save time, by Wednesday, life often gets busy and a recipe not eaten may leave you with unused meals or ingredients and more waste. By most estimates, we toss as much as 30% of our food. That’s not ok.
Recipe-Free Tips – Quick and Easy
I approach much of plant-based meal planning differently, starting with what types of meals I want and what ingredients I have and work backwards. Instead of starting with the recipe, I start with the available food and a simple goal: a delicious meal, prepared with a few simple steps right before dinner. I ask myself, what it would take to get a delicious healthy meal on the table most nights in 15 minutes or less with little effort.
Here are 5 plant-based strategies to help you be more recipe-free in 2020.
1. Keep staples on hand
Stock up a cabinet or pantry with some packed key ingredients so you can make a meal without going to the store. Any easy place to start:
- legumes (no salt added canned and/or dried beans (i.e. black beans, lentils, chickpeas)
- grains (i.e. brown rice, oats, quinoa, barley, farro, etc.)
- favorite spices and no- salt blends
- unsweetened plant-milks
- condiments such as mustards, vinegars and nutritional yeast.
- plant-based ingredients requiring refrigeration such as tofu, miso and tempeh.
2. Stock up on some basics
For the most flexibility, and to make sure I never need to shop when preparing a meal, I always try to have on hand some vegetables and fruits.
- onions (white, yellow, sweet, red, shallots and/or scallions)
- garlic (peeled in fridge or even frozen is ok)
- carrots, celery and mushrooms
- potatoes and sweet potatoes (at least 2 varieties of each)
- dark greens (such as kale, chard) and some cruciferous veggies (such as cauliflower, broccoli, Brussels Sprouts)
- bananas and organic apples
3. Shop seasonal
When shopping for fresh vegetables and fruits, look for in season and local options. Organic will likely be more affordable when in season. (Am I the only one who remembers waiting until March for the oranges to appear in the supermarket when they were in season before we started importing them from other countries?) Seek a local farmers market or better yet plan ahead and sign up for a CSA to deliver vegetables to you weekly. For example, one week when the organic heirloom tomatoes in my CSA box were overflowing and amazing, and the zucchini still abundant, I let it inspire me to make zucchini lasagna. I always grab at least a few seasonal veggies or fruits to inspire fresh flavors and save money, even with organic options.
4. Enjoy Frozen
More than just a popular movie, frozen is a great way to keep nutritious fruits and vegetables on hand. They are often picked at the peak of ripeness, can offer affordable organic options, and take only a few minutes to get onto your table. If you shop once a week, this can be great for end of week dinners.
5. Batch Cook and Smart Leftovers
Unfortunately, we are all experts at multitasking, mostly thanks to our phones. Why not put that skill to use? Weekly meal planning and prep is a great option for some who likes a variety of meals and is willing to plan ahead. For anyone like me who tries to make plans and then life happens, I like to batch cook and prep ingredients, not meals, to the point where each are ready to be eaten on their own, a true mise en place, and then assemble dinner. This is especially helpful for starchy foods that take longer to prepare.
Prepare white, red and/or sweet potatoes all at the same time any number of ways – whole, baked fries, mashed, and even as waffles (great breakfast). Making a pot of rice? Cook quinoa at the same time. Cutting up peppers? Make 2x as much for a snack. Boiling greens? Use the water as base for a pot of lentil soup. Chop vegetables the same size and roast oil-free. Make a new sauce or dressing each week for vegetables, potatoes or salad. Chop up your greens. Toss your dried beans, oatmeal or yogurt into the Instant Pot.
When it’s dinner time, you’ll have a fridge full of cooked delicious food that just needs your unique way to combine them. Roasted squash, quinoa and chickpeas to dress a salad. Leftover lentil soup and some grains topped with mashed sweet potatoes makes for a great shepherd’s pie in 15 minutes. You get the idea. You now have hundreds of recipes waiting to be invented by you in 10 minutes
Kitchen Confidence
I still use recipes and cookbooks often. I am always discovering new favorite recipes to include in my rotation of healthy meals for family and friends and to share with others how easy and delicious our plant-based lifestyle can be. There will always be a place for recipes for that special dish, that ‘what do I do with jackfruit’ moment, and that go-to recipe when you are trying to inspire others to take this plant-based journey with you. And once you make something you truly love, it will no doubt become a family recipe thanks to your special tweaks after you make it your own. I may someday even write a cookbook myself just to keep track of all I have learned about preparing whole plant-foods in simple healthy ways (and often without recipes).
Beyond recipes, recipe-free strategies ensure that a missing ingredient can be substituted with ease, over-seasoned sauce can be tweaked, and a fridge of leftovers can have new life. In the Kitchen Confidence portion of my Eat to Heal coaching program, I share several strategies that I learned during my Chef and Nutrition Educator training, by participating in several plant-based immersion programs, referencing the amazing talented cookbook authors who share generously in their books and online and just through my own experience cooking this way every day for 10 years. I still recommend several cookbooks to others looking for ways to get started or for specific recipe inspiration, though I find that many vegan recipes may need to be modified to be more healthy.
But in our home, if it is a weeknight, and you said what’s for dinner, I will probably say I don’t know, let’s see what we have and go from there. I will tell you after dinner what we made!
