A Good Dish

making food simpler

Cooking While Staying Put At Home: Some Ideas and Easy Recipes

Split Pea Soup with Vegetables
Pinched Stoneware Bowls by Emily Schroeder Willis

Now that we find ourselves hunkered down at home (sheltering in place, working from home, staying put) for who knows how long, let’s push aside anxiety and talk about what to cook. Our challenge now, beyond staying well and at home, is how to cook daily meals while doing as little grocery shopping as we can. You’ll be surprised, I think, just how far your current supplies can go. If you didn’t manage to shop before, delivery and mail order are still options. Many grocery, big box and online stores will deliver, (although it may not be immediate with the current demands), so even if you can’t get out, you can get groceries. Check with your local grocer.

A few weeks ago, I suggested some foodstuffs to have on hand and some to make ahead to put away. Sometimes the most comforting foods are the simplest to make. Rice or pasta with just butter and salt or olive oil and garlic is so delicious. Ramp it up with frozen peas or arugula, add some beans, frozen shrimp, tinned tuna, anchovies or cheese and herbs and, well, yum yum! Nourishing soups can be particularly soothing both to make and to eat.

Bean and salsa nachos

Except for the occasional walk while trying to stay away from others, we have been holed up in our apartment for almost 2 weeks. I’ve been trying to make simple but nutritious meals in large enough quantities that we can alternate eating leftovers and freshly cooked meals. To share some ideas, this is what I’ve made in the past week:

    • Lentil Soup with a green salad (The Washington Post recently had a particularly good recipe)
    • Lemon garlic butter baked fish with sautéed broccoli and baked sweet potatoes
    • Nachos made with a can of beans, jar of salsa, shredded pepper jack and sliced pickled jalapeños served with carrot and cucumber sticks
    • Cavatappi pasta with the Bon Appetit kale pesto recipe alongside a fennel salad
    • Vegetarian chili (my riff on Lucinda Scala Quinn’s much loved recipe from Mad Hungry) made with gorgeous beans from Rancho Gordo, yellow rice and kale
    • Split pea soup with roasted parsnips for munching on the side
    • Bean salad made with chopped raw veggies and scarlet runner beans, also from Rancho Gordo (my favorite source of beans), with a garlicky vinaigrette 
Easy bean salad with chopped veggies

Other recipes waiting to be made are wild rice salad with nuts and dried cherries, black bean soup with cornbread, vegetable nori rolls with miso soup and edamame from the freezer, stir-fried rice with leftover or frozen vegetables and dosas with a spicy potato filling. (Tejal Rao recently published a very good, easy dosa recipe in The New York Times and it only has a few ingredients if you want to give it a try). After that, my son and I have big plans to try making sourdough bread, pizza dough and crackers. In fact, we started our yet-to-be-named starter yesterday. Wish us luck!

Cavatappi with kale pesto

There are some meals that require no recipes and can be pulled directly from the freezer or pantry. Frozen salmon burgers with kimchi, vegetable dumplings with dipping sauce and a shredded cabbage salad, grilled cheese sandwiches with baby carrots and mushroom ravioli with a little butter and any green left in the fridge as well as the above mentioned pasta or rice. Dried fruit will make a tasty compote as well as take the place of fresh fruit in yogurt and smoothies (soaked first to reconstitute) if need be. And although I love to cook most days, I am perfectly happy to take a break with a grilled cheese sandwich or quesadilla, yogurt with nuts and fruit, some crackers with almond butter or some hummus or guacamole and a bowl of baby carrots for an easy meal. 

Recent delivery from Rancho Gordo

Friends have told me they are doing more cooking and baking while staying put. My pal Dale, in Maine, just sent photos of her delicious looking sheet pan pizza while my neighbor, Reva, told me her family was tackling pot pie. In Brooklyn, my friend Esther has been baking banana and pumpkin breads. Anne, in DC, made the above mentioned lentil soup recipe and loved it so much she sent it to me. Not only do we have more time now to cook but cooking can be very grounding and comforting. What are you eating while home bound? Share your favorites with the rest of us! It is a very strange moment we find ourselves in right now but perhaps we can use the time to try a new recipe or prepare an old favorite to nurture our families and ourselves. Please, please stay home if at all possible (if you have to go out, take isolation and distance from others seriously) and please stay well in this new unfamiliar world.

Emily Schroeder Willis is a member of the cooperative Objective Clay. Since the NCECA conference was cancelled for health safety, many potters who would have sold pots there are holding online sales. This is a good way to support artists who would have held sales at the conference. The Objective Clay online sale runs through March 27th.

Split pea soup
Pinched Stoneware bowls by Emily Schroeder Willis

Don’t Panic-Prepare! What To Do Now To Get Food Ready In Case You’re Stuck Home

Freshly made chimichurri
Earthenware bowl by Ayumi Horie

The current threat of an epidemic of coronavirus has sent consumers into a shopping frenzy. Drugstores in our neighborhood have been sold out of Zinc lozenges and Clorox wipes for days. And if you shop evenings at Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods, whole shelves have been depleted of rice, pasta, canned beans and soup. I’ve seen cases of water and toilet paper being delivered to apartments in volumes that indicate people are scared the supply chain is about to break. Even Amazon is sold out of Cold-Eeze and Purell! 

Whole Foods on Columbus Avenue yesterday

Worrying can’t help you but it doesn’t hurt to be prepared without hoarding or panicking. Carla Lalli Music published a thoughtful post in Bon Appetit on what to stock up on in case of quarantine. Her list includes the usual suspects – rice, beans, pasta, tinned fish, soup, tomatoes, olive oil, coffee, nut butter, dried fruit and frozen vegetables – as well as others that you might not have thought of – fermented vegetables, butter, miso, yogurt, eggs, flour, coconut milk and hard cheeses. I keep a pretty well stocked pantry ordinarily but I admit I doubled up on some of these items just in case. And I am not even sure what I mean by just in case – a gap in the supply chain or stores being closed? Although it seems unlikely, it is possible we will get sick or quarantined. If so, I have staples (and our usual shelves full of various bottles of wine and liquor, for medicinal purposes, of course), and it wouldn’t hurt for you to do the same. What is the downside of stocking up? Perhaps you won’t have to shop for a few weeks.

Homemade applesauce Maiolica bowl by Stanley Mace Andersen

You don’t really need me to tell you how to handle this situation but here are a few suggestions. Ahead of any quarantine, make yourself (or buy) some pesto (without basil, use kale or arugula), chimichurri, kimchi, applesauce, sauerkraut and stock. Those can either be frozen or will last in the fridge for many weeks. If you do get stuck at home, here are some reminders/recipes of what you can prepare without a lot of fresh foods. With some cabbages, carrots, beets and fennel in your fridge, you can easily make fresh salads for quite some time. If you have onions, garlic, herbs and spices along with lentils, beans and grains, you can make lentil or bean soups, grain salads or bowls, rice and beans, lentil or bean chili, fried rice and curries of all sorts. With a bag of flour, you can make bread, pizza or pasta (you’ll have plenty of time). Store some seeds and oats in your larder and you can make hot cereal (some fruit spread and nuts will help), granola and crackers indefinitely. And with eggs and cheese in your fridge, there are omelets, frittatas and lasagna in your future. Great if there is no quarantine – you’ll have plenty of prepared foods to eat for weeks!

Curried Lentil Soup
Porcelain bowl by Andy Brayman

Most importantly, as all the news sources say, try to boost your immune system with healthy eating, exercise and supplements, wash your hands often and keep those hands away from your face. No one can tell yet whether warm weather will help diminish the virus but we’ll hope so. Of course, the best outcome would be containment. But as our very smart pediatrician told me, some contagion is inevitable but building your health and being prepared is do-able.

Rice pasta with pesto and arugula
Bowl by Silvie Granatelli

Black Bean Soup – Tasty, Nutritious, Simple To Make And Easy To Vary

Black Bean Soup
Earthenware cup by Mark Pharis

More than three months ago, there was a small gas leak in one of the apartments in our building and Con Edison turned off all the gas. Without that gas, we have neither a working stovetop nor an oven. Now it looks like we might not have the gas back for at least 4-6 months or longer because the building needs to replace all 4 gas risers, not a tiny job. This is not unheard of here  but it certainly is inconvenient. All of our cooking now happens on a single electric burner or in the toaster oven or our trusty rice cooker. As you might imagine, I have been making a lot of one pot dishes, particularly soup. We’ve enjoyed lentil, split pea, pozole and my new current favorite, black bean.

Black bean soup is made from black turtle beans, nutritionally high in fiber, protein, iron and magnesium. You can season it many ways but I am partial to a combination of the southwest style, using oregano and chilis, and the more Caribbean style, using cumin and orange juice. As we try to include vegetarian meals in our home, bean soups are becoming a weekly staple.

Try to buy your beans from a source with big turnover so they are fresh

This black bean soup recipe does double duty; You serve it once as soup and then a couple of days later you can serve it over rice or in a burrito for a different meal. It is quite flavorful, easily varied depending on the ingredients you have on hand and may be topped in many ways. Because you blend it in the pot, you can control whether you want it chunkier or smoother. If you don’t have an immersion blender yet, a decent one is very reasonable. It will make soup, sauce and other blending jobs so much easier than transferring cups of hot liquid to the blender!

You probably have all the ingredients you need to make this soup and if you don’t, they are easily acquired or can be replaced with others. For example, if you don’t have a green pepper, you could use a jalapeño or two, a can of chopped green chilis or even a red pepper. No sherry or Madeira? Leave it out or add a splash of leftover red wine or vinegar or orange juice. You might even like it better that way. Don’t be put off by the long list of ingredients – the actual work is quite minimal. And the variety of toppings you can add to individualize your bowl are many – chopped cilantro is the usual and delicious but don’t overlook some chopped fresh avocado or a blop of guacamole, crumbled Cojita cheese (even another mild variety would work) or sour cream, pickled onions, lime wedges for squeezing in juice, cayenne pepper or hot sauce if you want more heat and toasted pumpkin seeds for crunch. A little variety and choice in toppings make a flavorful soup even more appealing.

Black Bean Soup with cilantro
Earthenware cup by Mark Pharis

BLACK BEAN SOUP

  • 1 lb. dry black turtle beans, soaked overnight and drained
  • 2 TBs olive oil
  • 1 large onion, finely diced
  • 1 green bell pepper, finely diced
  • 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 2 tsps dried oregano
  • 1 tsp dried thyme
  • 2 tsps ground cumin
  • 2-3 stalks celery, chopped
  • 2-3 carrots, chopped
  • 10 cups stock (vegetable or chicken) or water or a combination
  • 1 tsp kosher or sea salt
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper
  • 1 TB chipotle in adobe sauce, optional
  • 1 TB (more to taste) Sherry, Madeira or red wine (or red wine vinegar or orange juice, if you don’t use want to use alcohol)

Soak the beans overnight in at least 8 cups of water. If you don’t have time to soak, it is okay but you will have to cook the whole pot longer for the beans to soften.

When ready to cook, drain and set beans aside while you sauté the vegetables.

Heat the oil in a stockpot until shimmering and then add the onion, reduce the heat and cook slowly until translucent. Add the pepper, carrots, celery, garlic and bay leaves and cook another 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the herbs and spices, cook one more minute and then add the drained beans plus 10 cups of liquid. Bring to a boil, lower to a simmer and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, for about an hour and a half or until the beans start to soften.

Once the beans are soft enough to pierce easily with a fork, add in the salt and pepper, chipotle in adobo and sherry or whatever acidic liquid you are using. Cook about 15-20 minutes until the flavors are blended, stirring occasionally.

Use an immersion blender to purée part or as much of the soup as you like blended. Taste to adjust seasonings and ladle into bowls.

Serve with chopped cilantro, lime wedges, guacamole or avocado chunks, hot sauce, crumbled cojita cheese or sour cream and toasted pumpkin seeds.

Serves 6, keeps about 3-4 days in the refrigerator and freezes well. Leftovers can be heated and served over rice with the any of the same accompaniments.

Making Miso Soup Is Quick And Easy!

Miso soup with vegetables and tofu
Earthenware bowl by Lisa Orr

Miso soup is one of the simplest and one of the most soothing soups out there – both easy to make and satisfying to eat. It may contain vegetables and tofu or it may be broth alone. I think of it as the vegetarian version of chicken soup when you need something comforting or healing. Even when the weather is warm and another hot soup would be too heavy, miso is light but substantial enough to make a healthy meal. A typical Japanese breakfast includes miso soup – it is a tasty option on a cool morning and an easy way to add more veggies to your diet.

Different varieties of miso paste
The glass jars are good for storage in the fridge

Technically, miso is fermented soybean paste and ranges in varieties from light to dark, from delicate to robust. It adds umami, that extra dimension to a taste profile, both salty and savory. Miso can live in your refrigerator almost indefinitely so it is always there when you don’t know what else to cook. I learned to use miso right out of college when the Kushi Institute offered an introductory macrobiotic cooking class in my neighborhood. It was a moment when Japanese cooking was taking over Manhattan and beginning to replace Chinese as the major Asian restaurant trend. Miso soup in a little lacquer bowl started every Japanese restaurant meal and I was happy to learn how to make it at home. Our son loves it so much he orders two bowls to start his meal in a Japanese restaurant! Not just flavorful but also healthy, Annamarie Colbin, the founder of the Natural Gourmet Cookery School, recommended eating miso immediately following surgery because of its contractive, healing power.

Miso soup at our local Japanese restaurant with seaweed, scallions and tofu
Soup with vegetables and tofu before adding miso paste

The simplest soup is made by just dissolving some miso paste in water. The next level adds that dissolved paste to dashi, a broth made by boiling kombu (seaweed) in water. And in a third version, you add vegetables and tofu to dashi and then add the dissolved miso (never boil miso – it will lose its probiotic nutrients). If you have leftover rice, you can add some at the end of cooking. There are plenty of instant miso soup packets out there and they are adequate if you just need something for a lunchbox or travel. But for a real bowlful, take just a few minutes and make the real deal.

Miso soup with vegetables
Earthenware bowl by Lisa Orr

MISO SOUP WITH VEGETABLES AND TOFU

  • 8 cups cold water
  • 1 6″ strip kombu or kelp
  • 1 medium onion, peeled, halved and sliced thinly
  • 3 carrots, cut in half coins
  • 1 lb. tofu (I like firm but the choice is yours) cut in small squares
  • 1 bunch watercress, washed and cut in thirds (or a cup or two of broccoli or cauliflower florets or if you are out of fresh vegetables, add a cup or so of frozen peas)
  • 4  TBsps miso paste (I usually use 1 TB barley(darker/stronger) and 3-4 TBs sweet white(lighter) but see what you like)

Put the water and kombu in a small stockpot and bring to a boil.

Add the sliced onions, return to a boil and simmer for 3 minutes.

Add the carrots, return to a boil and simmer about 5 minutes.

Add the tofu, return to a boil until the tofu floats to the surface.

Add the watercress, return to a boil and turn off the heat.

Remove the kombu and cut into bite sized pieces and return to the pot. If you don’t like the flavor or the texture, just toss it in your compost pail.

Put the miso paste in a soup or small mixing bowl and add 1 or 2 ladles of the soup liquid.

Stir until the miso is dissolved. It doesn’t have to be liquid, just loosened.

Add the loosened miso to the pot, stir and taste. If it isn’t strong enough for you, dissolve another TBsp or 2 of miso paste and add to the pot.

Ladle soup with vegetables and tofu into bowls, top with a little chopped scallion, chives or dill, if desired, and serve.

Makes 6 dinner sized servings. If you have leftovers, store in the refrigerator up to 3 days. When re-heating, don’t boil, just warm. Add fresh greens, mushrooms or rice, if you like.

The empty bowl by Lisa Orr so you can get the full effect!

What a Difference an Ingredient Makes – Even Better Soup!

Split pea soup with boosted flavor
Porcelain cup by Rachel Donner

What a difference a small amount of an ingredient can make in preparing soup! I make split pea and lentil soup quite often during the colder months and think they are both terrific recipes. But when we had dinner at a friend’s home last week, his yellow split pea soup had me reconsidering mine. Paul told us he had not only added smoked paprika, which I do as well and which resulted in a big discussion of how to pronounce paprika, but also some chipotle pepper in adobo sauce. It increased the depth of flavor, making it not just spicy but also savory and smoky. My husband often adds hot sauce or Japanese red pepper to his food but this was hot and complex enough that it didn’t need any more heat.

Chipotle in Adobo sauce is widely available in small cans like these. Store unused contents in a glass jar in the refrigerator.

Other simple additions to soup recipes have big flavor boosts, such as adding fresh herbs. Try dill in lentil or chicken soup or cilantro in split pea, lentil or chili. Ditto a can of chopped green chilis to pozole, a cup of cut up watermelon to gazpacho, Parmesan rinds or pesto in white bean or some turmeric or curry to your butternut squash soup. And certainly use up any leftover cooked vegetables, greens or salsa by adding them to the pot. There is always the reliable splash of vinegar or lemon juice at the end of cooking to zing up an otherwise bland sauce or soup.

Coincidentally, I had just made a big pot of green split pea in preparation for a couple of nights when we would be getting home later than usual and would need dinner at the ready. Having a fennel salad (which improves with sitting) and freshly made sauerkraut in the fridge meant we could have a complete meal on the table both nights in about 10 minutes. When warming the soup, I added a spoonful of the chipotle chili with adobo sauce (you can buy it at most groceries or supermarkets-if canned, put it in a glass jar once opened to store in the fridge) and let the soup simmer for about 5 minutes. I topped each bowl with some fresh cilantro and put out hot sauce in case anyone wanted his soup spicier (which he didn’t). Don’t be afraid to try a new addition. As I found this week, even the most reliable recipe can be varied and improved. Thanks, Paul – it was delicious!

Spiced split pea soup
Porcelain bowl by Rachel Donner