I used to own an instant pot. Those are great. I gave it away when I moved and now I just have a regular pressure cooker, which is also really great.
My quickest and easiest, but still yummy thing to make is chickpeas. I soak them overnight. Pick out the ugly ones. Drain the water. Barely cover them with fresh water (since they’ve already soaked, they don’t need tons of water). Then I heat the pot on high until I hear the pressure noise, switch it to low heat, and let it cook for 15-20 minutes. Then I turn off the heat and let the pressure out naturally.
Once they’re done I sometimes just eat a bowl of them with nothing more than olive oil and salt. Yum.
One of my other favorite dishes is a bit more elaborate but still simple and healthy: split pea soup. I don’t soak the peas but I do rinse them. I put them in the pressure cooker with a bay leaf, chopped garlic and onions, diced potatoes and carrots, and I’ll cover the whole thing with a decent amount of water. Then, like the chick peas, I’ll let the pressure hiss, then put it on low heat for 15-20 minutes. I let the pressure naturally release.
Sometimes I’ll sautée even more onions and garlic in a separate pan with avocado oil on low heat for a while, until they look like they’re getting caramelized (fucking yum).
When the soup is done, I’ll remove the bay leaf, add the extra onions and garlic (if I did that step), add some salt, then use an immersion blender. It’s SUPER IMPORTANT to remove the bay leaf if you use an immersion blender.
Then when I eat it, I put a decent amount of olive oil and make sure the salt level is tasty. Even better if I have spicy olive oil around :)
I’m assuming you’re vegan?
If what you’re looking for is a quick vegan dish, here’s something I learnt in Japan - baked avocado.
Open a ripe avocado lengthwise and remove the seed. Take a sharp knife and cut a grid-like pattern into the avocado, going as deep as possible (careful not to puncture the skin!).
Now, pour some soy sauce of your liking (ideally not a thickened one, and with a moderate saltiness level) into the cavity. You don’t want to fill it completely, that would be overpowering. Maybe about 1/3 of the depth, just enough to allow it to seep into every crevice when baking.
For the baking process itself, crumble up some tinfoil to make a stand for the avocado halves, you want them to remain as level as possible. Bake them on 350F / 175C for about 20-25 min, you want them to be soft but not burned.
Once done, decorate with sesame seeds and either spoon them out directly (that’s the Japanese way) or spread on a toasted sourdough bread, sprinkle some smoked paprika and chopped chives & coriander over it, and enjoy.
Vegetarian option: Crack an egg into the cavity (on top of the soy sauce) 5 min into the bake. You want about 15 min left for solid eggwhites with a still semi-runny yolk. Mix it up and spread on bread.
Omnivore option: Fry some bacon beyond crispy, crumble it up completely, and drizzle the bacon bits on top.
Wow my mouth is watering now…will try this when I get avocados. Thanks for enlightening me!
Enjoy! It’s really good stuff, hope you like it!
This sounds fucking incredible, and I will be trying this as soon as I have avocados again.
Dang that sounds good, this vegan is grateful to you.
Where do your avos come from? The ones I have access to are sad little things that won’t accommodate a whole egg.
Some local market, they are quite large. Think they are from Malaysia.
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Just for you I dug out my book and found the URL!
https://www.popsugar.com/fitness/node/30787252/print
(Cert’s expired, but it’s legit.)
This sounds amazing.
someone mentioned rice and beans but im going to specifically say rice and lentils. dry lentils will cook up with rice in a rice cooker along with the rice with no extra steps. just rinse the rice and dry lentils (or don’t but uh, modern food can have some nasty chemicals) put in the cooker with the usual two cups of water for each cup of solids. Add anything handy you can for flavor be it seasoning or veg or sauces or whatever. Literally cannot think of a simpler meal to make and its ingredients don’t need canning or refrigeration necessarily. Just need the rice cooker for convenience.
Banana
Rice and beans in the instant pot with a pinch of Goya Adobo, maybe a bit of sour cream when it’s done. Delish, cheap, easy, low cleanup, and good for ya.
How do you do rice and beans together? I know I could GTS but I like people’s personal take on things.
(This makes 2 servings)
I put one cup of dry beans (either pinto or black) in the pot with three cups of water and cook for ten minutes.
Then I quick-release and add the seasoning and 1 cup of rice, and also usually a cup of frozen veggies, stir, and cook for fifteen minutes, followed by another quick-release. Dish into bowls and add sour cream, cheese, nutritional yeast, whatever you like.
Takes about 40-45 minutes in total, but the vast majority of that is downtime that you can use for other things. Less than five minutes of actual prep/hands on time.
That sounds great. I love me some rice and beans. TY
Poke bowls: rice seasoned with rice vinegar and soja sauce, cucumber, a fruit, chicken or smoked salmon cut in stripes, season with soja sauce or mayonnaise. One can get fancy with avocado, exotic fruits, tuna, whatever. Everything goes.
Cutting half a cucumber and a fruit is easy, slicing a package of salmon too, and one can consume chicken or meat leftovers. One can do all that meanwhile the white rice boils. Bonus points if you have a rice cooker.
Is soja sauce the same as soy sauce? Google seems conflicted about it.
Yes. In Germany it’s called Soja sauce. Same thing.
Yes, soy sauce. Typo :)
Try it with sesame seasoning too! Tastes so good
I make one massive salad with romaine, cucumber, and red pepper and keep it in a Tupperware, then dole it out one bowl at a time every day for a week and add a hard boiled egg, black olives, dressing, and chickpeas.
Finely chopped celery and parsley, grated carrot, quartered baby tomatoes, drench in olive oil, a bit of white vinegar, and plenty of lemon.
I do this too. Though instead of a hard-boiled egg, I like to fry one so the yolk is still a little runny, and put it on top.
Recently, I’ve been making a vinaigrette with olive oil, vinegar, dijon mustard, salt/pepper, honey, and Lao Gan Ma spicy chili crisp. It’s pretty damn good.
Blackened shrimp or chicken burritos. Yes, shrimp. It’s $16 for 2lbs. at Aldi, and it’s quality meat. My wife and I get 4-8 meals for that, the rest amounts to about $2, if that.
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Sear the tortillas (corn or flour, you do you) in butter or margarine for a few, throw it on the plate.
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Fry up a few shrimp in a cast iron pan, drench in black spice to taste. (Black spice: Cayenne, chili powder, paprika, black pepper, salt, cumin, powdered garlic, onion powder, mix to taste and add whatever else you like. White pepper is the shit if you can afford it! Use the cheapest bulk crap you can buy at the ghetto grocery, nothing fancy or it will be too spicy, too many strong favors.)
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Dice onions and chop some tomatoes, cheap lettuce if you like.
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Throw your choice of shredded cheese on top of the cooked meat, pile on the rest of the ingredients.
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Bring your own salsa, but I’d recommend something with a bit of acid like a tomato based sauce. Want it hotter? Much on some dehydrated chile árbol peppers (between bites!) from the Mexican store. Stupid cheap for a year’s worth of heat.
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Bell peppers & beef is my current favorite. It’s as simple as browning some beef, putting rice in the ricecooker, and making a simple sauce to cook the peppers in.
Brussel sprouts, cut in half. Olive oil/butter, salt pepper garlic. Roast or fry. The best part is how they long they last in the fridge. Both cooked and uncooked.
I’ve been making overnight oats with chia seeds. Oats, oat milk, chia seeds, a little sugar. Stick it in the fridge for 2-12 hours. Chop up some bananas, blueberries, strawberries, really whatever fruit you want. Add sunflower seeds or some ground up pistachios and a bit of Greek yogurt. It’s so freaking good, and so fast, and I can grab it whenever and eat while I study
Oatmeal, add just water or use milk and add fruits.
If you boil rice, just check some veg on top so it steams, then add seasoning when it’s done. Bish bash bosh.
Beans on toast.
Pizza.
That’s not healt-
If I decide I want to live to be old enough to get dementia and have to wear a diaper, I’ll let you know.
Beans and rice!
