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 :)
Banana
Shakshouka! So easy, so tasty, so cheap, and can switch out basically any ingredient for whatever you have lying around! Worth looking up if you don’t know it :)
Damn, came here to recommend this and Chili Sin Carne.
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, rice, and greens, using canned beans, is fast and feels so healthy to eat.
Grits with tuna was my mom’s go-to and I love that too.
Expensive and too much packaging but the bagged salad kits, topped with a can of tuna, leftover chicken, garbanzo beans or a fried or boiled egg is also an occasional quick meal for us.
Pulao, I’m assuming Punjab-style: Brown half a chopped onion in oil in the pressure cooker, toss in some spices from the dabba to let them get fragrant, then add basmati rice and chopped veggies. Put the cover on, get it up to pressure for a couple of minutes, then natural release. Top with a couple spoonfuls of curd (yogurt), and it’s delicious.
Beans on toast.
Soondubu, doenjang jigae (I add gochujang for some spice). Both Korean soups.
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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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.
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.
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
Frozen veggie with curry sauce.
Takes les 5-10 minutes to prepare, Is tasty, adding curry is magic bullet to improve taste It’s veggie, so pretty healthy
If I have to cook, ground beef burritos. I could make that in my sleep. Get some rice going in the rice cooker. Saute diced onions, add minced garlic when those are translucent and smell good, add the beef when the garlic smells good, add spices once the beef is mostly browned. I add lemon juice at the end to deglaze. Toss on a tortilla with some sour cream, a huge handful of chopped cilantro (no soapy taste here, just lemony freshness), the rice, and lots of home-canned salsa.
But really, if I want something quick, I’m not cooking. I love eating some crusty bread with hummus. I buy big bags ciabatta buns and keep them in the freezer. Just a few minutes in my air fryer and they come out basically freshly baked.
Garden peas / Petit pois. Stick em in a pot, add some vegetable stock, dump a can of chopped tomatoes in there, boil for 30 mins. Add maybe some rice and lentils.
I could eat that all day.
If you boil rice, just check some veg on top so it steams, then add seasoning when it’s done. Bish bash bosh.
