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.
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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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.
Soondubu, doenjang jigae (I add gochujang for some spice). Both Korean soups.
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.
idk if this counts as cooking but arugla, sea salt, and half a lemon topped with real balsamic vinegar and hazelnuts if I got em and maybe a slice of parm. The key is real balsamic which can be hard to find in the states - it should have only 1 ingredient; grape must. Shit is delicious. I could eat it every day.
Add some pear and you got yourself a restaurant salad.
Dunno if it fits your definition of healthy, but here’s what I like to prepare for lunch sometimes.
Choose one protein, either chicken, hard boiled eggs or a can of flaked tuna. In a mixing bowl, I add : chopped bell pepper, chopped sweet pickles, chopped green onion, some fruit like a chopped apple or grapes cut in half, chopped spinach, some feta cheese cut in small cubes, or mozzarella works too, and some sunflower seeds. At the end, add a spoon or cream cheese and mix everything together. Fill a pita bread with the mixture. And enjoy!
Oatmeal, add just water or use milk and add fruits.
Marry me chickpeas! https://www.noracooks.com/marry-me-chickpeas/
These look delicious! I can’t wait to try them.
Tomato pasta.
Boil a pot of water, and add your pasta. In a separate pan/pot, throw some cherry tomatoes in with some olive oil and cook on a medium/high temp. The skin will char, and it breaks down the juice will come out. Add some.garlic (sliced, crushed, whatever suits), and after 30 seconds throw a splash of red wine in with a stock cube and let it reduce to a jammy consistency. As things get dry, add some of the pasta water to keep things jammy. Once the pasta is a minute from being done, throw it in with the sauce and cook until everything is done. Add some basil at this point if you want, and maybe some chilli. Lunch is done in 10 mins.
Another fave is Tomato and Pepper Soup. Cut some big tomatoes, an onion, and a pepper (equal numbers of these), along with some garlic cloves in their skins, and put in a ceramic container to go into the oven for 30-45 mins. Once done, blitz in/with a blender until smooth (make sure the garlic is out of the skins first), add some stock, and finish with some cream, and you’re done. It’s much slower, but takes maybe 5 mins of effort.
I haven’t done it, bit I believe that with a pressure cooker you don’t need to soak the chickpeas.
