Healing with Food Article

Cook without Recipes

Accompanying recipe: Main Course Salad Formula

Do you get bogged down searching for a recipe to go with what's in the refrigerator? You can free yourself from slavelishly following someone else's idea of Fried Rice. Here's how to unleash your creativity!

Use recipes when they're useful. For an unfamiliar culinary technique, for an exacting recipe like cake or pickles, or for inspiration, recipes are indispensable. Otherwise, you needn't be bothered with them.

Learning to cook basic dishes without a recipe, as did our grandmothers, makes meal preparation less laborious. Because cooking intuitively engages my creativity, it renews rather than drains my energy.

If this sounds intimidating, recall the dishes you make “by feel” versus by the book. Be it scrambled eggs, a pasta salad or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, think about your various “recipe-free” dishes and consider how you can expand your repertoire. Keeping your pantry and refrigerator well organized and stocked supports recipe-free cooking.

Another advantage of improvising is that it enables you to use perishable ingredients in a timely fashion. This means that rather than moldering in the back of the refrigerator, foods are used at their prime and so taste better and are more nutritious.

Here's how I prepare most meals. I plan ahead—for example, after doing supper dishes last night, I wondered, “What sounds good for tomorrow?” A jar of barley winked at me and so I put some on to soak. This morning, while making tea, I drained the barley and brought it to a boil with fresh water, a bay leaf, cumin, some garlic and a little salt and chili powder.

Exactly how much chili did I use? Just enough. . . . Remember as a child the first time you splashed on some of your mother's perfume? Be it perfume, salt or spices—very quickly you learn just how much is enough.

Next, I looked in my refrigerator to see what other ingredients clamored for use in today's soup. In no time at all chopped onions, carrots, tofu and celery were quietly simmering on the back burner with the barley.

Cooking without recipes makes it easy to prepare exactly enough for that day's use without having leftovers. I value the psychological ease that comes out of knowing that today my breakfast, lunch and dinner will be of quality and freshly prepared ingredients.

If such meals are not on hand, the outcome is a given. I'll find myself hungry and settle for something quick. Unfortunately, that something quick never really nurtures. So then I find myself nibbling. By planning ahead, I bypass slapdash eating.

So how do you learn to expand your “no-recipe” repertory? Start with a pot of rice or for more flavor and nutrition, quinoa. Make enough for one day. Enjoy the first portion as a breakfast cereal, turn the second into a grain salad for a packed lunch or use it that evening for a stir fry, soup or even a pudding (See One-Pot—Two Meals).

Trust your instinct when it comes to combinations and quantities and watch your enjoyment for meal preparation grow. Incorporate quality protein and fresh produce that appeals to you and there you have it. A day's worth of satisfying food. It couldn't be easier.

The accompanying recipe will give you a framework for your recipe-free cooking.

May you be well nourished,

Rebecca Wood