Please tell me your favourite simple dinner dishes?

[lala2221]

Hi, I am really not a very good cook! This is one thing I want to improve for myself next year! How did you teach yourself to be a good cook?! Any recommendations of your nicest go to’s for simple evening meals?

My Instant Pot is one of my favourite things. I hate cooking and I hate clearing up afterwards so it’s ideal. I chuck anything in there - lentils, beans onions, whatever bits of veg I have in the fridge, some chicken or sausage or leftover roast meat, stock and presto - amazing stew 40 minutes later. It’s also great for cooking really cheap cuts of meat that would usually take hours in a pot or the oven in an hour tops - oxtail, ox cheek, beef shin, chucked in with again, whatever veg is in the fridge and some stock.

I'm not much of a cook either and mostly find myself heating several components separately then combining on the plate - it does result in a nice meal but to me cooking means creating something a bit fancier by combining raw ingredients first, then a meal emerging from that. But who cares as long as I get fed :)

I've found having to cater every meal during lockdown a bit of a baptism of fire (usually I'd pop out at lunchtime or might be out at an event in the evening so the catering load has normally been much less). Also, all the dishes (sigh).

My simplest meals include

A) Baked potato in a microwave
B) Steamed stuff
C) Cabbage fritters ('okonomiyaki')
D) Soup

A) Baked potato, baked beans, cottage cheese (+ chives) and green beans - all done in a microwave, at full power.

1. Make a decent cut in a baking potato, or prick it with a fork (to stop it bursting!). Can make it a nice big X shape, easier for opening up to add butter / marg once cooked.

1. Put it in the microwave on the glass dish, or in or on any other microwaveable surface (small plate, bowl) for ~6mins at full power (for a potato that's about 250g). When done stick a fork in it in several places to assess how well it's cooked, it might need another minute or two - but you can do that after the baked beans

1. Microwave some baked beans (covering them is not a bad idea) - give them about 40 seconds and stir before another 40 sec

1. This is the point at which I'd usually give the potato another fork/prod and see if the retained heat has cooked it properly or if it needs another minute at full power

1. Microwave some green beans (strongly recommend adding in a cup of water in separate container, as they tend to lose water, also covering the beans) - I give them 1.5 mins then check, then another minute or so. Or you could use peas which rarely need more than a minute and a half (but do need some water, and covering).

1. Combine 'artfully' on the plate - baked potato opened up and some butter / marg added, then the baked beans on that, then the cottage cheese, green beans on the side.

B) Chicken or salmon and new potatoes (+brussels and carrots)
I make this either as a mash or just the vegetables as they are, both are done with a steamer and the preparation is the same. In either case the chicken or salmon are pre-cooked so only require a bit of chopping for that. I don't bother to heat the protein.

I tend to do about 150-200g potatoes and a couple of carrots, 10 or so brussels - but depends how hungry / greedy you are :)

1. Prepare veg first - rinse and cut new potatoes in half, they can go straight into the steamer unit. I also take off outer leaves of brussels, and chop in half and put in a bowl. Give the carrots a scrub if they need it, discard the end bits and slice. You can do some of the brussels and carrots bits while the potatoes are cooking (but I've never managed to do it all in the 7 mins so usually prep everything first!).

1. Boil kettle and pour some into the saucepan / steamer bottom, with the potatoes-in-steamer-unit on top and the lid. Set timers for 15 minutes and 7 minutes (I've been using a phone app multiple timer that lets me set several timers at once apps.apple.com/gb/app/timers-m-a-multiple-timers-app/id920684531) but if you just have one timer set it for 7 minutes.

1. Once 7 mins has passed add the rest of the chopped veg to the steamer unit and re-add the lid. Put a timer on for 8 minutes (or continue to let the 15 min timer run down as there are now 8 mins left).

1. Either pour onto a plate and add the chicken / fish (or your preferred protein) OR pour out the water from the saucepan and put the veg-potato mix in there and mash it, perhaps with a little milk and butter, then turn it onto the plate.

C) Cabbage fritters - okonomiyaki
This is a very recent discovery and the most complicated bit is chopping the cabbage, so it's pretty straightforward. I definitely recommend chopping it quite small though as it will help the mixture coat it better. It also feels more like cooking (to me) because the raw ingredients are combined before heating and the final product emerges from that.

1. Chop some of a sweetheart cabbage, I tend to use half a cabbage for one meal and it makes several fritters (any cabbage will do but I'm talking about the smaller tapered ones) and add to a large bowl.

1. Crack two eggs and whisk, add a couple of tablespoons of flour and some soy sauce, also a dab of toasted sesame oil is lovely. Pour this gloopy mix into the bowl of cabbage and give it a good stir.

1. Oil in a frying pan, heat ON.

1. Gamely try and spoon some of the mix out in the hope that it forms a coherent fritter but it mostly doesn't :) Flop it into the saucepan and let it sizzle for a minute or so, then flip or turn over and repeat on the other side

1. Repeat several times until all the okonomiyaki mix has been converted into delicious fritters, serve with something dip-like if you have it.

Proper recipe is here www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/easy_okonomiyaki_78828

D) Veg soup - this one requires a large pot with a lid (eg a Dutch oven or stock pot) and a stick blender is very helpful

1. Chop all the veg you want in it - eg a couple of large baking potatoes, a few parsnips and carrots, some green leafy veg, leeks, onions, garlic. I recommend doing all this first - I tend to make large batches so that's me washing and chopping for at least 45 mins!

Timings are guesstimates - the whole thing is probably cooked in 20 mins but it's easier to blend when softer. Keep the pot at a low / simmering heat.

1. Heat oil in the big pot and add garlic and onion first, lid on for a couple of minutes, then add all the veg gradually and give it a stir. Lid on for 8 mins. The pot should be at a simmering heat, not very hot. (If you've got a lot of leafy stuff that cooks very quickly you can just do the root veg first then add the leafies later).

1. Add a teaspoon of curry powder and a tablespoon of flour, stir, lid on for a couple of minutes. Boil a kettle.

1. Pour in a pint or so of boiled water and give it a stir, lid on - 8 mins. (You could add the remaining leafy veg at this point, and add a bit extra to the timings).

1. Check and see if more water's needed, add more, lid on - 8 minutes.

Leave it to simmer for your preferred cooking level but you can test bits with a fork (or eat them) to ensure it's all nicely cooked.

1. Blend to a veggie pulp with a stick blender

The best bit about this is that the mix freezes really well, can be poured into lidded boxes and stored for ages. Each portion will defrost overnight in a fridge, or you can zap it or defrost it in a microwave - I do 1.5 mins then stir, then another until it's properly warm. At the initial stages of defrosting it will look a bit watery and disappointing but after a few goes in the microwave and stirring it will look normal again. Serve however you prefer your soup :)

Jo

Have a look at Victoria Foulger on YouTube. She makes dinners that seem really easy and straightforward. 👍

One of the simplest dinners is a steak and some green beans.

There are a few trick to cooking a great steak. I do the following;

Make sure the meat is room temperature.
Make sure your pan is SUPER hot.
Salt your steak generously and put some vegetable oil on your steak (not in your pan).
When you steak is almost done out a knob of butter on top and let it melt.
Leave your steak to rest for a few minutes before eating it.

Dynamite shrimps/ king prawns on a bed of lettuce with chips

Hyderabadwala on youtube shows you have to make some Indian dishes. I couldn't cook anything before I watched their videos and now I can make Biryani from scratch. His recipes are really easy to follow.
One tip is that you can use pure peanut butter instead of grinding peanuts or coconut milk instead of grinding that.

My fave easy dish is Khatti Dal and Tomato Chutney

1. Wash 1 cup of red split lentils
2. Add lentils in a pressure cooker with a decent amount of water (depending on how watery you want your lentils) with a tin of chopped tomatoes and half a spoon of turmeric/haldi powder.
3. Pressure cook until lentils mushy
4. You can blend or use a masher to mash the lentils and tomatoes. (I have a dal ghotni to do this but it's not needed if you don't have one)
5. Add Tamarind into a bowl of water and microwave for a minute. Let it cool a little and then squeeze the tamarind so all the flavour goes into the water. Discard of the Tamarind pulp and put the water in the lentils.
6. Cook until the smell of tamarind goes away.
7. Add curry leaves, salt, chilli powder and cook for a little bit.
8. In a separate pan, heat some oil. Add Cumin/Jeera seeds and optional dried red chillis. Let them get slightly burnt and then add that to the dal. I always wait for it to cool a little because it's a bit scary. Then serve with rice, ghee, boiled eggs.

For tomato chutney.
Put a tin of chopped tomatoes in a pan with some water and boil with salt until the tomatoes turn into a kind of paste. Add more water, spices and curry leaves, cook until its the consistency you want.
Again do the same with the separate oil, Jeera and Chillies. So easy.

Chop up, season and roast vegetables with halloumi or a chicken breast in the oven.

Ready made tortellini or gnocchi - 3 mins in hot water then done.

@BigCityLife

I learnt to cook by just being around when my mum cooked.

Easiest meal I do is:

Pan fry onions and pancetta
Finley chop pepper and courgette add to pan.
Pour in passata, add finley chopped garlic.
Add chopped basil stems.

Plate up. Add basil leaves, s and p and parmigiano cheese.

Stick a whole chicken in the oven.
Peel potatoes and chop into half.
Boil for 5 mins
Add to chicken pan.
Boil some veg.
Make some gravy.
Easy roast dinner done.

Wrap salmon in tin foil with lemon juice and s and P.

Steam/boil green beans and broccoli

Steam/boil new potatoes.

Mix green pesto with some mayo, lemon and s and P.

Eat!!

I forgot to say cook pasta for the sauce (the first recipe!!)

@fashu that sounds delicious

On Sunday I made my most favourite meal ever! I really don't know why I don't have it more often - slow cooked beef casserole with vegetables.

I bought the meat pre-cut in chunks - brown the meat off in a pan, take it out and fry onions and garlic. Add the meat back, water, stock cube, then loads of root veg, including potato, celery if you have some. Red wine.
And then just let it simmer on the stove for an hour or so - mine made about four portions, gets better the longer its left.

I always find recipes on BBC good food fairly reliable to follow.

I cook very simple meals

Stew (onions carrots parsnips and beef cubed) in a slow cooker with a packet of oxtail soup for hours. It always turns out perfectly

Roast chicken and chips and peas

Salmon and baby potatoes with veg

Stir fry chicken sweet chilli and veg

Bolognese or chilli (fry mince onions mushrooms etc add tomatoes and for chilli add cajun)

Jacket potato and cheese and salad

Thai curry (I use pataks)

Pork fillet with homemade stuffing

the really important thing I would say, is to learn to cook the things you want to eat. Write yourself a list of things you would like to eat. Start off considering each meal in isolation (you can later learn what can be groups together for less effort). Google recipe each thing on your list.

If it really sounds complicated, skip that for now. Keep looking til you find a recipe that really covers everything from scratch. For example, I love nigel slater but he does rather assume you already know how to do things. Once you have the hang of things, he is brilliant at suggestions to vary things.

enjoy.

Jamie Oliver 5 ingredients book is good as you don’t need lots of stuff to make really good recipes

Lean in 15 books are good even if you aren’t looking to loose weight as they are super simple recipes that are easy to cook

One trick my mother taught me, is to fry an onion while you are thinking about what you have to cook with. Fried onion works with pretty much everything and can turn into lots of things.

Delia is quite old school, but her recipes really work and her ‘complete cookery course’ is still incredibly useful. Jamie Oliver is also excellent, and ‘thirty minute meals’ is a work of genius.

I'd suggest you watch many episodes of Chopped. Professionals get a box of stupid ingredients.
Why it is so good is it actually teaches the basics and how to combine ingredients, what to look out for.

Can't remember if anyone said this but get some good equipment - sharp vegetable knife, saucepans that heat evenly and don't stick. Makes the whole thing less frustrating.

Try easy recipes first: this one for example,
Risi e bisi
SERVES 3
INGREDIENTS
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 75g smoked pancetta (or another kind of smoked pork) I use bacon
• 200g risotto rice
• 1 litre hot stock, preferably chicken or ham
• 300g frozen peas
• Parmesan, to finish (optional)
METHOD
Set a large heavy based pan on a medium heat and melt the butter with 1 tbsp of oil. Add the onion with a pinch of salt and fry until soft.
Add the pancetta and cook for five minutes, stirring occasionally.
Turn the heat up and add the rice, stirring until translucent.
Turn the heat down a little and add a ladleful of stock and stir until the liquid is absorbed, keep going until you’ve used half the stock. Then add the remaining stock and cook for ten minutes, or until the rice is almost cooked through and there’s still plenty of liquid.
Add peas and cook for another couple of minutes. Taste and season with salt if it needs it and plenty of black pepper.
Serve with a drizzle of olive oil and Parmesan if you have it.

Pain grille aux haricots is always a quick and easy winner.

Roast sweet potatoes, tzatziki, salad and protein of any sort. Yum.

Stir fry.

The one I always make when I'm knackered is the BBC's oven-baked risotto www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/oven-baked-risotto

Lob in whatever you want, stir onions/whatever for a few mins and then bung it in the oven. Saves standing at the hob stirring. You also get a lovely crust on the bottom. I'm actually craving this now