Anyone who doesn’t cook or feels their cooking is poor owes it to themselves to read this article: Sustainable Food – Three Recipes by Mark Bittman – NYTimes.com. It’s more a manifesto than an article, but it is very practical and something even good cooks should read.
Bittman does two things in this article: 1) demolishes the notion you should eat junk beause you don’t have time or you can’t cook or you can’t afford to cook good meals for yourself. 2) Presents three recipes which are more like three lessons on how to cook dozens of meals cheaply, easily, and simply.
It doesn’t matter if you are an omnivore, vegetarian or vegan: these recipes will work and provide you with lots of variety. Plus they are “nutritionally sound and environmentally friendly”. Just as important: these meals are low cost. Rice, beans, lentils, cabbage, carrots, and onions can be some of the cheapest ingredients in a grocery store. If you are really tight on cash (e.g. a college student), look for vegetables being sold off in your green grocer or supermarket. You might find peppers, zucchini, greens, or squash being sold off, and while they might go off in a few days, if you prepare them that day, you can have a good and tasty and cheap meal.
If you only need to cook for one or two servings, the recipes are easy to cut back from the 4-6 servings listed. Cook one serving for yourself tonight, and put a second serving in your fridge for lunch the next day. Better yet, why not invite a friend or neighbor over for dinner?
(Great photo of lentils from photobunny’s photostream on Flickr. Creative Commons license: see photo for details)
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