Hello hello! So I’m trying to broaden my culinary horizon right now, things have gotten a bit stale since I have a mild case of ARFID and tend to fall back on safe foods (protein bars, fruit pureés, burritos) when I don’t keep an eye on my diet. Ideally I’m looking for something that’s healthy and reqires little prep. And it should be obtainable in Germany. But if the title speaks to you in any other way I’m interested to hear your thoughts anyway.
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cottage-cheese pizza flats: Ingredients: 400 g cottage cheese, 3 eggs, 1 tsp baking powder, salt-pepper-oregano to taste, 150 g wheat flour, 120 g ham, 60 g grated cheese, plus any extra filling you like.
Scoop one tablespoon each flat on a bakingsheet
Bake 15–25 minutes at 200 °C with top-and-bottom heat on the middle rack.
Since you’re in germany the “lets do pizza” spice is pretty good for this.
This sounds insane, but I’m absolutely fascinated by it. I just ran out of cottage cheese yesterday, but I’m going to try making these later this week!
Did u make them?
Don’t forget about the pizza
Green beans!
Various spices and dried herbs? Get a whole bunch of different ones, perhaps even some premixed from India (though unnecessary, but may be available even in places like Lidl every now and then IIRC)
I always fall back on chicken breast, what most people seem to find bland and dry. Well, you can mix up some spices together, figure out some combinations you like and put them on your protein/vegetable of choice (will work well with olive oil too as another person mentioned). Want it done quick? Chop it up into smaller pieces and throw in a frying pan. Don’t want it oily? Swap it out for butter (just use lower heat) although I prefer sunflower oil.
You’ll probably have few that you eventually always use in combination with others. E.g. my favorite to use are sweet paprika, coriander and turmeric. Turmeric seems kinda crap on its own, but works well with other spices. Coriander doesn’t need much added, if anything and smells good imo and paprika just goes well on lots of various stuff (note that smoked or plain paprika is also very different from sweet kind though)
Lidl
Curry (powder) is tricky because it can contain so many different things. The cheapest (and Lidl is always the cheapest, despite colorful packaging) usually sucks.
Is this some kind of new trend? Why would you sleep on food? Wouldn’t it be a lot of trouble to clean out of the mattress? Is this a sex thing? It usually is and I’m in the wrong place when I’m this confused.
Nutritional yeast, aka flake yeast.
Intense flavor, goes with damm near anything parmesan goes with, and things it doesn’t. It’s fairly cheap, lasts ages when stored decently, and it packs a nutritional punch.
People like to talk about how umami’s spread as a specific flavor into awareness in the west was a massive shift. But a lot of people got locked into the soy and fish sauce focus that was the first thing that western tastes became familiar with as umami. Even when folks are aware of other things, they still tend to think in terms of sauces and complex recipes for pastes and fermented products. But good old yeast is right there, cranking out a deep and rich flavor.
So it gets slept on pretty hard. It doesn’t help that it isn’t marketed well. A lot of people that have heard of it think it’s more along the lines of a vitamin you take on its own, or lump it in with woowoo nutrition in places where it’s called nutritional yeast.
One of my favourite things that really focus on it as a major flavor component is roasted cauliflower. You mix it with the spice blend, and toss it in a bowl, and it opens up with that rich, heady scent that yeast has. I don’t measure for it, it’s just dumping a bit of garlic and onion powders, salt & pepper, then some paprika. Then maybe two to three tablespoons of the yeast. It’s mouth watering, just the smell. Fuck, my mouth is watering thinking of it.
You get that amazing caramelized flavor from the roasting, that delicate floral note that some cauliflower has, the slightly sulfuric tang too. Then the spices lift those, and the yeast ties it all together and becomes greater than the sum of its parts.
the first thing that western tastes became familiar with as umami
This is absurd. Are you claiming that western peoples never ate meat? Mushrooms? Etc?
No I think what they mean was that we did not discover (or the Japanese, rather) that we have separate receptors on our tongues for umami until fairly recently. We knew what it was, but didn’t have a proper name for it.
I mean, you quoted the line and missed the last two words as umami. That’s absurd, it’s right there to see.
Up until the term umami spread outside of Japan, nobody called the flavor that. And it still took longer before people figured out that it was its own taste in the same wau sour, bitter, salty, and sweet are; that it has distinct receptors.
Before that, there wasn’t really a specific term in use. When people referred to what is now called umami, the vocabulary was different. Savory and meaty are the two I remember being most used, and they have other usages for food. Savory is very often just used as an antonym for sweet, and meaty just means “meat like” without drawing a distinction between the saltiness and slight metallic tang of meat from the part that is umami.
I don’t know how old you are, so you may or may not have been around during the spread of the term and its eventual discovery of having its own receptors. But it was “viral” in the way it initially crept in, then exploded as every cooking show started talking about it and familiarity with the term spread. There was a collective “ohhhhhh! That’s what I’ve been experiencing”, and the word got adopted. Now it’s a part of the collective lexicon.
No, they clearly meant that umami wasn’t recognized as the fifth taste until recently.
But never mind that; I just want to chime in that garum (fish sauce) has been a thing in the west since ancient Roman times, if not earlier.
I recommend the Tasting History videos about it, BTW:
I’ve eaten roasted cauliflower with parmesan before and it was delicious so I’m gonna have to give that one a go!
Nutritional yeast is great for scrambled tofu. You can of course season scrambled tofu however you like, but for one block of tofu (quite forgiving in terms of quantities, I think this will work well for anywhere between 200g to 400g of firm or extra-firm tofu) I do:
- Generous bunch of nutritional yeast. Like a good pinch between all of your fingertips.
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1/4 tsp ground turmeric
- 1/4 tsp ground black pepper (you can up it to 1/2 tsp if you prefer; I used to do 1/2 tsp then I think I got oversensitive to it so halved it)
- sprinkle of salt
- Add dried parsley at the end as a garnish
Keep in mind I don’t make any attempt to make mine taste like eggs. If you want scrambled tofu as an egg substitute then you could leave out the cumin (which gives it a more curry flavour) and add stuff like garlic powder, onion powder, and black rock salt at the end (add black rock salt at the very end when it’s off the heat, otherwise it will lose its eggy flavour). But personally I prefer a more curry flavour than an eggy flavour!
Nutritional yeast also works well to top avocado toast with. I do toasted sourdough, smashed avocado mixed with lemon juice, nutritional yeast sprinkled on top, then toasted sesame seeds sprinkled on top of that.
I like it on corn. Cheese grits with cheddar & nutritional yeast; on popcorn OMG like it better than Parmesan (and I say this as a woman fascinated by cheese) and on corn on the cob.
I do not like it on tofu as sub for scrambled eggs. Nope. Mostly use it for grits and popcorn.
Oh, heck yeah! Elotes en vaso especially. It still needs the cotija or parm, but the yeast bumps it up.
Grits are the same; still needs actual cheese, but the yeast amplifies it. Popcorn, it can just go straight on!
My son has ARFID. He’s 15. It’s really hard. He’s seeing a therapist. But he’s still seriously underweight. I don’t have any food recommendations, but I do wish you the best with your progress.
I’m sorry to hear that. It often gets much better with age though! I’m 29 now and I can eat most stuff without feeling any aversion. It’s more that I prefer my safe foods but I can thoroughly enjoy other meals too. Cooking can still be tricky sometimes but I don’t let that ruin my diet. I hope your son can find a calorie-dense safe food. My go to in that regard are almonds, cashews, peanuts, pumpkin seeds and if all else fails gummy bears.
Any type of bean. You can make dips, chili, put them in rice, and they are really healthy.
The recipe from ‘Jose el Cook’ on YT for Arroz Rojo is really good.
Added kidney beans in the riceToo bad that reheating in the microwave makes it a bit too dry and it needs some protein which is also hard to reheat at work.
I love beans! The burritos I make usually contain some baked tofu and onions, brown rice and refried as well as whole beans. They’re like at least 70% bean 😄 Best way to get some protein in when you prefer plant based foods.
If you like beans, the pressure cooker is your friend, and the best one is German: Fissler.
Shakshuka with some pita is one of my comfort foods. I use David Lebovitz’s recipe
Used to make that all the time, thanks for the reminder. Recipe sounds good, personally I like to put beans in the sauce for added protein.
I have just discovered chia pudding. If you like Boba tea, (is that what it’s called?) it’s got that same bubble poppy, feel, if you don’t, puree / grind the chia first. 1tbsp chia, Add whatever flavor you like, chocolate pudding mix, drinking chocolate, whatever. And a cup of whatever milk you like (or water). (I add some flax meal but it kinda tastes like dirt a little, especially if you put too much.) add whatever protein powder, pea protein is flavourless. Bam, tastes like chocolate pudding. Good fibre, good brain food (aka omega something something) I actually find I have more energy when I eat it. I make a jar of it and just have a couple of table / tea spoons a day. Good for a few days to a week. Oh, wait a few hours to overnight for it to solidify.
That sounds fantastic, will try soon!
Also nice: Sago pudding
Was introduced to it during my vacation is Sri Lanka (lovely place).Basically starchy pearls in a milk (or substitute with coconut milk) that is spiced with cardamom, cinnamon and other optional spices like kithul syrup or jaggery
Are things like Taro and Cassava readily available in Germany? If so then I’d recommend Sop Sop.
Yes you can get all of that at Asian grocery stores. Sounds interesting, never heard of it before.
2 tbsp celery salt
I think something is lost in translation because holy shit that’s a lot of salt.
but 4 teaspoons equal 1 Australian tablespoon, while in the U.S. and elsewhere 3 teaspoons equal 1 tablespoon
Oh God, that’s even worse.
Celery salt is made from celery seed and salt. It’s not as salty as table salt: https://www.allrecipes.com/article/what-is-celery-salt/
It’s a big dish as there’s 2kg of carbohydrates there and celery salt isn’t as strong flavoured as sea salt.
Millet, Spelt, Cranola, …
There’s many grains you can put in pillows 🛌. Although you generally use the chaff.I’ve heard good things about buckwheat
Charcuterie plates
Cold cuts, cheeses, fresh/dried fruit, vegetables/pickled vegetables, bread/crackers, etc.
Make whatever plate combination you’re in the mood for from a variety selection, i like to stock about 3 options from each category to feel like I have choices
Girl dinner is trending if anything, not exactly being slept on.
Fair 😂 I focused on easy/low prep and availability in Germany which brought me to the german deli/bakery I used to go.
I’ve really been enjoying chia seeds recently. They are great in smoothies. Spinach too, it’s essentially undetectable so you can just add a handful of either. Works great in any type of smoothie, and feels like “dessert” even when it’s just fruits and veggies and seeds. Plus, you can freeze (or buy) frozen produce, or freeze what you can’t eat, so it keeps for ages.
Unflavored yogurt tends to work best, imo.
Rutabaga. It’s a root vegetable that you cook similar to parsnips or turnips. A bit of a nutty, earthy flavor. Really good mashed with a splash of cream and a grating of fresh nutmeg.
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Edible insects! They yummy!!! 😋😋😋
And there are many established culinary practices for cooking them from vastly different cultures, so there’s also a good variety of recipes you can find and try out!
