Recipe ideas with less ingredients?

MrsStepford

If the food is good quality and fresh, it doesn't need a lot of tarting up. 

Longwalker

MrsStepford said:

If the food is good quality and fresh, it doesn't need a lot of tarting up. 

what on earth????

How else do you make Indian, Italian, Thai without herbs and spices? Or should we all stick to boiled bacon and cabbage ?

JIL

Thought of another recipe which I absolutely love.
Spanish omelette, I just gently saute in olive oil some sliced white onion. Drain and slice some tinned potatoes, season and add beaten eggs. Cook slowly. I love it cold in a sandwich with aioli the following day.

I make meatballs by whizzing pork and beef mince with seasoning and chorizo. My cheat then is using a spanish chicken jarred sauce also from aldi. 

Another recipe I make is turkey mince, feta and spinach burgers/ meatballs. Will try to find the recipe but I just use defrosted spinach add crumbled feta and some spices and squelch it all together.

I'm all for making short cuts, but there has to be a balance. My brother loves to cook, he even makes his own pastry. If he makes a white sauce he even goes so far as to spike an onion with cloves, adding a bay leaf and heating his milk with the onion.  Whereas I would be making the white sauce within 5 mins. 

CurlySue2017

JIL said:

Thought of another recipe which I absolutely love.
Spanish omelette, I just gently saute in olive oil some sliced white onion. Drain and slice some tinned potatoes, season and add beaten eggs. Cook slowly. I love it cold in a sandwich with aioli the following day.

I make meatballs by whizzing pork and beef mince with seasoning and chorizo. My cheat then is using a spanish chicken jarred sauce also from aldi. 

Another recipe I make is turkey mince, feta and spinach burgers/ meatballs. Will try to find the recipe but I just use defrosted spinach add crumbled feta and some spices and squelch it all together.

I'm all for making short cuts, but there has to be a balance. My brother loves to cook, he even makes his own pastry. If he makes a white sauce he even goes so far as to spike an onion with cloves, adding a bay leaf and heating his milk with the onion.  Whereas I would be making the white sauce within 5 mins. 

This sounds delicious!

I took a look at JD Seasonings and whilst I haven't ordered anything, there's definitely some great ideas just looking at their site so I've got some ideas to take away and work with

maman

Spanish omelette is such an easy, quick meal and adding potatoes makes it more filling. 

Personally, I adapt it to include more veg like tomatoes, and /or mushrooms depending what I have in and pickles or salad on the side. Instead of tinned potatoes, I either use leftovers or ping a potato in the microwave and slice. Finishing it off under the grill with some grated cheese is tasty too. 😋

Alnat1

Another hint for spices, I have a rack that's attached to the inside of a kitchen cabinet door. Takes up unused space and really easy to see which jars you need. The racks are available in various sizes. I sort them according to the recipes they are generally used in, a row of "green" herbs for European meals, a "curry" row, etc.

I do cook almost all meals from scratch, I'm lucky and have the time and I enjoy it. A quick count and I have 31 jars, most used fairly regularly. The oldest and least used, a jar of mustard seeds with a 2015 date - think I had a pickling fad 

JIL

maman said:

Spanish omelette is such an easy, quick meal and adding potatoes makes it more filling. 

Personally, I adapt it to include more veg like tomatoes, and /or mushrooms depending what I have in and pickles or salad on the side. Instead of tinned potatoes, I either use leftovers or ping a potato in the microwave and slice. Finishing it off under the grill with some grated cheese is tasty too. 😋

Then it's not Spanish omelette anymore 🤔

But agree that omelette meals are quick and easy.

maman

Of course, you're right @Jil. It's not the traditional Spanish omelette nor does it use the limited number of ingredients. But they are ingredients many people would have available in the fridge to make a healthy, quick and easy meal which I thought might help. 

mumf

I read a book of recipes some years ago by Nigella Lawson ,where she limited ingredients. Interesting. A recipe we use here at home ( not Lawson’s) was a simple pasta. A good amount of sliced onions- not diced- cooked in a lot of olive oil ( or ordinary veg oil) and butter or marge until soft. Plenty of oil! Also some garlic to taste. Boil your pasta of choice ,and dice some cheese. We like strong cheddar. Drain your pasta,stir in the onions and put on a low heat and add the cheese so it starts to melt,and add ground pepper. Nice with a little salad or crusty bread. 👍

Wraithlady

maman said:

Of course, you're right @Jil. It's not the traditional Spanish omelette nor does it use the limited number of ingredients. But they are ingredients many people would have available in the fridge to make a healthy, quick and easy meal which I thought might help. 

I think 'Spanish Omelette' was a description first used in (?) 70's for an omelette with various veg incorporated - seem to remember peas being included as standard.

Nowadays, 'Spanish Omelette' tends to mean Tortilla des patates, but for an older generation, it still has echoes of the 1970's British 'adaptation'.

You pay your euros, you make your (culinary) choices