Recipe-free cooking
By Jess
I’m trying to learn how to cook healthy meals without a recipe.
I have tons of recipes. Nearly all of them are from Weight Watchers. There’s a huge stack of slightly crumpled, in some cases sticky, printed-out recipes that lives on top of our fridge. More than once it’s fallen on the floor and paper has gone everywhere. (This might explain part of the stickiness.)
A lot of them are great. I’ve posted some of them on a recipe blog I started awhile ago, which I then stopped maintaining. I keep meaning to get back there.
The problem is, we get in these recipe ruts. There are tons of great recipes but they all require very specific ingredients, much of them produce, and so to buy for them, we have to be very thoughtful advance meal planners. And sometimes we are.
But more often, we aren’t. So we buy the long-lasting ingredients for the meals we know we like. Spaghetti? Thai coconut chicken curry? Faux beef stroganoff? All these things can be made with canned, dried, and frozen ingredients. And so we eat them much more often than the moo shu beef, which requires fresh cabbage, or the Asian beef salad, which requires fresh lettuce, and the chicken tetrazzini, which requires multiple fresh vegetables.
For awhile we were doing great. Every week before we went grocery shopping, we’d sit down with our pile of recipes, decide what we wanted to eat that week, check what ingredients we didn’t have, and make a shopping list. Then we would stick to the plan. It was great. But it brought us to the grocery store quite often, and somehow every time we go to the grocery store, we end up spending more money than we were planning.
So now we go less often, and that means more make-do meals with whatever ingredients we can find around the house. Hence, the recipe rut. Hence, my desire to learn how to cook without recipes.
When I started Weight Watchers I didn’t know anything about cooking, or ingredients, or what was healthy. That’s why Weight Watchers was so successful for me–I learned so much and I applied what I learned. Now I know things like how to time multiple dishes to be ready at (more or less) the same time, what heat to use to cook meat, how to tell when meat is done, how much olive oil is acceptable. I know to stay away from heavy cream and huge amounts of oil. I use whole-wheat pasta and healthy alternatives for stuff whenever possible. (Although I don’t go so far as putting applesauce in brownies. I’m sorry. I just find them icky. I’d rather no brownie than one made with applesauce.) I’m not afraid to use spices.
So now I feel like I’m ready to take that next step. I want to be able to just whip up a dish–why not pasta with chicken, tomato, fresh basil, and some fresh mozzarella? Why can’t I make a mushroom sauce thickened with a bit of cornstarch or flour? How hard is it to just toss a few things in a pan and turn it into a simple dish?
Well, according to all those lovely glossy women’s magazines, it’s not hard at all. But I just don’t do it. It seems to me that if I were a bit more comfortable with winging it in the kitchen, it would be easier to buy random ingredients and then just… use them up before they went off. Instead of saying, well damn, I can’t use this because I don’t have the other ingredient the recipe calls for. You know?
But in practice, I guess I’m not quite there yet with comfort level. A couple of times I’ve modified recipes, or found two recipes and kind of combined them, but I have yet to just throw a bunch of stuff in a pan and make it yummy. But I feel like I COULD do it. I just don’t quite know how to make the leap.
How do you go from following recipes to the letter to improvising tasty meals? Are there certain combinations I should know about, or tricks for making a good sauce, or specific ingredients that always go together (or don’t)? Am I missing something?
March 23rd, 2009 at 1:35 pm
I think I learned how to wing it from years of cooking from actual recipes. Also, I think I picked this up from watching a lot of cooking shows where they come up with stuff on the fly – like Iron Chef – because I see how they pair ingredients and I think, “Ok, I have those two things, but I don’t have duck, I’ll just use chicken.” Or whatever.
March 23rd, 2009 at 4:48 pm
Yeah, watch a lot of cooking shows. It helps learn what goes with what. And like Sarah said, a lot of it just comes from doing it over and over again.
I also think it comes from being raised around it. My mom was a pot-thrower-inner and I am too. I can make six meals out of nothing.
March 23rd, 2009 at 4:48 pm
There’s no secret, it’s all really trial and error. And when I finally make something great I write it down just for myself. No so much a recipe but just to remember basically what I did.
You’ll get better at it the more you try it – I swear!
March 24th, 2009 at 6:24 am
Hmmm, I struggle with this as well.
A few things I try to do are-
-Buy whats on sale, meat wise and freeze it in managable portions, so I always have meat I can defrost for a “quick” meal. and by quick I mean take out the night before after I’ve scrounged around what I have in the fridge and pantry. (you can even do this with bacon or pancetta wich you can you just a LITTLE with for things like tomato sauce or soup to add tons of flavor and less fat)
-keep pantry staples like beans, canned tomato products, beans, couscous/brown rice (much better for you than pasta), refried beans, etc. Im sure you do this already.
- when I get a veggie or fruit I plan multiple possible uses for it so if I change my mind or it starts to go I can still use it, like we love bananas, but OM only likes them green, I like them normal ripe and if they go too far I make banana bread. Or zuchini, I love to buy that, it lasts forever, and can be used fresh in salads, cooked in saute or sauces and shredded to cook down (added texture) in other sauces or breads. Cabbage, also lasts forever and is super good for you. Like if I get aspergrass I blanch the whole lot on the night we first eat it (lasts longer blanched) then later in the week we can use it re heated, in omletes or fritatas, in a sauce or soup, in pasta salad or a stir fry.
-at the end of the day, if I have loads of veggies on the edge of going bad I do something like last night, make a huge pot of ministrone (or other soup or stew or sauce), I follow a basic recipee but basically add everything I have left, like I had zuchini (not in original recipe) and didn’t add swiss chard as I didnt have any. The best part of a big pot of soup or stew is we can eat what we want, it will last a bit in the fridge and freeze the rest in manageable portions, so easy “fresh” veggies ready over night or in microwave.
March 24th, 2009 at 7:36 am
Like AndreAnna says, it comes from being around pot-thrower-inners…my dad’s a dyed-in-the-wool PTI. And expect it to backfire a couple times but then you’ll get the hang of it. (SEE: The time I tried to cook with tempeh…SEE ALSO: The time my husband lit us both up with too much Thai green curry paste and we ate Blizzards for dinner instead.)
March 24th, 2009 at 7:49 am
I think the best way to start cooking without a recipe is just to experiment. A lot of times if I do use a recipe, I use it as a guide and don’t follow it to a T. I never measure out seasonings, I just eyeball it. Or if I have something that I think will work well with a dish, I’ll just throw it in there. I definitely think trial and error is the best way to learn to cook without a recipe. Good luck!
March 24th, 2009 at 8:51 am
Yeah, it’s primarily a) being around pot-thrower-inners (my mom was one), b) trial and error, and c) being willing to try out different things. One thing that helps is to have a staple list, things that you always get at the store/have on hand because you know they will work in more than one recipe or dish.
each mentioned pantry staples, but this also applies to fresh produce. We always have bagged spinach, lettuce, carrots, bell peppers, potatoes, zucchini, mushrooms, broccoli, and onion around – from that you can make stir fry, salad, add veggies to pasta sauce, vegetable omelets, steamed veggies, and what we call White People Food (sautee any number of those veggies and add to boxed mac & cheese; optional: brown some ground turkey and add that too). Of course, we buy/eat other veggies, too, but these are our fresh produce staples.
It also helps to eat seasonally. In the fall we eat a lot of squashes and sweet potatoes; in the winter lots of root veggies and cauliflower. Spring and summer are my favorites because there’s a wider variety of fresh produce available.
March 24th, 2009 at 9:10 am
That’s interesting, because I think I am the exact opposite: I am more likely to spontaneously mix some stuff together and call it a meal than to follow a recipe. I -hate- it when recipes call for a certain ingredient that I have to go get at the store; I am all about instant gratification.
Here are some of my default things I do when I cook:
1) I make lots of vegetarian dishes, but when I do cook meat, poultry or fish I keep it simple: heat up a tiny bit of olive oil in a pan, add some chopped garlic and/or a chopped onion and/or some chopped fresh ginger. Once that is just a smidge brown, add the meat/fish and some salt and pepper and finish cooking it the way you usually would (sounds like you’ve got that part down). That is literally all I do most of the time.
2) Most veggies you can just roast in the oven. I chop up whatever I have (bell peppers, zucchini, onions, carrots, eggplant, cauliflower, potatoes, all of the above mixed together…), add a little bit of olive oil, some salt and pepper, and (if you want) some herbs (rosemary, oregano, basil, thyme…). Stick it all in the oven that is turned up pretty high (I am thinking over 350 maybe?) and 15-20 minutes later, voila! Keep an eye on it and take it out when the veggies are soft (I usually poke them with a fork). This is seriously my main staple for cooking. Use it as a side dish for a steak, fish, roasted chicken, etc. Mix it into some pasta sauce or canned tomatos and eat it with pasta. Eat it with some brown rice or risotto with some parmesan cheese sprinkled on top. I also LOVE things that can be made in the oven, because you can concentrate on the other part of the meal (ie noodles or meat) and even get some of the clean-up done and set the table before the food is ready. And this is a great way to use whatever you have on hand that needs to be eaten.
3) Add some kind of salad as a side dish. Carrot salad, cucumber salad, regular salad, all three mixed together, add in some tomatoes, use different kinds of dressings each time and so on. This is also a great way to use whatever veggies you have at home and experiment a bit.
So, if you take these three “steps” and mix and match, you have a whole bunch of different meals to choose from, i.e. salmon with ginger (1), with roasted potatos and peppers (2) and cucumber salad with jogurt dressing (3) OR whole-grain pasta (instead of meat) with tomato sauce and roasted bell peppers and zucchini (2) and a green salad with tomatos and mozzarella (3). The combinations are endless! Just experimenting with herbs can make a huge difference in the flavor each time. Does this help at all?
Also, what my roommate does is check what we have at home, then enter those ingredients into google and see which recipes turn up! Since your goal is to be able to cook without a recipe, this might not be exactly what you’re looking for, but it can help when you don’t want to go to the store, but also don’t know what to cook
I think it’s all about practice and knowing which flavors you like together and I’m sure that by the time you have kids, they’ll be telling everyone that their Mom is a pot-thrower-inner 
March 24th, 2009 at 10:25 am
I wish I could do that too, but I’m still screwing up with actual recipes. My guess is it takes a lot of practice, mastering of some related recipes, and then experimentation. All of which take entirely too long.
If it’s a rut thing, then you might try grabbing a bunch of “ridiculously easy” recipes and whip them all up at once, and then you have things in your refrigerator to eat even though you’re just really sick of cooking. Easy whips:
-cilantro-lime rice
-orzo with edamme
-”cowboy caviar” (black beans, corn, etc)
-hummus wraps (bell pepper, turkey, sprouts, and/or avocado slices a plus)
-sonoma chicken salad
-BLTs (cook turkey bacon beforehand, make rest of stuff at the moment you need it).
…stuff like that.
Or just go to whole foods and blow a wad too. Sometimes you just need a break from the kitchen, ya know?
March 24th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
I would suggest reading stuff by Mark Bittman. This article he wrote at the beginning of the year completely changed how I look at cooking: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/07/dining/07mini.html) He also writes a blog at NYT.com with lots of recipes, although they’re not always healthy (http://bitten.blogs.nytimes.com/).
He’s written a couple of books too, which I’ve heard good things about but haven’t actually read.
March 24th, 2009 at 3:31 pm
I’m all about the soup with leftover meat, veggies, whatever. Soup it up, portion it up for dinners/lunches and freeze the rest.
My most recent concotion? Potato-Veggie soup with bacon. I started by looking at a broccoli cheese soup recipe I knew I loved, x-nayed the broccoli, doubled the potatoes, added a million other “leftover” veggies, and then decided to throw some bacon in at the last minute. It was, hands down, the best thing I’ve made in weeks.
Good luck dear!
xox
March 26th, 2009 at 10:32 am
I agree with the folk who say to expand your “pantry” — make sure you’ve got plenty of frozen everything (veggies especially, but also the different types of meats you eat) as well as the canned stuff, and then…
Don’t Be Afraid Of Cooking Something Crappy.
That’s it. The rest is just looking at what you have and playing a little, and hoping for the best. : ) Good luck!