By which I mean a way for a poor busy worker to keep eating through pottage.
Vaguely Ethiopian Stew
- 1-2 bowls of water
- 1-2 handfuls quinoa, millet, or barley
- 4-5 shakes berebere seasoning
- 1 BIG SCOOP of peanut butter
- 2-4 shakes onion powder and or dried onion
- 1 shake of nooch
- 2-4 shakes of garlic salt or seasoned salt
- 2-3 globs mango chutney or orange marmalade or apricot preserve
- Hot pepper to taste
Vaguely Asian Lentil Soup (serves 4)
- 1/2 instant pot of water
- 4 handfuls red lentils
- 2 globs gochujang
- 1 glob better than bouillon
- 1 substantial portion pickled ginger
- 2-3 globs mango chutney or orange marmalade
Put all into the instant pot and pressure cook for 4 minutes.
Barley Slop
- ~3 cups water
- 1 hearty shake barley (1/3 of depth)
- 1 handful red lentils
- 2 shakes smoked paprika
- 3 shakes garlic salt
- 1 shake nooch
- 1 shake lime salt
Put all into the instant pot and pressure cook for 20-25 minutes. Barley will be a bit chewy at 20 minutes which I like. Lentils disintegrate and thicken the broth.
All these meals take at most 4 minutes active time and are ready to eat within 30 minutes. Very filling and fairly healthy. All can be made with shelf stable jar goods for the most part. All meals can be improved with fresh or frozen greens. Hardy greens can be added at the start of cooking, and softer greens can be added after cooking.
Swap out the lentils for fava beans and a glug of olive oil in the barley slop and i'm already there
How do you find fava beans? I had some really good ones a friend had donated to them from Whole Foods but have no clue a normal place to buy them.
In Canada, i could find canned Gigantes beans at Food Basics, now i can find them in pretty much any Mediterranean market. Shouldn't be too hard to find. I think broadbeans is another name for them? Butterbeans?
Always gotta add the oil. I have been using peanut butter or safflower oil depending on the meal too to keep the unit price down. I found some berebere spices at a bulk store a few months ago and it let me make a lot of savory peanutbutter dishes before I ran out. I should really get more!
Although I found a store by me that sells palestinian olive oil for about the same price per volume as wine which is very nice. I bought the one from Nablus. The flavor is strong and a little peppery.