I used to own an instant pot. Those are great. I gave it away when I moved and now I just have a regular pressure cooker, which is also really great.
My quickest and easiest, but still yummy thing to make is chickpeas. I soak them overnight. Pick out the ugly ones. Drain the water. Barely cover them with fresh water (since they’ve already soaked, they don’t need tons of water). Then I heat the pot on high until I hear the pressure noise, switch it to low heat, and let it cook for 15-20 minutes. Then I turn off the heat and let the pressure out naturally.
Once they’re done I sometimes just eat a bowl of them with nothing more than olive oil and salt. Yum.
One of my other favorite dishes is a bit more elaborate but still simple and healthy: split pea soup. I don’t soak the peas but I do rinse them. I put them in the pressure cooker with a bay leaf, chopped garlic and onions, diced potatoes and carrots, and I’ll cover the whole thing with a decent amount of water. Then, like the chick peas, I’ll let the pressure hiss, then put it on low heat for 15-20 minutes. I let the pressure naturally release.
Sometimes I’ll sautée even more onions and garlic in a separate pan with avocado oil on low heat for a while, until they look like they’re getting caramelized (fucking yum).
When the soup is done, I’ll remove the bay leaf, add the extra onions and garlic (if I did that step), add some salt, then use an immersion blender. It’s SUPER IMPORTANT to remove the bay leaf if you use an immersion blender.
Then when I eat it, I put a decent amount of olive oil and make sure the salt level is tasty. Even better if I have spicy olive oil around :)
Tomato pasta.
Boil a pot of water, and add your pasta. In a separate pan/pot, throw some cherry tomatoes in with some olive oil and cook on a medium/high temp. The skin will char, and it breaks down the juice will come out. Add some.garlic (sliced, crushed, whatever suits), and after 30 seconds throw a splash of red wine in with a stock cube and let it reduce to a jammy consistency. As things get dry, add some of the pasta water to keep things jammy. Once the pasta is a minute from being done, throw it in with the sauce and cook until everything is done. Add some basil at this point if you want, and maybe some chilli. Lunch is done in 10 mins.
Another fave is Tomato and Pepper Soup. Cut some big tomatoes, an onion, and a pepper (equal numbers of these), along with some garlic cloves in their skins, and put in a ceramic container to go into the oven for 30-45 mins. Once done, blitz in/with a blender until smooth (make sure the garlic is out of the skins first), add some stock, and finish with some cream, and you’re done. It’s much slower, but takes maybe 5 mins of effort.
Garden peas / Petit pois. Stick em in a pot, add some vegetable stock, dump a can of chopped tomatoes in there, boil for 30 mins. Add maybe some rice and lentils.
I could eat that all day.
someone mentioned rice and beans but im going to specifically say rice and lentils. dry lentils will cook up with rice in a rice cooker along with the rice with no extra steps. just rinse the rice and dry lentils (or don’t but uh, modern food can have some nasty chemicals) put in the cooker with the usual two cups of water for each cup of solids. Add anything handy you can for flavor be it seasoning or veg or sauces or whatever. Literally cannot think of a simpler meal to make and its ingredients don’t need canning or refrigeration necessarily. Just need the rice cooker for convenience.
Soondubu, doenjang jigae (I add gochujang for some spice). Both Korean soups.
Salmon and asparagus. 😃
Beans and rice!
Cacio e Pepe doesn’t take much ingredient wise or timewise. Another fairly simple pasta dish I’ve been making a lot is kenjis San Francisco Vietnamese noodles. It’s pretty similar, just with a soy fish sauce mixture that’s added in
Pasta isn’t particularly healthy, but it’s not bad in moderation.
I wouldn’t think of it as unhealthy, especially with home prepped sauce/toppings. Though after posting this I did notice the call out for healthy specifically, which I would tend to think of more so as high fiber and or high vegetable dishes.
Not necessarily quick, but low effort, I’d go with congee. Boil rice, roughly half a cup to 5 or 6 cups water, reduce to simmer until a velvety porridge . I usually do 1.5 or 2 cups at a time though, and have plenty of leftovers. Top with soy, fish sauce or what takes your fancy, and whatever roasted vegetables you want. Really you could add anything and not go wrong. Not necessarily quick , but low effort and pretty set it and forget it
I live in the US, where a ton of people are diabetic, so they need to limit their intake of refined carbs like pasta. It’s not inherently unhealthy.
Agree with the congee. When I’ve been really sick and unable to cook or eat, I’ve just added some carrots and chicken broth in the rice cooker (still easy in a pot if you don’t have a rice cooker).
Pan-fried broccoli and almonds with a little bit of oil.
Shakshouka! So easy, so tasty, so cheap, and can switch out basically any ingredient for whatever you have lying around! Worth looking up if you don’t know it :)
Damn, came here to recommend this and Chili Sin Carne.
idk if this counts as cooking but arugla, sea salt, and half a lemon topped with real balsamic vinegar and hazelnuts if I got em and maybe a slice of parm. The key is real balsamic which can be hard to find in the states - it should have only 1 ingredient; grape must. Shit is delicious. I could eat it every day.
Add some pear and you got yourself a restaurant salad.
When I don’t feel like proper cooking but want a half-decent(-ish) meal:
I begin frying sausages in a pan. As they’re frying, I chop them up with the egg flip. Before they get actually cooked, I throw on a tin of tomatoes. Then I add basil, salt, pepper, curry powder… whatever’s available and fits the mood. When the sausages are cooked (basically braised), I throw it onto a plate and eat it. Very quick and easy, fairly healthy (you can tweak it to make it healthier if that’s your thing), and (when I get it right) tasty.
Oatmeal, add just water or use milk and add fruits.
Pulao, I’m assuming Punjab-style: Brown half a chopped onion in oil in the pressure cooker, toss in some spices from the dabba to let them get fragrant, then add basmati rice and chopped veggies. Put the cover on, get it up to pressure for a couple of minutes, then natural release. Top with a couple spoonfuls of curd (yogurt), and it’s delicious.
Beans, rice, and greens, using canned beans, is fast and feels so healthy to eat.
Grits with tuna was my mom’s go-to and I love that too.
Expensive and too much packaging but the bagged salad kits, topped with a can of tuna, leftover chicken, garbanzo beans or a fried or boiled egg is also an occasional quick meal for us.
I make one massive salad with romaine, cucumber, and red pepper and keep it in a Tupperware, then dole it out one bowl at a time every day for a week and add a hard boiled egg, black olives, dressing, and chickpeas.
Finely chopped celery and parsley, grated carrot, quartered baby tomatoes, drench in olive oil, a bit of white vinegar, and plenty of lemon.
I do this too. Though instead of a hard-boiled egg, I like to fry one so the yolk is still a little runny, and put it on top.
Recently, I’ve been making a vinaigrette with olive oil, vinegar, dijon mustard, salt/pepper, honey, and Lao Gan Ma spicy chili crisp. It’s pretty damn good.
