The Peace of Plain Food: Finding Relief in a Simple Kitchen

image: Chefitt on Unsplash

In a world where we are bombarded with detailed recipes for different and complex dishes, I wanted to say that you can just cook plain food. 

A lot of what my husband and I have eaten over the last 40 years is just plain food. Last night I made scratch baked beans with a few remaining sausages (Labor Day) sliced in, Swiss chard sautéed quickly in saved bacon fat, grilled tomato halves, and steamed brown rice. Nothing was complex. And nothing required me to open a cookbook or go online for a recipe or instructions.

My husband and I began our life together this way. One afternoon when were were dating, I stopped by his apartment after my last class of the morning. He was in the process of making himself lunch and asked if I'd like to join him. He made fish, grilled tomatoes, and baked potatoes. The fish wasn't fish sticks or a fish fillet. It was a whole fish he had bought at the grocery store that morning when he got off his midnight shift. The fish had been gutted, but it still had the head and tail on. he chopped those parts off to feed to his cats, then pan-cooked the rest of the fish. This was just plain food, but it was all delicious.

So many of our meals have been plain and simple. I steam a single vegetable, boil some rice, scramble some eggs or cook some meat, as is, and cut up some fruit. It sounds boring. But when a person is truly hungry, even the plainest of foods tastes especially good.

I discovered that last fact the day we were driving to Portland to see my husband's sister. We'd been on the road for 4 hours with no stops. When we walked in the door I could smell something really delicious. I asked my sister-in-law what she was cooking, and she laughed a bit and said potatoes. Not a potato dish, just potatoes. She would turn them into mashed potatoes closer to dinner as she was grilling some meat and steaming some vegetables. But those potatoes smelled like the best possible food ever

Back to my point. Is there a point? For frugal people,.yes, there is a point here. You can save a lot of money by eating plain foods. Fewer extra ingredients, sauces, or seasonings to purchase. Most simply-prepared meals include some fresh produce, which can be a bargain this time of year. A dessert of a sliced fresh apple or a whole plum, even if bought, costs less per serving than a scratch-baked cake, pie, or cobbler. 

In addition to the financial savings, you save yourself from stress at the end of a busy day by putting together a simple meal. We had sandwiches two nights in a row last week. One night baked tuna sandwiches, the other egg salad. As a homemaker and backyard farmer, my days can be blown by in a wind of activity. I find myself at the 5 PM hour staring at the pantry's contents, hoping against hope that a dinner menu will magically present itself. On those days, a simple meal of sandwiches or plain vegetables, rice and meat fits the bill.

"Plain Food" as a Deliberate, Comforting Choice

I sometimes think we need to reframe how we view simple meals. Putting together plain foods in simple ways isn't a compromise born of exhaustion or strict poverty. It is a protective boundary. It is choosing to spend my evening connecting with my family over dinner, rather than standing over a hot stove, then washing five different mixing bowls.

The benefit to my household is not just in the dollars saved on the grocery receipt, but in the massive return of time, energy, and mental clarity. Plain food allows us to actually taste the ingredients I worked so hard to grow or shop for.

This time of year, especially, is a good time to savor the natural flavors in the fresh produce we can get. I often find that there's no need to cover the flavor of a late-summer tomato for our dinner plates. Nature gave it all the flavor it needed. Come winter, when fresh produce has been sitting in warehouses for weeks or more, produce might need a little additional flavor. But for this very month, simple seems to taste best to me.

Slowing down our kitchens doesn't mean we are lowering our standards; it means we are prioritizing our peace and choosing the flavors of simple cooking for the week's meals.

Your Turn: As you wind down for the weekend, I would love to hear about the simple rhythms in your own kitchen today. When life gets frantic, what is your absolute favorite, gold-standard 'plain meal' that brings instant comfort to your table?

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