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Why don't people want to eat lentils? I'm pretty lazy, and I make lentils with chorizo, potatoes, onion, carrot and a mix of vegetables and some condiments all
by iagovar 6y ago
Why don't people want to eat lentils? I'm pretty lazy, and I make lentils with chorizo, potatoes, onion, carrot and a mix of vegetables and some condiments all the time. It's very easy to make, cheap and tastes fantastic with very little effort.
Same with rice. It takes a little bit more to master rice, but lentils man it's the lazy meal for me. I also buy frozen vegetables that lasts who knows how much, and it tastes as good as with fresh ones.
Most of spanish cuisine is cheap and more or less easy to make. I'm not really sure that processed food is cheaper. A pot of (again) lentils can last a bunch of days and costs nothing.
- casion 6y agoCan you expand on "very little effort". I think we may have very very different ideas of what that means.
- iagovar 6y agoIf you're super lazy, you just put everything in the pot, and wait. Lentils Vegetables of your choosing Maybe two potatoes One or two average sized chorizos A bit of salt A bit of olive oil (something else if olive oil is expensive in your area) A bit of cooking wine Little bit of curry If you don't have soup from previous stuff, you put one of this chicken soup pills, IDK how to translate to english, this how it looks: https://pepekitchen.com/articulo/nueva-presentacion-de-las-pastillas-de-caldo-de-pollo-avecrem/ https://pepekitchen.com/articulo/nueva-presentacion-de-las-p... Fill with water, fire and forget until it's done. You can make it way tastier and more elaborated but this is the most lazy and basic plate, and still tastes good. Well, you still have to cut stuff for a few minutes, if that's any effort.
- vorpalhex 6y agoBullion. In the US (and I think UK) there's also a dense liquid version (local brand name is "Better Than Bullion") which is quite a bit tastier imo.
- detritus 6y ago*Bouillon - personally I'd prefer some bullion! :) And I don't think I've ever seen that here in the UK, although I have come across it on the internet beforehand, during a bit of a seach on OTS meat stock and such a few years back. My go-tos are the Knorr Stock Pots and Concentrated Meat stocks, which seem to have similar ingredient lists to yours.
- ianmcgowan 6y agoOXO cubes or Bisto would be the UK equivalent? Or they were when I was a kid..
- KineticLensman 6y agoUK here. Oxo cubes are still a big thing, for those of us who cook. You can get them in Beef, Chicken, Lamb and Veg flavours. Perhaps others. If I'm cooking a vegetarian meal that needs stock I use Miso paste.
- detritus 6y agoSorry, yes - I meant in relation to the person I was responding to, not OP - the bouillon gloop, rather than the cubes. I'd still suggest that Oxo cubes are different beasts to the cubes up there - again, i think Knorr would be an equivalent, as un-British a brand as it is. Not a fan of Oxo - weird composition and not very nice or meaty taste, to me anyway.
- i_am_proteus 6y agoA can of crushed tomatoes instead of the cooking wine also yields a good stew. :)
- chanmad29 6y agoGood recipe. For the vegans out there, the chorizo in your recipe can be replaced with store bought one or homemade as below: https://tasty.co/recipe/vegan-chorizo https://tasty.co/recipe/vegan-chorizo Also below are few more varieties of vegan lentil recipes: https://www.rainbowplantlife.com/blog/how-to-cook-lentils-in-the-instant-pot https://www.rainbowplantlife.com/blog/how-to-cook-lentils-in...
- boring_twenties 6y agoThey sell actual chicken stock, too. E.g.: https://smile.amazon.com/365-Everyday-Value-Organic-Chicken/dp/B074VBLF7R https://smile.amazon.com/365-Everyday-Value-Organic-Chicken/... Not as good as home made by a long shot but it is a LOT better than those bouillon cubes (what you refer to as "pills")! Please don't use those ever again, lol
- iagovar 6y agoIDK, the ones I use are enough for that recipe, there's plenty stuff to give taste. You can get that in Spain too but it's just much more volume and weight and I walk my groceries to home. There's one broth brand, Aneto, that actually tastes quite good. I see they even have an english website: https://www.caldoaneto.com/en/caldos/caldos-basicos-en/ https://www.caldoaneto.com/en/caldos/caldos-basicos-en/
- karanbhangui 6y agoPressure cookers are amazing for this. I make lentil stews with 5-10 min of prep and 10 min unsupervised cook time (using Instant Pot).
- vsef 6y agoYou put lentils in salted water and simmer for ~30 minutes, is the basic recipe. Unclear how this could be lower effort, its similar to boiling dried pasta. Even seasoning doesn't have to require chopping, smash a piece of garlic, don't even dice, throw it in, delish. I only ever make a full 1 lb bag of dried lentils or beans at a time, what you don't eat immediately stores well in a 1 gallon zip lock bag and keeps for longer than a week. Dish out half cup at a time and hit briefly in microwave. Lentils (and split peas) are the easiest legumes since they don't even require thinking ahead. But beans with a $60 slow cooker are arguably even lower effort.
- gavinray 6y agoMy problem is that cooking requires you to wait between 30-70 minutes for the food, disregarding any actual work you have to put in. I don't even eat oven-cooked premade meals because pre-heating the oven and cooking it takes so long by the time it finishes I could have driven somewhere and bought + ate food already. This might sound terrible, but since I was 16 and living on my own I've never eaten food that required cooking. Came up with entire mealplans of stuff you can buy that's pretty much ready to eat. Okay, ready to get grossed out? ---------- Breakfast (~$3.00, 600kcal, 50g protein) ---------- - Eggs, cracked on a plate/bowl and put in the microwave to cook over-medium, with salsa and cheese - Greek yogurt/Cottage cheese - Oats with milk and some sort of fake sugar and flavor extract (vanilla, almond, pumpkin)/cinnamon, etc, sometimes with whey - Fresh cucumber with no/lowfat italian vinagrette ---------- Lunch/Dinner ($4.00, 500-800kcal, 60-80g protein): ---------- - 12oz Canned chicken breast + turkey chili + cheese + tortilla chips (OR) - 12oz Canned chicken breast + canned field peas & snaps + green beans For years I also only owned a single plate/bowl and spoon and eat every meal with it, then washed it and put it back when I was done to avoid having to do dishes.
- sp332 6y agoWell that is a bit impatient :) But you can get close to this by picking one day a week to make a bunch of meals ahead of time. Since there's not much to do while waiting for lentils to cook, you can prep and cook other things in parallel. Should take about an hour once you get the hang of it. Stash the meals in the fridge and then you just have to warm them up when you want to eat.
- redisman 6y agoIt's low effort if you have something like a crockpot. If you don't then you get a lot longer series of steps.
- notyourday 6y agoCrock pots are $20 in stores targeting poor people.
- iagovar 6y agoJust a pot, cheapest one may be what, 5€, I mean I bet you can find something around that price in the US.
- bumby 6y agoI would love to be able to eat more beans and lentils because they are cheap, store well, relatively nutritious, and a fairly good alternative to meat. However, they don't sit well with my GI tract. Maybe I have a bad gut biome but the bloat keeps me from using them much
- vorpalhex 6y agoIt could be you're not used to the fiber content. I've found swapping breakfast out for some raw oats in milk or plain yogurt helped my general digestion (but of course, everyone is different).
- JadeNB 6y agoHave you looked into low-FODMAP diets? The "full Monty" is way too restrictive, but, after a while on it, my wife tried a reduced-FODMAP diet that made a huge difference for her. https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/fodmap-diet-what-you-need-to-know https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-preventi...
- jbay808 6y agoYou might be preparing them incorrectly. Try rinsing very thoroughly and flushing the water, and/or boiling them for longer.
- boring_twenties 6y agoSeconding the suggestion that you might just be unused to the amount of fiber. I had to go on a high fiber diet for medical reasons a while back. I definitely had some side effects for a while, but I had no choice but to stick with it. Eventually they went away, but the benefits stayed.
- vorpalhex 6y agoAnecdotally, it's an association problem. I'm well off, and eat lentils and rice on the regular. So do all my equally comfortable friends, whether it's from a healthy "whole foods" kind of mentality or just an enjoyment of tasty food. When I talk about food with my family who is lower income, they often dismiss those kinds of foods as being "poor people food" even to the extent of throwing a bit of shade when I send photos of lentil dishes I've prepared. They feel that because they can afford fast food and eating out, that they should almost like a weird wealth display. Their idea of treating someone to a good meal is a trip to a slightly nicer fast food restaurant. Obviously, this is a small sample size and is tied to my family so this is likely not a comprehensive answer but it's at least my observation on the matter.
- Tiltowait-- 6y agoBeing of low status, avoiding markers of low status is extremely important. You're not low status, so you can freely display such markers with no fear that anyone would conclude that you're lower class. It's an amazing privilege you have to be able to do such things in public, and a little empathy towards the little people would be greatly appreciated.
- vorpalhex 6y ago> Being of low status, avoiding markers of low status is extremely important. Can you expand on this some more?
- Tiltowait-- 6y agoOK, we humans don't know each other, so visible status markers are very important. Status is super important to us, even if we deny it is (anyone who says so already has high status). When you display low status markers like lentils, one of two things must be true: you're high status enough to display low status symbols and obviously nobody would think less of you for it, or you're actually low status. If you're actually low status, you're displaying your low status to the world. This is humiliating. It feels horrible and we humans avoid it like we avoid being burned to death in fires. My grandmother would never eat beans & rice because she was born Cajun, and she was taught that to be Cajun was shameful and low status. Due to their cultural backwardness, lack of education, their cuisine was things they found in the swamp. They were somewhat rehabilitated by the food revival in the 90s, but when she was a girl it was bad and she avoided displaying those status markers in public.
- ryanianian 6y agoMost of the cheaper spanish-food staples (corn, rice, quinoa, beans, plantains) are also very high in carbohydrates which can lead to spikes in blood-sugar. And most "healthy-eating" plans advise limiting carb intake. I didn't realize how sensitive I was to the blood-sugar spikes until I went on keto which strictly limits your carb intake. I no longer get the "sugar crash" 2-3 hours after eating. My grocery bills have gone up, primarily due to no longer being able to add filers like bread, rice, and grains which TFA calls "cheapened" food. Ordering spanish (or really any) food without these fillers reveals how little "real" food most restaurants actually serve.
- bluedino 6y agoYou're the exception. Most other people who won't eat beans will gladly eat bread etc.
- PoachedSausage 6y agoPresumably the advice is to limit refined carbohydrates rather than the natural ones in fruit and vegetables.
- CuriousSkeptic 6y agoI don’t think it’s that simple. I’d say it depends a lot on how much fiber you pack with the carbs. So quick sugar like carbs like highly processed wheat flour will not give you the same spike as say some whole grain rice that has been re-heated a few times (just as an example of how different carbs can be in composition, not saying you should always prepare food like this)