It appears to be my present theme today to make dinner easy. Winter isn’t the time for mighty culinary inspirations when I’m determined to breakaway from the candy potatoes and squashes. And so along with my present obsession with freezer meals and batch prepping and freezing, subsequent in line on a chilly winter evening is the last word one pot meal. Slice, cube, set it and neglect it – what I’m saying?
Regardless of the season, one pot meals are all the time a straightforward and scrumptious approach to get dinner on the desk. One potters are my favorite meals as a result of they’re comforting, easy, no-fuss, and an amazing motive to make use of up any lingering produce within the fridge.
One pot meals are versatile and forgiving, so there aren’t lots of strict culinary guidelines to observe. Nonetheless, I do have a number of key pointers that I take advantage of to make sure I don’t find yourself with a gloppy mess within the pot that extra carefully resembles doggy diarrhea than my dinner of selection. Listed below are a few of the issues to bear in mind when making wholesome one pot meals.
The Final Information To One Pot Meals
1. Choose a High quality Supply of Protein
Protein is a vital meal element that retains us satiated for longer and gives us with the amino acids we want for therapeutic and restore. One of many causes we get hungry after meals is that we haven’t given our physique what it wants. A bowl of gluten-free pasta and tomato sauce isn’t a meal. That’s a carb-fest and can depart you snacking!
You can also make a vegan one pot meal with natural tempeh, tofu, beans and legumes, or go Paleo with grass fed meat, poultry or fish.
Bean Cooking Tip
In case you are utilizing dried beans, soak them first so they may cook dinner quicker and bear in mind you will have so as to add extra liquid to the pot, as they soak up liquid as they cook dinner. For each cup of beans, add an additional cup of water.
2. Load Up Your Pot With Veggies
The most effective one pot meals are loaded with veggie goodness. I don’t should remind you of this, proper? The UnDiet Life is a plantiful one the place the majority of what we eat are recent, unprocessed, non-starchy veggies. Contemporary greens supply us the tremendous keys that run our our bodies optimally. I like to make use of a mixture of hearty and lighter greens, which I’ll get to in a second.
3. Layer or Stagger Your Veggies as Wanted
Some greens take longer to cook dinner than others, and also you don’t need to find yourself with a pile of mush on the finish. I wish to layer my greens, with those that take longer to cook dinner on the underside like candy potatoes, squash, parsnips, beets, carrots, celery root, turnips, and many others – principally the winter + root vegetable household. Then I’ll put the lighter greens on prime that don’t want as a lot cooking time and can get mushy if cooked too lengthy.
An alternative choice is to stagger the cooking and add the heartier greens into the pot first, then toss within the lighter ones quarter-hour later.
4. Add a Gluten-Free Grain (or not, in the event you’re grain-free)
Gluten-free grains add a further supply of fibre, which is nice for our digestive tract, blood sugar administration and cardiovascular well being. They’re additionally filled with B nutritional vitamins to spice up our power ranges and scale back stress.
Some grains take for much longer to cook dinner than others, so for a one pot meal I like to recommend selecting a fast cooking grain like quinoa, millet or buckwheat. Do not forget that you’ll additionally want so as to add a further cup of water for each cup of grain you employ.
And in the event you’re not doing grains, a cauliflower rice makes an superior addition so as to add somewhat heartyness to the meal.
5. Use A Massive Pot!
This is a crucial one! Particularly for folks like me who’re tremendous torrents within the kitchen. There’s nothing worse than having an overflow scenario or needing to modify pots as you add extra substances. Use a giant pot proper from the beginning so that you’ll have plenty of room for no matter you want and gained’t should do any additional dishes.
Setting out a giant pot can also be useful as you’ll seemingly make extra that you could have for lunches the subsequent day, or freeze for later.
6. Skip the Veggie Broths and Shares
Sidestep the shares and broths and pour water into the pot as an alternative. For one, that is one much less ingredient you have to have readily available. And until you’re a professional and having home made broth or inventory readily available, 99% of the shop purchased ones are principally salt and water. Or worse, verify the substances and chances are you’ll discover monosodium glutamate or yeast extract (alternate names for a similar factor), each of that are neurotoxic.
All the veggies simmering away will create their very own flavourful broth so make it simpler on your self and simply use water and sea salt.
7. Choose a Flavour Profile
Simply since you’re placing every thing into one pot it doesn’t imply that you could simply throw all herbs and spices in your cabinet in there willy nilly. Choose a flavour profile on your one pot meal, whether or not you’d wish to go for curry seasonings, Italian spices or Greek-inspired flavours.
My One Pot Flavouring Approach
Reality be advised, considered one of my favorite methods to decorate a one-pot meal is by conserving it tremendous easy. I really like the style of greens gradual cooked collectively so apart from including some sea salt throughout cooking, I have a tendency to go away issues fairly plain. On the finish, simply earlier than serving, I’ll add one or a number of of the next:
- Chilly pressed olive oil or DHA Flax Oil
- Chili salt (for some spice)
- A drizzle of tamari
- A spoonful of kimchi
- A squeeze of lemon or lime
- A splash of sizzling sauce
8. Load Up on Greens on the Finish
Darkish leafy greens are delicate they usually lose their vitamins the longer they’re cooked – additionally they are inclined to get mighty bitter and soggy. I really like including a heaping serving of greens to my one pot meals, however I all the time add them after I flip off the warmth after which stir till the greens are simply wilted.
This lets you preserve the dietary worth, plus you’ll nonetheless hold the brilliant inexperienced color. Grayish stringy greens are what I name barftastic.
9. Garnish with Herbs and Condiments
Add some freshness to your meal with a scattering of your favorite herbs and home made condiments. I really like piling on the herbs, and serving my one pot meals with a spoonful of one thing fermented like sauerkraut or kimchi. However you should utilize no matter herbs and condiments you’re keen on!
10. End with A Heathy Dollop of Fats
A good supply of fats helps us preserve hormone well being, nourish the nervous system, assist the mind and joints, and stabilize blood sugar. I wish to drizzle my one pot meals with flax oil or chia oil on the finish, as these fat are delicate to warmth. You can too use olive oil, coconut oil or ghee in the event you’d like.
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