9 Foods That Seem Intimidating, But Are Incredibly Easy To Make
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Everything seems complicated until you actually break it down. For some reason or another, there are times when we build something up in our heads so much that things seem harder than they actually are. Maybe you had one bad experience cooking something, you watched an elaborate version of a dish made on TV or you just think it requires way too many ingredients. Whatever the reason, there are a lot of seemingly intimidating dishes out there that are actually easy to make.
1. Superfood Bowls
Eating healthy can seem like a huge effort sometimes. The easiest way to get all of the nutrition in one spot is to make grain bowls. You can make them sweet or savory. It’s all about the layers. Get yourself a salad-sized bowl. You’ll want the first layer to be some kind of grain. If you’re doing a breakfast bowl, maybe you want to use oats and if you’re doing a savory bowl you can choose anything from farro to quinoa to barley.
On top of the grain, pick all sorts of vegetables, proteins, seeds, nuts, berries and legumes. Finish off your bowl with some kind of a sauce. If it’s sweet, maybe you want to drizzle on a little maple syrup or nut butter, and if it’s savory, you can top the bowl with pesto or olive oil. Pile all of those ingredients inside and you’re good to go.
2. Dumplings
Dumplings might seem like a snack you’d want to order instead of make, but they’re actually super easy. You only need to buy dumpling wrappers and your filling ingredients, which can be super simple.
For classic pork and chive dumplings, you only need ground pork, egg, Chinese chives, sesame oil, soy sauce and salt for the filling. Once you seal up all of the dumpings, all you need to do is put them in a saute pan with oil, let them get golden brown on the bottom and then steam them with a little water until they’re cooked, about 8 to 10 minutes. It’s seriously easy.
3. Spiralized Veggies
Now that frozen spiralized vegetables are a thing, it might seem silly to make your own, but fresh veggie noodles will always come in clutch when you have extra vegetables lying around or if you’re looking for a healthy pasta substitute.
You can buy a spiralizer $15 online and spiralize anything from zucchini to cucumber to sweet potatoes. It really just requires sticking the vegetable in on one side and twisting it until it comes out on the other. It’s a simple no-brainer way to reduce your food waste.
4. Cauliflower Rice
You’ll save some money and you’ll have a bigger portion. Take your head or heads of cauliflower, grate them or finely chop them and put them in a microwave-safe dish that’s covered. Just heat it for about five minutes or so until it’s just about tender.
When you’re looking to find carb substitutes, cauliflower rice is always a good go-to. When you mix cauliflower rice with other ingredients, you’ll barely notice the difference. Even though they sell a pre-made version at grocery stores, it’s easy enough to make on your own.
5. Nice Cream
The idea of making your own ice cream may seem a little intimidating, but if you have bananas, nut butter, cocoa powder, coconut oil, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt, you can easily make some of your own banana “nice cream” at home, and it’s dairy-free.
This recipe for banana ice cream doesn’t require any kind of heavy machinery. All you need is a blender of some kind. Freeze your bananas, add them to a blender with all of the other ingredients and blend until creamy. It’s that easy.
6. Roasted Vegetables
Chop up your vegetables, throw them into an oven-safe pan or dish, sprinkle some olive oil, salt, pepper on top and stick them in the oven at 375 until they become golden brown.
If the phrase “roasted vegetables” sounds at all like a lot of effort to you, don’t worry it isn’t at all. The best part about roasting vegetables is that you can easily toss them into the oven and forget about them for a while, unlike cooking vegetables on the stovetop.
7. Gnocchi
Potato gnocchi are comforting and easier to make than you might think. All you have to do is boil some water, add peeled potatoes and cook them until tender. Let the potatoes drain and cool and then mash them up. Combine the potato, flour and egg in a large bowl and form a dough.
Roll out the sections of dough into long snake-like shapes, cut them into pieces that are about one-half inch long and drop them in, around 10 at a time, into boiling water until they rise to the surface. This should only take about 4 minutes or so. DONE. You can freeze them until you have a sauce you want to use or you can eat them fresh.
8. Chicken Curry
Curry might seem like a production, but you can make an easy Thai red curry with just a few ingredients. Here’s a recipe that calls for onion, garlic, ginger, Thai red curry paste, chicken, coconut milk, green beans and coriander.
Saute your garlic, onions and ginger, add in curry paste, cook your chicken, add in coconut milk and let it simmer. Cook the curry until it’s thickened and toward the last five minutes, add in your green beans. Serve it all over rice. There you go, you’ll become a master in no time.
9. Tomato Sauce
Homemade tomato sauce is achievable for anyone. If you have garlic, onion, canned tomatoes, olive oil, basil, salt and pepper, then you’re in good shape. Take a saucepan and turn the heat up to medium, add in your olive oil and saute a chopped onion and some garlic. Pour in a can of chopped or strained tomatoes, add in salt and pepper and bring the sauce to a boil.
Bring it down to a simmer, add in some fresh basil and let the sauce cook for about an hour or so. If you like it sweet you can always add a little honey and if you like it spicy add some red pepper flakes. Homemade sauce is one of those life skills you’ll want under your belt.
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