What is your minimalistic-recipe favorite food?

[Anonymous]

I want some 2-4-ingredient stuff (or maybe 5, 6, 12, but please focus on minimalism)! Especially across cultures, I figure I might be missing some awesome stuff that's so easy to make. Bonus points if the ingredients are easy to get worldwide.

Updates

+1 y

My personal favorite is "chili". I don't even think it really counts but it's sorta like a chili. Canned tomatoes, chicken or ground beef or whatever meat we have in the fridge, cumin, flour and water. Maybe some baking soda to cut the acidity and a dash of coffee in the mood to lend an earthiness, but it functions well enough to me at the bare minimum.

[Apulu_Imback]

My own recipe, Peri Peri Tiger prawns!

You need: (Only 5 necessary ingredients, the 6th one is custom)

Tiger prawns (any prawns size will be okay but you would like prefer a decent size for this recipe)

Eggs (Number of eggs depend on how many prawns are there)

Peri- Peri powder (1/5th of the amount of eggs, or your preference)

Salt to your taste

(spices as your wish, I just used and bit of Garam Masala and cumin powder)

How to prepare:

-≥ De-shell the prawns: Clean the guts and remove the whole shell, you may leave the tail shell part if you want to but I prefer removing the tail as well. Beware cuz I fainted doing this.

-≥ Prepare the marinate: Crack the eggs and stir them, don't remove the yolk. Add peri peri, salt and spices to your preference. Make sure the mix is a bit thick so that it won't over flow while dipping the prawns in it. You can use this marinate with any other sea food or chicken.

-≥ Dip the raw prawns in the marinate

-≥ Add bread crumbs or brown rice powder for healthier choice (optional)

-≥ Shallow fry or deep fry the prawns till you feel like it is prepared because it became and bit tough.

-≥ Eat those lovely prawns! Barbeque sauce goes well.

I definitely know this ain't Indian Cuisine but yeah something I invented with the inspiration of Korean cuisine, the fried sea food they prepare.

[SaoirseS]

Sausage muffins. It takes three cups of Bisquick, 1/2 cup of water, 3/4 cup of grated cheddar cheese, 1 can of cheddar cheese soup, and one pound of loose sausage (I use Jimmy Dean hot sausage).

Brown the sausage, mix sausage with drippings in a bowl with the rest of the ingredients. Stir thoroughly. Drop batter into a muffin pan sprayed with Pam (or whatever non-stick you use). Bake at 400 degrees F until browned. Makes 12 muffins.

[Asker]

I had to look up Bisquick! I never heard this before but maybe if I can't find it at the foreign food store, it seems basic enough to make it: flour, fat, sugar, baking soda, and acid. I have a Costco within one hour drive here in Japan. Maybe I can find Bisquick there.

[purplepoppy]

A toast sandwich.
You'll need, one slice of toast. 2 slices of bed. Butter.

Butter the bread on one side and place the toast between each slice, butter side facing inwards.

[Asker]

That's too obvious! Can you give me a more challenging and obscure one? But I do love Heinz beans in tomato sauce and toast! Don't see why Brits get a bad rep for that since it's amazing to me.

[purplepoppy]

Glamorgan sausage. Mix a lot of grated cheese (any kind) with the same amount of bread crumbs. add chopped onion or leek to taste (or whatever you fancy) and some soft herbs like parsley. Add enough egg yolk and milk to bind. Form into sausage shapes by hand, roll in egg white then bread crumbs. Fry until golden and serve hot. Goes well with chilli

[Asker]

Awesome, thanks!

[Anonymous]

I like roasting seeds. I get them from pumpkins or squash, put them on a tray with a little coconut or avocado oil, or whatever oil you like best, and some salt. Then air fry or convection bake them, and they're really yummy, at least to me.

[Asker]

What happens when you do that? Do they pop like popcorn with corn kernels? Or just get sort of toasty?

[Opinion Owner]

They get toasty and yummy and crunchy. I just like healthy alternative snacks

[Asker]

I should try. I'm a fitness freak but with a glaring weakness for alcohol! Popcorn with very little oil has been one of my guilt-free snacks along with carrot and celery sticks with only vinegar and salt, no fat. But I want more to diversify.

[Opinion Owner]

I love celery sticks too. I can't eat vinegar because of the acid unfortunately. I like your chili recipe also.

[Opinion Owner]

Do you like dehydrated fruit? I also like that.

[Asker]

I like but it ramps up calories with low satiety for me. I can go through a 300+ calories bag of dried peaches, mangos, apples, pears, etc, like nothing. They might even be my second arch-nemesis besides nuts. I like nuts but I can never stop at two handfuls of almonds or peanuts. I end up eating the whole bag and eat like 800+ calories in one sitting with room left over for a meal.

[Asker]

With fresh fruits, I think all the water content helps me to feel full without going overboard on the calories. With dried food, if I don't stop myself, I could easily eat like 2000 calories in one go unless I run out.

[Opinion Owner]

Ohhh that is a good point..

[Asker]

I'm guessing you have this discipline? Like I see many women put a few pieces of dried fruit on a plate along with other things. It's so neat! I'm like a monster. Gobble-gobble. I eat everything so fast that I'm left with my wife or friends at restaurants with an empty plate while theirs is 85%+ full with nothing to do but chat. And I chat a lot but I also get tempted to order lots of drinks and end up drinking so much! :-D

[Opinion Owner]

I have IBD so my diet is weird, usually small quantities, but always healthy. I can imagine how you eat! nothing wrong with it if your stomach can handle it. you’re probably burning it all off too

[Asker]

I sometimes wonder if I have some sort of digestive problem if not IBD. If I have too big of a meal all at once and towards the night, I can toss and turn in pain and barely get deep sleep. I'm half-conscious the entire time.

I don't like the orthodox meals people eat like 3 times a day and especially dinners seem way too big for me. They hurt me sometimes. I like to do a little bit at a time. Like snacking but in a slim way. Not overboard. Just a little bit here, a little bit there.

[Asker]

My wife has an iron stomach compared to me. She can eat like a whole giant bowl of rice with Thai, Indian, or Japanese curry on top. But she is only 55kg woman. I am 75kg man and she can eat more than me in one sitting and early during our relationship, I tried to eat all her cooking but I get sick at night. Eventually, I had to tell her I can't eat this much at once because I was hurting too much. Then I volunteer to cook more and now I love cooking. I can make little plate for me and bigger plate for her.

[Opinion Owner]

Oh wow, yeah, definitely burning pain, nausea and pressure with quick fullness after eating what to others is a normal sized meal are associated with IBD flare ups. Something that has helped me keep it in remission more has been a good probiotic daily. Definitely do not take Prilosec or any PPI medication as they are associated with a high risk of cancer.

[Dnice1]

Try a ham and cheese wrap. all you is tortillas, deli ham and shredded cheese or sliced. Lay the tortilla out then put the ham on then sprinkle the cheese then roll it all up put a plate on top then microwave for 30 seconds then enjoy. Might be kinda hot but delicious. 😋

[LavLavLuv]

Sausage, butter, onion, potato, ketchup, salt & pepper

[Asker]

That sounds pretty close to spaghetti Neapolitan here! It is probably the most offensive thing Japan has ever done to Italy but very popular here is like that, maybe with some added green bell peppers (or not), and fry spaghetti together with ketchup.

It's one of those super easy things that look fancy if you serve it with a nice bottle of wine. I won over my first American girlfriend that way. She thought I was such a good chef when I have no idea what I'm doing! But I could never do this in Japan. Spaghetti Naporitan is too widely known here as everyday easy meal.

[Anonymous]

Chili or cut up hotdogs in beans, lol.