One of the most fundamental changes we need to do in order to be able to maintain a healthy diet is to start to cook what we eat. As long as we are eating outside, we are going to be eating what everyone else eats, and in most cases, it will not be very healthy.
People in previous generations would understand the importance of home food for one’s health, and therefore the mother or grandmother would spend hours every day cooking for the whole family. This cooking was an expression of love and care that would maintain the family healthy and united. Even if it’s just a couple or two friends living together, they can take turns in cooking. Even if someone is alone, it’s still possible to cook simple dishes without spending much time.
This point about cooking at home is so important that it’s difficult to stress it enough. Each one of us needs to take time to solve this problem, otherwise, it becomes practically impossible to maintain good health. Beg, borrow or steal, but find a way to cook at home and eat fresh food every day. Therefore, one very important asset is learning how to cook simple meals quickly.
The best example of something one can cook with very little time is kichiri, a type of stew that is made by cooking a combination of grains, vegetables, and spices. In India, kichiri is called “the sadhu’s meal”, because it offers a full meal, in an easy-to-make and easy-to-digest package. Not only can it be cooked quickly with just one pan, but there is also no hard and fast recipe: you can make it by combining different types of grains, dhal, spices, and vegetables, according to which ingredients are available.
This is a basic recipe of kichiri:
150 grams of parboiled or basmati rice
100 grams of split peas or lentils
Half a kilo of different vegetables, peeled and cut
50 grams of ghee, butter or coconut oil
750 ml of water
One teaspoon of turmeric (optional)
Half a teaspoon of cumin powder (optional)
Other spices you like
Salt to taste
Mix everything in a pan and cook for 30 minutes. Leave it to cool down a little before eating.
To make kichiri can take as little as five minutes of your time: you just need to put the grains in the pan, wash them quickly, add vegetables, salt, spices, and ghee, add water, and put it to cook. While it cooks, you can do other things. The kichiri can then be combined with fruits, nuts, milk products, or other ingredients that are available to make a satisfying meal. Similarly, other simple dishes can also be done very fast if you learn the art. If one learns how to cook simple meals quickly, he can keep a healthy diet wherever he is, without being dependent on others.
A tip if you have a full-time job is that it is possible to make a “delivery” version of the same recipe using some hermetic sealed thermal container. Just cook it normally in the pan for 10 minutes and put the half-cooked stew in the thermo before leaving for work. It will finish cooking by itself and it will be ready (and still warm) by lunchtime.
A very healthy option is to use pearled barley or steel-cut oats instead of rice. Different types of millets can also be added to make it even more nutritious. Another option is to just cook some vegetables with ghee and turmeric and combine it with nuts, cheese, olives, and other ingredients that are available. Just as with the kichiri, you can make a delivery version using the thermo.
Another option is to use buckwheat. Buckwheat is a very healthy type of seed that offers a complete protein and is rich in nutrients. Even better is the fact that it doesn’t have to be cooked: If you leave some buckwheat on hot water inside the thermo, it will be ready to eat in a few hours. You can mix buckwheat with spices, salt, and ghee inside the thermo and pour hot water before leaving to work, and it will be ready to eat by lunchtime.
Salads are also a good option that you can prepare in the morning and eat at launch time. We tend to imagine salads as something very light and low on calories, that is not going to satisfy one’s hunger, but it depends on the ingredients used. A salad can be very satisfying if you add a good amount of protein and fats (in the form of beans, nuts, cheese, and olive oil, for example).
Another advantage of being able to cook quickly is that we can cultivate the habit of cooking only the quantity that we are going to eat and cook again in the next meal, instead of storing cooked food and eating the same thing over and over again. Cooked dishes tend to quickly lose their nutrients, therefore eating something that was cooked hours ago can be very unhealthy.
Cooking our meals ourselves works better in combination with intermittent fasting, something we will discuss in detail in the next chapter. To cook two or three meals every day takes too much time, it’s just impractical for most people. That’s one of the main reasons people start eating industrialized food: they want to eat three times a day, but don’t have time to cook.
If instead one goes for two meals, one light and another more substantial, things become much more manageable. The light meal can then be a combination of ingredients that are easily available, without the need for much preparation, like milk, fruits, nuts, and soaked grains. In my case, for example, I frequently eat some soaked grains (usually pearled barley or rolled oats), with ginger and fruits. With this arrangement, one just needs to cook one time, for the main meal.
Actually, eating simple food is better for our health than a sophisticated diet. The main point is to use nutritious ingredients, like vegetables and fruits, healthy fats, milk products, whole grains, nuts, and herbs. Anything that has a barcode printed on it is usually not such a good idea.