Simplicity in cooking produces as sublime a meal as cooking with all the fireworks and elaboration of a five-course, fine dining French meal. Though we thrive on such wonderfully prepared meals, they are best served and shared on special occasions. On ordinary days, both cook and eater appreciate sitting back to a dinner table with just a main course and salad. One pot meals, slow cooker stews, fried chicken, breaded pork chops or macaroni and cheese, all of them simple recipes (sometimes, with not even a recipe needed) that can be done with less fuss and time commitment.
Simple recipes are the key to a home cook’s repertoire for days when it is most needed. Most often, these are the times when you have had a long day at work or just feel like eating something at your pleasure without bothering too much at the stove and pantry. Simple recipes will come to your rescue, those tried and tested dishes you can cook from memory and just a cursory glance at the recipe.
Simplicity is comprised of just the basics, the most rudimentary of things. It can mean cooking with simple ingredients, which you do not have to make the extra effort to procure. Fresh, in season produce in your area; dried herbs and spices from your local grocer; packaged poultry or red meats from the supermarket—they are as simple as can be. Furthermore, it can also be as little as four to five ingredients as well as ingredients easily found in one’s pantry and fridge. They form the base of your simple recipes.
One-step and one-pot cooking methods are also hallmarks of simple recipes. (The step does not count opening packages, of course). Once you’re finished cleaning and slicing meat or vegetables, off it goes to the pan to braise, boil, fry or stew. No need to set aside something so you can do another preparation. Cooking this way does not need complications. Finish everything in one pan and serve it immediately to your family.
That’s why we’ve gathered together in this category, all of the simple recipes from the site. Look through them by ingredient (chicken, duck, turkey, pheasant, goose, seafood), by time of day (breakfast, lunch, dinner), by course (appetizer), and nutrition-wise (healthy or vegetarian). Slow cooking has the most number of recipes here. It’s the one method where you chop and drop the ingredients in a pot, slow cook it for hours and serve the dish when you get home from work. Isn’t that so simple?
