Elevating the Basics
3 ways to elevate your day-to-day cooking with simple condiments
Are you absolutely bored of cooking basic meals over and over again? Do you end up eating out or ordering less than healthy meals because you’re tired of it, and let’s face it, those Pinterest recipes look better than they taste?
I’ll get straight to the point here, because if you are anything like me, you do not need another huge blog text of how this recipe is indulgent, quick, crowd pleasing, and I bet you will never make it” (contains irony).
We love giving you a good recipe, but as a teacher, I much rather teach you to create your own through inspiration, techniques and amazing ingredients. Below are these 3 tips to elevate your culinary game:
1) dressings
2) fermentations
3) salts, spices, oil infusions.h.
Here, chef, let me indulge you with three ways incorporating these raw condiments to your diet will not only help you eat and share healthier meals, but it will elevate your basic cooking game TODAY, with ingredients you most likely have in your pantry.
1 – Make amazing raw dressings:
That is the number 1 reason people don’t eat more greens, because they don’t have a great dressing to put on it. Also it is the number 1 reason how their salad may look like a friend and be their biggest foe: store bought dressings usually have an immense amount of saturated and trans fats, sugar, salt, that create an imbalance of your omega 6 and omega 3 rations leading to health issues, inflammation, etc.
Make an amazing dressing by mixing one good source of oil (almond butter, olive oil, avocado, hemp oil, flax seed oil), one good source of sweetner, with parcimony (date paste is forever my choice, coconut nectar, maple), one savoury ingredient (miso, soy sauce, sea salt, celery), one citric (orange juice, lemon, vinegar, sauerkraut brine) and one amazing flavouring element (spices & herbs). You will win every time.Make lots and keep some in your fridge.
2. Fermentations:
Fermentation is intimidating for most, but once you get the hang of it you take 30 minutes to massage cabbage and have sauerkraut for a month or two. You take 5 minutes to slice carrots and make a salt brine and you have pickled carrots for months. Then you add it to your boring meals. I mean, it takes the veggies you have, the spices you like, salt and water. You can do that today and have way better meals before Thanksgiving. Plus, you get the prebiotics, digestive enzymes, and probiotics all in one go.
Then you come back and comment here, mind-blown on how one single element can change your boring avocado on toast forever.
3. Make your own salts, spices, oil infusions:
Have you heard that salt enhances flavours? Right, imagine if you can make lemon salt, pickle salt, herbs of provence salt, gomachio, lemon pepper, and add those to your boring, not so boring meals anymore.
Every culture has their mix of spices. It is so fun to try to make them at home, instead of buying them ready, and so much more rewarding knowing that your masala tastes better than the weird one they sell at costco. I mean, if you get your hands in a dehydrator then you can dehydrate some capsicum, spray a little liquid smoke and make your own smoked paprika. Or dry your garlic and lemons and make your own lemon pepper. If you don’t, you can still grind together your own za’atar (the traditional one takes dry oregano, thyme, sumac, sesame seeds) and adjust to your taste and creativity.
And oil infusion might be the closest thing to my heart as I still have the childhood smell of the jars of chili oils my father would make in his kitchen, with different hers in each, and the smell would infuse the whole kitchen and make my too-early-to-try tastebuds dance around in joy: THE OILS ARE READY, I would jump and celebrate.
You just fill up a jar with your favorite good quality oil and put your spices and dry herbs in it, in its whole form. If you’ll use powdered spices, make a little tea bag so your oil doesn’t turn foggy. Wait a moon cycle, and voila (Halloween yesterday, so I sound witchy as I wrote that: read in witchy voice). Wait, I said I’d elevate your cooking game NOW, so you can blend your spices and herbs into your oil and filter it in an unbleached coffee filter. Voila.
That’s it. First steps to elevating the basics. There’s a lot more elevating possible, the sky is not the limit when it comes to plant based cuisine, there is papers and espumas, and many techniques that will blow the minds of the most apathetic eater, I’m teaching all of those in our upcoming chef’s training.
Time to go, my cultured butter and pickle dust are not going to make themselves.
Love,
Paula (and the newborn girl attached to my chest as I write this to you).
Bali - September 2024
Second worldwide edition of our 2-weeks course designed for the passionate, status quo breakers, world changers, free souls, nature lovers, foodies and creatives. Raw and cooked culinary with a professional approach, training chefs that excel for the infinite possibilities within the plant based world.
Next Training 2025
Second worldwide edition of our 2-weeks course designed for the passionate, status quo breakers, world changers, free souls, nature lovers, foodies and creatives. Raw and cooked culinary with a professional approach, training chefs that excel for the infinite possibilities within the plant based world.
Upcoming online course, 2024
Rawish soft opening with a two-day workshop is now becoming an online course to reach broadwide. Learn to prepare fermented foods, a 5-course tasting menu and create a cheese table together. Everything is absolutely vegan and gluten-free, with incredible savory and sweet preparations.
