What are some dishes that tolerate a wide variety of, well, variation?

December 8, 2008 12:47 PM

What are some dishes that tolerate a wide variety of, well, variation?

Take, for example, chili, burritos, lasagna, and omelets. Each is defined by a simple set of criteria, within which a huge amount of variation is possible—without removing the essential identity of the dish.

Aside from being hearty, bean-based stews containing certain spices, two different chilis might have completely different lists of ingredients. In this case, the anchor that makes them both "chili" would be the beans and the spices.

Partly, I'm just curious, but I'm also asking because I'd like to be able to keep some staples in stock (the defining ingredients of the dishes), and improvise the rest with whatever else I have on hand.

posted by greenie2600 to food & drink (22 comments total)

Perhaps not quitie what you're looking for, but Chicken Tikka Masala:

There is no standard recipe for chicken tikka masala; a survey found that of 48 different recipes the only common ingredient was chicken.
posted by Tomorrowful at 12:50 PM on December 8, 2008

Risotto - Arborio rice, stock, whatever else you want. Pizza. Fried Rice. Paella. Grain salads. Tacos. Basically, anything that's like main component (usually starch: rice, dough, pasta, tortilla, bread, beans) + flavor/texture elements (meat, vegetables).
posted by peachfuzz at 12:54 PM on December 8, 2008

Stir Fry = Rice + Meat + Veggie
Spaghetti Dinner = Pasta + Meat + Veggie + Sauce
Rice Ball = Rice + Filling (meat and/or veggie) + Seaweed
Pizza = Dough + Meat or Veggie + Cheese + Sauce
Lettuce Wraps = Meat + Veggie + Sauce + Rice + Lettuce Leaves
Pot Pie = Crust + Meat + Veggie
Sushi = Rice + Filling (meat and/or veggie) + Seaweed
Chow Mein = Noodles + Meat + Veggie
Savory Crepes = Crepe + Meat + Veggie + Sauce
Wrap = Flat Bread + Meat + Veggie + Condiment
posted by Alison at 12:58 PM on December 8, 2008

Definitely fried rice.

Fried Rice = Rice + Soy Sauce + Oil + whatever is in your fridge*

Could include anything, including any kind of meat [including SPAM], eggs, onions, peas, carrots, etc. I also recommend random seasoning. Even cheap grocery-store seasoning salt adds some awesomeness.
posted by demagogue at 1:03 PM on December 8, 2008

First thing that came to mind for me was ice cream. You've got your typical ice cream base, to which you can add almost any kind of flavor or ingredient your twisted little mind can come up with. Course, it's not a real meal dish, but it's incredibly versatile.
posted by Spatch at 1:06 PM on December 8, 2008

Cobbler! Peach, strawberry, cherry, etc.
posted by pearlybob at 1:08 PM on December 8, 2008

bell peppers + onion + tomato + chicken

Change the spices and you can go Indian, Mexican, Hungarian, or whatever floats your boat. Check out the allrecipes.com ingredient search feature and enter what you have and receive a bunch of new ideas.
posted by Science! at 1:09 PM on December 8, 2008

Oh, I should probably mention: I'm an ovo-lacto vegetarian, so meatless dishes would be most useful to me.
posted by greenie2600 at 1:11 PM on December 8, 2008

Aside from being hearty, bean-based stews containing certain spices,

Heh, a lot of Texans would take great offense at that statement. The original chili con carne was just meat cooked in a paste of dried chile, a few spices, and water. Beans were added later, and traditional Texas chili contains no onions, tomatoes or beans. So you've even got more variation in just chili than you thought.

My contribution would be calzones. You can wrap up an amazing array of leftovers in dough, maybe add a little cheese or sauce, and bake it into gooey goodness.
posted by TungstenChef at 1:15 PM on December 8, 2008 [1 favorite]

To get photogenic cookies you should probably follow a recipe. To get delicious cookies, all you really need is something sticky and something with leavening power combined with whatever yumminess you find around your kitchen. Use bananas/applesauce/apple butter/whatever instead of eggs and, worst-case scenario, you're left with a bowl of delicious you eat with a spoon.
posted by teremala at 1:29 PM on December 8, 2008 [2 favorites]

Any sort of noodle soup really. I prefer soba noodles but you all you need are noodles, stock, and whatever is in the fridge. The spices really determine what "style" the soup is; Asian, Italian, Spanish/Mexican, etc etc. It's all good and ready in less than 20 min. The dish in its infinite variations is a staple in my humble bachelor pad.
posted by elendil71 at 1:31 PM on December 8, 2008

Seconding soup. One of our all-time favorite cookbooks is Twelve Months of Monastery Soups. Bonus - nearly all of the recipes are vegetarian, and the few that are not could be made so easily. The recipes are arranged by month so that you can make use of what's in season. Other than vegetable stock, it's amazing what a few combinations of vegetables and herbs can become.

Store-bought soup just tastes nasty now, with the exception of some of the Trader Joe's carton soups that I picked up last week just to try. Even so, we'll just start making our own butternut squash soup now.

Toss in a loaf of homemade bread. It just doesn't get any better than that!
posted by jquinby at 1:39 PM on December 8, 2008

I like the grain + protein combo b/c it's easy, forgiving, usually cheap, and you can add in whatever you have around. For example: rice+beans+chili peppers, quinoa+tempeh+orange pieces, bowtie noodles+buckwheat+onions, white beans+leafy greens, so on. Pick some dried grains and beans that you especially like and keep 'em on hand.
And salads, of course--a bag of pre-washed spinach, throw in some nuts and cranberries any whatever veggies you like, and voila!
Roasted or broiled potatoes can be paired with lots of different flavors
And, besides having the main ingredients for a dish on hand, it's a good idea to have a well-stocked spice/vinegar shelf--that'll go a long way towards giving you variety of flavor.
posted by aka burlap at 1:50 PM on December 8, 2008

Alton Brown has the term "refrigerator velcro" for foods that are good for putting in whatever leftovers/staples you have around. I found quite a few hits by googling that term.
posted by radioamy at 2:17 PM on December 8, 2008

Omelets - egg and whatever fry it (or bake it). Fold it in half and you've got an omelet!
posted by 26.2 at 2:29 PM on December 8, 2008

If you're interested in a book that might be helpful, Pam Anderson's How to Cook Without a Book is a really great resource. It's all about the staple techniques and how to do variations from them on the fly, with loads of examples.

That's Cooks Illustrated's Pam Anderson, not Baywatch's, for the record.
posted by bcwinters at 2:53 PM on December 8, 2008

Get Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. He has useful lists like 25 variations on tomato sauce and "how to improvise a soup." (He also has a non-vegetarian blog.)

So those are a couple right there:

- Pasta with tomato sauce -- look up a generic recipe. Add any veggies (or Quorn brand "Chick'n cutlets") at the beginning as you're sauteing the onions. Lots of fresh or dried herbs are good with this: oregano, basil, thyme, parsley. Add red chili flakes (often called crushed red pepper) at the beginning for a kick. Add honey or brown sugar near the end. Top with different cheeses. Sprinkle bread crumbs near the end if you need to thicken it.

- Soup -- I think his recipe is similar to making a vegetable stock, but instead of draining the liquid and throwing out the veggies, you leave the veggies in and add whatever else you want. Bare minimum (for a stock or this soup) would be to sautee chopped onions, carrots, and celery in olive oil, then add several cups of water, salt, bay leaf, probably thyme, bring to a boil, then simmer for half an hour or so. That'd be really boring on its own, but you make it interesting by adding more ingredients -- mushrooms, tomatoes, potatoes, peas, etc. etc.

More:

- This can spawn 100 different dinners: saute vegetables (including garlic and/or onions) in olive oil while cooking pasta. Add any dried herbs/spices near the beginning to the saute. When the pasta's done, drain it and toss it in a bowl with olive oil and parmesan cheese, then add the veggie mix. After you've mixed everything else, liberally add fresh parsley and/or basil. One of my favorite variations is to use dried tomatoes (reconstituted by soaking in hot water), artichoke hearts, and asparagus as the veggies (or any 2 of those 3), and when you add the cheese at the end use feta as well as parmesan. Squeeze a lemon slice into it at the end.

- Similar to the above except instead of pasta use quinoa ("KEEN-wah"). (If you go to a conventional grocery store that doesn't have this, try the bulk section of a natural food store.) Boil 1 cup of water (per person), then add 1/2 cup of quinoa (per person) and simmer, covered, at least 20 mins., till the water's absorbed. Meanwhile, prepare whatever veggies you want, then mix them all at the end. Quinoa's super versatile and nutritious (complete protein!) but extremely bland, so you need to think of a way to inject lots of flavor, e.g. make it spicy with chili flakes and/or red cayenne pepper and/or tabasco sauce.

- Eggs with veggies mixed in. Scrambled eggs or a frittata is better than an omelet because you can stuff it with more veggies for more nutrition + flavor. To make a frittata, you basically whisk eggs, add cheese + herbs + pre-sauteed veggies to the bowl; heat olive oil in a big frying pan, and pour in the egg mix. Wiggle the pan to make sure the eggs don't stick. When you've checked that the bottom looks done (not too brown), flip it over (tricky!), keep cooking for a bit more (I use medium high heat the whole time), then serve. (I learned the frittata technique from Deborah Madison's fantastic book Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.)

- Another soup idea: I've recently become obsessed with potato & leek soup. There are tons of recipes out there. It's a very basic soup, nothing fancy. But it's so neutral it gives you a lot of potential to add to it. It's much better if you blend it in a blender at the end -- just a little, so it stays chunky. Sour cream and chives are a standard garnish, plus you can mix sour cream into it near the end. The other day I added fried tempeh. You can make the soup almost meat-like by adding just the right amount of soy sauce at the end.

Obviously, add salt + pepper + whatever else you want to all these.

- An acquired taste: make a pungent fruit salad by starting with a couple fruits, e.g. strawberries and cantaloupe, then adding green olives and feta. (Thanks to this photo for the idea!)

A few more:

- pasta salad (can have just about anything)

- sandwich - mustard/mayo + fake turkey + cheese (gouda, swiss, muenster) + ____

- salad!!! I like lettuce + gorgonzola + walnuts + 1 or 2 fruits (mandarin oranges, Asian pears, green apples) + homemade vinaigrette

- gazpacho - use a standard recipe, then get creative with garnishes like hard-boiled eggs, avocado, sour cream, etc.

- pita bread spread with hummus + __________
posted by Jaltcoh at 4:37 PM on December 8, 2008

One more...

This is how I do pasta primavera -- it's a variation on the above pasta-and-sauteed-veggies. Follow that pattern, but just sautee thinly sliced bell peppers (red or yellow). Meanwhile, steam asparagus and broccoli -- don't sautee them. Chop a tomato or two but don't cook it. It's nice to use yellow peppers with red tomatoes, or use yellow tomatoes with red peppers -- very appealing color combo. It takes some thoughtful timing, but by the end you want to have all the veggies and the pasta and combine them all with plenty of parmesan and fresh herbs. A lot of pasta primavera recipes have you adding cream to make a cream sauce -- you could do that, but the creamless version is healthier and still tastes great. Now if you want to vary it: omit 1 or 2 of the vegetables I've listed, and add one or 2 others.

Oh, and when you make pasta dishes, be a nutritious vegetarian by NOT making tons of the pasta itself -- go easy on the pasta, but go crazy with everything else.
posted by Jaltcoh at 4:53 PM on December 8, 2008

I recommend the "egg bake." The only constant is eggs and bisquick. Betty Crocker has a recipe.
posted by radioamy at 7:29 PM on December 8, 2008

Pot pies, stews, and curries. (All can be veggie, of course!) Beyond a few basics, I tend to choose the ingredients and spices depending on what's at hand. All three are also great comfort foods!
posted by ubersturm at 7:53 PM on December 8, 2008

scones
posted by amtho at 8:15 PM on December 8, 2008

Potato salad can be made in a myriad of ways (with egg or without, with mayonnaise or with sour cream, with peas, with shallots, with chives etc etc etc).
posted by h00py at 2:37 AM on December 9, 2008