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Comment by spodek | Hacker News Reader

I use a Cuisinart pressure cooker like a chain smoker. I cook a vegetable stew that lasts 4 or 5 meals, then cook my next vegetable stew for the next 4 or 5 meals, and so on.

No recipes. Basically what's fresh and in season from the farmers market with legumes (lentils, beans, peas, et), nutritional yeast, herbs or flavoring (usually ginger or jalepenos) and water. Then salt to taste, topped with nuts, and crispy vegetables like onion or pepper.

Actually, here's a video of it -- http://joshuaspodek.com/20-minute-vegetable-stew. It's 20 minutes and not that exciting, but it shows how to make a delicious stew from entirely fresh ingredients with zero planning.

I make bread starting with wheat berries in it (grinding them into flour in the blender first). Also fruit stews that are incredible desserts.

Total life changer. Restaurants are disappointing in comparison and I live in Manhattan. It paid for itself in the first use.

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I'd be glad to know how to make bread in a pressure cooker!

There are youtubes for that :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uks40XzQtyU

First the caveats: My pressure-cooked bread tastes delicious to me, but I experiment so my results vary. Most batches wouldn't make it into a bakery.

For one thing, I start with wheat berries that I turn into flour in my blender. I blend some to fine flour so it gets doughy, but some course, which gives more texture and, I hear, lowers the glycemic load or something like that.

For another, I add flavors. I started with garlic and onions, then moved to banana, carrot, apple, cocao powder, etc, and various combinations, usually based on what's in season at the farmers market. The one I made over the weekend had banana, cranberry, and ginger.

Here's the recipe I started with, though I use water instead of milk to keep it vegan.

- 2 cups (250g) all purpose flour

- 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate baking soda (not baking powder)

- 1 teaspoon salt

- 1 1/4 cup (270g)whole milk plain yogurt (or sour milk, or milk with 1¼ tablespoons of vinegar)

- water in pressure cooker under the metal container the dough goes in

Instructions:

1. Oil metal container so bread doesn't stick

2. Mix everything

3. Pressure cook high presser 15-20 minutes with 1/2 cup water under the metal container

I've only done soda bread, working my way to yeast.

My metal container happens to be my rice cooker bowl. I don't use the rice cooker any more, but the bowl fits perfectly in the pressure cooker. To keep the metal bowl from touching the pressure cooker's teflon, I cut some potatoes and put them in the water, so I get a few pressure-cooked potatoes in the process.

These pages have pictures that helped, although my bread is much more grainy and brown:

- https://www.hippressurecooking.com/pressure-cooker-bread-les...

- http://www.instructables.com/id/Easy-Bread-Anywhere%3A-%22Ba...

I presume buttermilk works as well?

I avoid animal products so can't say.

> I cook a vegetable stew that lasts 4 or 5 meals, then cook my next vegetable stew for the next 4 or 5 meals, and so on.

I hope you change it up more often than that. Do you get sick of stew all day every day?

On the contrary, I have more variety than ever.

I keep telling myself to try recipes, but when you buy everything in season, every week I'm getting new ingredients with new flavors, textures, and so on. There's huge variety. I look forward to seeing what new tastes and flavors I'll find this week.

The stew I'm eating for lunch now has Lima beans, Brussels sprouts, kale, carrots, squash, onion, jalepeno, and a few other vegetables.

In August it would have had eggplant, broccoli, red peppers, and a mix of dozens of other vegetables.

In June it would have had spring vegetables.

In February it will have parsnips, beets, cabbage, and so on.

The legumes in my cupboard include Lima beans, split peas, and lentils, and some red/white striped bean from my CSA. In the past month I've used kidney beans, adzuki, pinto, northern, and I forget what other kinds.

(I should mention, I eat other things too -- oatmeal with fruit and nuts for breakfast, lots of fruit, nuts, uncooked vegetables, etc.)

If you work the combinatorics of one legume plus, say, three or four vegetables/mushrooms, nuts and other toppings, there's more variety than I'll exhaust in my lifetime.

I've never eaten this much variety.

That said, I've been meaning to make a Thai dish. I keep telling myself to try, but I keep enjoying what local farms provide.

Here are reviews from friends of the results: http://joshuaspodek.com/food-world-reviews.

I'm fairly utilitarian about cooking and I see where OP is coming from... After working a full day I don't want to take more time to cook and clean. I want to relax or do something fun, and cooking isn't that for me. Being able to make a meal that lasts 2ish days is pretty excellent way of not having to spend time on cooking while still getting a good (if repetitive) set of meals.

On the other hand my wife enjoys cooking so she'll end up doing most of that and it's my job to clean up afterwards. Time-wise it works out to about what it would take for me to make something simple. When she leaves town for a few days I go back to my utilitarian ways.

I dunno, I think Soylent has shown there's a niche market of people who just want nutrition.

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