Salads
Coleslaw
A creamy, tangy slaw that stays crunchy instead of sitting in a puddle. The lesson here is salting: pulling the water out of a vegetable before it ever meets the dressing.
View recipe · 4 servingsBudget recipes
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9 recipes
Breakfast
French toast
French toast turns bread that's a day past its prime into breakfast. It teaches two things you'll use far beyond this dish: making a simple custard, and cooking something egg-rich gently enough that the center sets before the outside burns.
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Soups
Lentil soup
Lentils need no soaking, cost little, and turn a pot of broth into a meal in a little over an hour. This soup teaches you to bloom spices in fat, to cook dried lentils until creamy without bursting them, and to blend part of the pot so it has body without flour or cream. The lemon at the end is what makes it taste alive.
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Soups
Minestrone
Minestrone is a vegetable soup built on timing. The slow base goes in first, the hard vegetables next, and the soft vegetables, beans and pasta last, so everything is done at the same moment. Learn that order once and you can make it from whatever is in your crisper drawer.
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Breakfast
Overnight Oats
Stir this together at night and breakfast is waiting when you open the refrigerator. The oats never see heat: cold milk and yogurt soften them slowly while you sleep. Your whole job is the ratio and the seasoning, so the jars come out creamy and spoonable, neither pasty nor soupy.
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Soups
Potato leek soup
A few inexpensive ingredients, a little patience with the leeks, and a soup that tastes far richer than it is. It teaches you to clean leeks properly, sweat them to silky sweetness without color, and blend potatoes so they turn creamy instead of gluey.
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Soups
Split pea soup
Split peas cook down on their own into a thick, velvety soup, and a smoked ham hock gives the pot its smoke, salt and meat. This soup teaches slow simmering, pulling flavor out of a bone, and handling a soup that keeps thickening long after you turn off the heat.
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Breakfast
Stovetop Oatmeal
A pot of oatmeal is a few minutes of easy stirring, and it teaches three moves you'll use far beyond breakfast: toasting a grain in fat, cooking starch to a creamy set, and salting the liquid early. Made this way, it tastes like toasted oats and warm milk, not paste.
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Salads
Three bean salad
Crisp green beans, creamy kidney beans and nutty chickpeas in a sweet-sour dressing that gets better as it sits. It teaches blanching and shocking, and why canned beans need real time in a dressing.
View recipe · 4 servings