Class #1: Intro to Intuitive Cooking / Vinaigrette & Marinated Lentils
“Cooking is both simpler and more necessary than we imagine.”
Some Key Takeaways
Intuitive cooking = an empowered kind of cooking. It’s about being guided by the seasons and your true cravings, rather than rigid recipes. It’s about feeling free, adaptive, and self-reliant in the kitchen, rather than depending on outside sources.
We all eat, and most of us eat 3 times a day, which is why I believe cooking to be an important skill to have. When we outsource our food, we give away some of our power - the power to source ingredients, to know exactly what we’re putting in our bodies, and to feel a joyful connection to our food. Meanwhile, cooking for ourselves and our loved ones is taking that power back into our own hands. But also, ordering pizza is one of life’s ultimate joys!
Intuitive cooking does require some basic skills and knowledge, but it’s all much easier to acquire than we’ve been lead to believe. Cooking is an inherent skill that we all have access to.
The more you practice having flow and freedom in the kitchen, the more confident you’ll become, which in turn will help you advance your cooking skills, techniques, and intuition.
Intuitive cooking makes preparing food fun, since it’s a creative act that leads to a delicious and nourishing outcome. It’s a playful act of making something with our hands, which so many of us don’t get to do in today’s digitally-dominated world. If you perceive cooking as tedious, try seeing it as a creative act of self-nourishment instead. The moment that cooking becomes play instead of a chore, everything shifts.
Anyone can be good at this kind of intuitive, home cooking! It’s all about finding the rhythm of cooking that’s right for you and honing in on that. It can be as simple or as elaborate as you choose. You absolutely don’t need to know any flashy techniques or to have perfect knife skills to be a good home cook. It’s your kitchen, so you make the rules.
Recipes
Vinaigrette is arguably one of the most useful recipes you can have in your back pocket, and it’s not even a full on recipe, more of a ratio. In its purest essence, it’s a combination of fat (which in this case is oil), acid (which is vinegar or citrus juice), and Dijon mustard that can be used as a dressing, sauce, or marinade. A good vinaigrette is incredibly simple to prepare, but will make anything you serve it with taste impressive and elevated. So, all you need to memorize to be able to make vinaigrette is this:
2 parts oil, 1 part acid, and Dijon mustard to taste
That’s it! Whisk a 2:1 ratio of oil to acid together, add Dijon to taste, season with salt and pepper, and you’ve got yourself a delicious, very customizable vehicle for making all kinds of foods taste better.
Use vinaigrette as a dressing for a simple green salad, for potato or pasta salad, or any salad, really. Use it as a marinade not just for lentils, but also beans, grains, or vegetables. Vinaigrette is delicious when used as a sauce, spooned over roasted or steamed vegetables, etc.
Knowing this one super simple ratio opens up a whole world of cooking possibilities. This is what intuitive cooking is all about - taking simple nuggets of knowledge, and learning to apply them whenever it feels right.
Vinaigrette
* the basic vinaigrette ratio is 2 parts oil, 1 part acid, and Dijon mustard to taste
1 medium shallot, diced
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar, other vinegar of choice, or citrus juice
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
In a large bowl, combine the shallot, vinegar, mustard, and salt and pepper to taste. Whisk to combine. Slowly stream in the olive oil while whisking it in, until emulsified. Taste the vinaigrette and adjust the flavors if needed.
Marinated Lentils with Sweet Potatoes and Pumpkin Seeds
serves 4
1 cup Beluga/black or French/green lentils
3-4 bay leaves
sea salt
vinaigrette (recipe above)
1 medium-large sweet potato, cubed
olive oil
freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup raw pumpkin seeds
handful of parsley and sage, or other herbs of choice
Add the lentils to a medium pot, and cover them with plenty of water. Add the bay leaves and salt to taste. Bring to a simmer over high heat and simmer, covered for 15-30 minutes, depending on the lentils, until soft and cooked through, but not mushy. Strain the lentils over a colander and discard the bay leaves. Add the warm lentils to the bowl with the vinaigrette, mix to combine. You can leave the lentils as is, and serve them as a side or add to salads/grain bowls. Or continue to the next step to spruce them up.
Preheat the oven to 400° F (200° C). Add the sweet potatoes to a parchment-covered baking sheet. Drizzle with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste, mix to coat. Roast for 30 minutes, stirring halfway, or until soft.
Heat a medium skillet over medium heat. Add the pumpkin seeds and toast, stirring frequently, until the pumpkin seeds are fragrant, plump, and golden in parts, about 2-4 minutes.
Add the sweet potatoes, pumpkin seeds, and herbs to the bowl with the lentils, mix to combine. Taste and adjust the flavors, if needed. Keep refrigerated in an airtight container.
Intuitive Cooking Takeaways
There are many ways to modify your vinaigrette according to what you’re cooking. You could add a finely grated garlic clove in place of the shallot. If you’re using citrus as the acid component, you can add the zest from that lemon or lime. In fact, I recommend doing that basically any time you’re adding citrus juice to something, since zest is incredible for elevating flavors. You can add fresh or dried herbs to your vinaigrette. Just think about the dish that you’ll be using it for, and imagine which herbs you’d like to have it with. For example, basil for a tomato salad, dill for potato salad, sage or rosemary for a winter squash and grain salad. You can also add spices or spice blends, like za’atar, furikake, chili flakes, etc. If you feel that the vinaigrette needs some sweetness, add a splash of maple syrup, agave, or honey. For a more savory and pungent flavor, add tamari or soy sauce, which would also welcome the addition of grated ginger. The possibilities here are truly endless. Get comfortable with the basic recipe, and then experiment.
To modify the marinated lentils, add other raw or roasted/grilled/cooked in some way vegetables in place of the sweet potato. Try roasted winter squash, beets, potatoes, cauliflower, or carrots in the fall and winter, roasted eggplant/zucchini, fresh tomatoes, or cucumbers in the summer, grilled asparagus or ramps in the spring, etc. In place of the toasted pumpkin seeds, try adding sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, hemp hearts, or toasted and chopped nuts like almonds, hazelnuts, pecans, etc. Add any fresh herbs that you think will go well with your other additions, like basil, dill, tarragon, thyme, scallions, mint, cilantro, etc. You can also use any cooked beans of choice in place of the lentils.
Q&A: If you have any questions about anything related to intuitive cooking, recipes, or any general kitchen stuff, I’ll answer them at the end of each future video class. Leave your question in the comment box below, or email us through the contact form :)