Let's all make Human Food
By from February 21, 2005
Mike invented something called Human Food many years ago. As he created it, it was a mess of stuff that got you full and didn't really require cooking. The main version was, if I remember correctly, rice, kidney beans, and grated cheese ( blue food coloring optional).
Since then, I've refined the human food concept a little bit to make it work better for me. As I see it, human food is a quick, easy, one-pot meal that is filling, healthy, and provides lots of leftovers. I like to include at least one kind of starch, one kind of protein, and at least one kind of vegetable, plus whatever spices or other tastymaking ingredients you use. You can optimize your recipe for ease (e.g. use all canned beans & veggies), taste (adding more ingredients, spending a little more time), color (see above reference to food coloring), or whatever.
Today I made a batch of human food: I cooked wheat berries and canellini beans. When they were done, I sauteed up an onion and a bunch of garlic, threw in a splash of white vermouth, added a can of good-quality tomatoes and a bag of frozen spinach (new favorite ingredient! delicious and grit-free!). I finished with pepper, salt, and a splash of balsamic vinegar. It was delicious and took about 15 minutes (not including the cooking time for the beans and wheat).
There are a million variations for Human Food, though. You could make a Mediterranean rice salad with rice, tuna, olives, tomatoes, and feta, and lots of good olive oil and balsamic. Or an Indian spiced one, with basmati rice, garbanzos, diced squash, raisins, and spices (coriander, cumin, cinnamon, and/or curry powder). If you prefer Japanese food, go for sushi rice, cooked carrots, grated daikon radish, and pre-shelled edamame (another favorite ingredient, available in the frozen food section of good grocery stores and Asian markets), seasoned with sushi vinegar and soy sauce and sprinkled with nori and/or sesame seeds.
Rice isn't the only thing you can make human food with, but it's especially easy if you have a ricemaker. Here Ritchey cooks human food without even knowing it (but you'll note that in my version I add beans to fit my own definition). You could base it on couscous, pasta, quinoa, potatoes, or whatever. And as for protein, beans are great and cheap, but baked tofu, hard-boiled eggs, cheese, or nuts are great too. And of course, there are a million vegetables you could use.
Feel free to comment with your favorite Human Food recipes.
<< | Posted on February 21, 2005 at 10:25 PM | >>
And maybe some pasta at the end after the heat is turned off, plus grated real Parmesan cheese? Sign me up!
Posted by freddy @ February 22, 2005 10:20 PM
I prefer to use a pasta base for my human food concoctions. I love to have large egg noodle elbow macaroni around for the random pasta salads (cilantro being key here with the extra virgin olive oil. I suggest against spicing with red wine vinegar... man I was hungry that day.) and sometimes using some cheese, usually black or kidney beans, and some sort of leafy green to help the whole thing along. Makes an awesome tupperware lunch as well.
Posted by Steve Camuti @ February 24, 2005 5:36 PM
a human food i make is peanut sauce! peanut butter, soy sauce, lime juice, brown sugar, cilantro, vinegar, ginger, squish it up, dump it on noodles, MMMMM. Human food! I love human food.
Posted by ritchey @ February 25, 2005 3:56 PM
I made two new human food recipes recently:
1. Garbanzos, cooked couscous, chopped cooked carrots, raisins, parsley, and a dressing of lemon juice, lots of tomato paste, sugar, salt, pepper, sweet hungarian paprika, cumin, and lots of olive oil...am I forgetting something? I'll try to remember and post if I did.
2. Three bean salad human food: canned green beans, garbanzos, kidney beans, tuna, with cooked rice and capers (and pickled peppers because I had them). The dressing was red wine vinegar, pressed garlic, sugar, salt, pepper, dijon mustard, and olive oil.
They were both tasty and made a lot.
Posted by freddy @ April 4, 2007 10:56 AM
I should have said, the key is to make plenty of dressing. The grain soaks it up (which is part of what makes it delicious) and you don't want it to be dry. If you make it the day before you eat it, check it in the morning and add more dressing if necessary.
Posted by freddy @ April 4, 2007 11:30 AM
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At the end of summer I make minestrone, the recipe for which is: whatever is still in the garden. Might include peppers, tomatoes, zucchini or other squash, shelled overripe beans, potatoes,chard, leftover corn cut off the cob from a previous night's barbecue, canned garbanzos, leftover bits of meat, etc., etc. It automatically hits all the food groups, and feels virtuous and healthy and morally superior.
Posted by Momcat @ February 22, 2005 8:01 PM