Things I Eat: Wonder Pot

I went to this little training at work as while back called "Strive for Five: How to Creatively Consume your Fruits and Veggies" - well, I’m going to stick to the normal way, through my mouth. I did go to this little session and found they also stick to you putting food in your mouth.

Creative, my foot!

I find what always happens during these things is the presenter takes something healthy (beans) and then turns them into something else (Black Bean Brownies) and claims it's like God's gift to a six-pack of abs and eternal beauty.

Now, I’m not knocking the practice of using healthy stuff in generally "unhealthy" stuff  - but let's make delicious nutritional dense foods rather than catering to the media-death engine that stays if there is a cup of beans in something it’s awesome for you.

How about a wonder-pot! Everyone should have one. Why? Easy, healthy, delicious and original. And fast. And one pot. Who has time for dishes? I mean, I spend a lot of time staring at the wall so I probably do. . .but. . .America is about choice.

The super-awesome thing about it is you can use almost whatever you have laying around and really make it your way. You can pack it with veggies and even fruit and it's a power-house for your tummy!

What’s a Wonder-Pot? 
Wonder-Pots are one pot dishes normally like a stew or soup. You can throw in almost anything and have a dinner done in no time. To me, it’s a take on a gypsy stew but less complicated – but that’s ‘cause I make a super-mean gypsy stew.

I totally stole the name from one of my fav food blogs, Budget Bytes - in fact, she does an Italian version which is a little more stocked with stuff than mine.

You can check out my ramblings on stews and my gypsy strew here – Cook For Others – it’s got a couple more steps than a wonder-pot.

I do like to jack my stews up with all sorts of good stuff!

What You Need
Anything? Veggies? Lots of great veggies! Ok – whatever you have around. Here is what I put together on night.

• Red peppers
• Orange peppers
• Yellow peppers
• Green beans
• Tomatoes (I had fresh – but canned works!)
• Onion
• Garlic
• Rice noodles (fettuccini style, cause I like flat things) 

My spice palette is Italian based, so, I used:

• Basil 
• Oregano
• Thyme
• Paprika

Cooking Pot
I am in unnatural love with my French oven – or Dutch Oven – from Le Creuset. I use it all the time. Nothing sticks to it and you can cook things super fast. Even when frying something, I use it because of the high sides that really cut down or prevent splatter.

It lives on my stove 100% of the time and tells me things. I might even use it in a weight lifting routine – you don’t know me.

This is the best thing ever for a wonder-pot or gypsy stew or life.

You don't need to have this type of pot. They can be expensive but if you get a weird color (mine is yellow) it is a ton cheaper. You can use any large stewing pot you have.

What You Do
Anyhow, in my pot-of-pots, and as with all great Magyar recipes, I started with some onion strips and olive oil. Because I’m sticking to an Italian spice palette of tomato and basil, I used olive oil.

You could totally use coconut or avocado oil if you wanted to do a South Pacific or South American spice palette. I’d really been doing a lot of ginger lately and decided to change it up. How do you pick what you want? Snort some spices. Open your heart to love. Whatever – live life! Think about the actual flavors of food you like. Sometimes this can be hard because we are use to consuming food rather than tasting food.

As the onions got a little transparent, I threw in the yellow, red and orange peppers to get them nice and sauteed. Peppers are so delicious.

My peppers were actually leftover from something else I made at some point. Sometimes you find things in your fridge and you’re like “SCORE!” Peppers are sort of expensive so I use every little bit of them – and yellow and orange peppers are nice and sweet. About 20% of my peppers go directly into my mouth so finding some is always dance-worthy. I like them a little crunchy – al dente as the professionals say.

So, all of that is getting happy and saute-e. Then for the kicker – green beans (mine were actually frozen). What? Yes, green beans and tomato are fantastic together.

I love green beans in pasta and my stews. Shove that in your black bean brownie hole! Green beans are crunchy, sweet and I sometime pretend I’m a saber-toothed tiger with green bean teeth and chase my cat around. Is that not normal?

Then I added about 2 cups water with a bouillon cube. You could use a veggie broth or even a chicken broth, depending on how you roll. I like my cubes because I . I also threw in my noodles – a couple handfuls, not even a whole pack. Why? Because I like to squirrel away food. Besides, the green beans make up a lot of the “noodle” content.

Anyhow, listen people, I was raised where noodles were boiled in plain water then rinsed and only added at the end to any type of sauce. I can officially say this is wrong. I was raised wrong. I lived this lie for many years. Don't live this lie!

When you cook noodles in a wonder-pot, you keep them with their friends - the noodles infuse with the flavors and you don't lose the starch on the noodles which will help thicken up your pot and give those delicious flavors something to hold on to. And. .who has time for another pot? Not me. There’s a wall to stare at.

I added in basil, garlic, thyme and paprika, too. You can use fresh or dried - I used fresh basil that I chopped up and then dried everything else. You know, go crazy! I mean, I don't know why spices have those sprinkle things on them. Seriously, they prevent me from living life fully. I totally dump seasoning into my food like a mad scientist. If you love basil, use a lot of basil. If you love garlic - go freakin' nuts.

Then you just cover that pot up. While it was all bubbling and cooking away - I chopped up the last of my spinach and a couple tomatoes from my lover’s garden. . . and a couple stray scallions I found. I don’t like to overcook spinach and tomatoes and adding them last gives an extra layer of texture and excitement. I also don’t like to waste food. I have a lot of demands.

When I was done staring at the wall (legit) and/or the noodles were soft, I threw in the stuff I chopped and stirred that pot up a bit to warm up everything, seasoned a little more to taste – it thickened up a little more. . . and. . .boom. Dinner is served.

How @#$%ing beautiful is that? I just wish I had some parsley. . .

Your Pot
Ok, the secret to a wonder-pot is basically looking at what you have in your kitchen and making it. You could have used rice or even a couple types of beans instead of noodles. You could add a meat of your choice – even something leftover from another dinner. Maybe you add some taco type seasoning – cumin, coriander and garlic. Add some ginger, garlic and coconut oil for a different flare. Touch of truffle oil or sesame oil? Holla! Throw in some broccoli at the end for crunch. What about sundried tomatoes? Some grated carrot? Sweet potato. . pumpkin?!

And, let's be honest. You could even add some almonds for a worldly crunch or flaxseed and buckwheat groats. Ooo - asparagus or some Brussels sprouts would rock, too. Just add the sprouts at the end. Asparagus will stand up to some boiling.

Be a hero.

Also. . .
I like to put stuff into this Recipe Calculator to see, in general, how good it is for you. The black bean brownies from my work session earned a nutritional value of C-. It basically has no good points.

My Wonder-Pot is a grade A – Grade A for AWESOME. Your cells will sing hallelujah!

One pot meals, people. One pot meals so deliciously packed with flavor and all this stuff your body craves. Boom. Done. How long did it take me? As long as it takes to chop some veggies and boil some water.

Come on! Make it a meatless Monday and make yourself a pot of wonder.

Live. Large!