Comment by spodek | Hacker News Reader

Comment by spodek | Hacker News Reader

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I used to eat mainly processed to ultra-processed.

My neighbor came over for some of my famous no-packaging vegetable stew yesterday. She said she was overwhelmed with how delicious it tasted. I made two stews. Here are the ingredients:

Stew 1: Black beans, potatoes, cabbage, nutritional yeast, epizote, zucchini, water.

Stew 2: Split peas, chard, zucchini, nutritional yeast, water.

Both were topped with onion, nuts, cucumber, and nuts. Salt to taste.

The beans, peas, nuts, and salt were from bulk from my local coop (filling containers I brought). All other ingredients from my CSA or the local farmers market.

Maybe a quarter cup of scraps to compost. Zero to a landfill.

Dessert was nectarines that I couldn't help but say, "I can't believe anyone eats ice cream" they tasted so good. Appetizers were tomatoes from my CSA and greens from my windowsill garden.

Total cost: maybe $10 worth of food, enough to eat for 7 to 10 meals.

Now I eat like this all the time. Anyone in or around Manhattan interested in sampling, I'm easy to find. Email me and come over for some famous no-packaging vegetable stew. Especially mid to late summer when I have trouble keeping up with all the CSA vegetables.

If you are stew / soup fan and just getting into it. I cannot recommend a pressure cooker enough. Reduces cooking time by 60-80%.

Just throw in a load of veg and you can have pretty much a weeks worth of food to freeze ready in 10minutes incredibly cheaply.

If you also eat a lot of dried beans / lentils / chickpeas it is a godsend for how quickly it is ready and thoroughly cooked all the way through and dried beans at probably (here at least) 20% of the cost of tinned beans (even less if you buy in bulk).

Yes, my pressure cooker changed everything! I bought it used from Craigslist, not knowing what to expect.

My neighbor came over because she got a pressure cooker, heard of my reputation cooking with mine, and asked for a lesson. Here are reviews: http://joshuaspodek.com/food-world-reviews.

While my public speaking is mostly on business leadership and entrepreneurship, I increasingly speak on sustainability and sometimes include making my famous no-packaging vegetable stews.

On Earth Day this year I cooked for about 2 dozen at Lululemon's flagship store on 5th Avenue and spoke on sustainability. Last year I cooked for 50 or 60 at Brooklyn North Farms for Faherty clothing, another time at Assemblage coworking space, and I forget where else.

Here's a video of me cooking: http://joshuaspodek.com/20-minute-vegetable-stew from about 3 years ago.

I didn‘t know what the US-acronym CSA stands for. Looked it up and assume it’s Community Supported Agriculture?

Yes - kind of like the monthly boxes that were super popular a few years ago that would give you a grab bag offering for a monthly fee. I’ve also heard them referred to as co-op (short for cooperative). There are a few different types and ways that they work. Some ship to you and others you have to go pick up, the one I was a part of was affiliated with the local farmers market. The farmer who ran it would bring his goods to sell individually at the farmers market, but at the same time, you could pay a monthly fee to take home a selection of stuff that was in season. So instead of buying 3 tomatoes, 4 onions, or 5 apples individually from him, you would get a basket that had either 3 tomatoes and 4 onions or 3 tomatoes and 5 apples (your choice) that was cheaper than buying individually.

Those stews sound delicious. Any particular nuts, or just whatever's available?

Minor nit: the best nectarines are still worse than the best ice cream. ;-)

Whatever nuts I have on hand.

The nuts are the only fat I put in, which adds incredible texture and flavor, so I add them liberally. If I'm in a place where avocados grow, I'll use them, and they taste amazing.

I haven't eaten ice cream in years. I grew up eating tons of it and couldn't stop myself from always having some in my fridge through graduate school, maybe into my 40s, but I've lost the taste for foods where the main pleasure comes from added salt, sugar, or fat. There is a Van Leeuwen across the street from me, often with a line down the block, but it doesn't register as food for me. Meanwhile, I walk miles to pick mulberries, juneberries, raspberries, and blueberries, knowing where some grow wild, even after I've eaten pounds already. OMG, the burst of the fruit juice and all its flavor is like a religious experience.

Would adding lard be an acceptable fat to throw in?

I grew up on a farm, my grandma and my family in general never stopped using fats in recipes. I use it for making cornbread alllllll the time.

Quote from my late grandma: "Its almost impossible to use too much fat when cooking"

I've since learned how to use duck fat as well in French cuisine. It dramatically reduces how much sugar you need to use in recipes.

And have you ever made home made ice cream? Its waaaaaay better than the ice cream you buy in stores. Then again, we made it from fresh cow milk we milked that morning, my god do i miss that. The ice cream, the cows can go suck eggs. :)

Ice cream is delicious. So are nectarines.

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