For thousands of years, we have cooked what we have. The ingredients on hand always drove the decision of what to make, whether that was a haunch of venison, a bowl of chickpeas or a tangle of wild greens. The notion of eating what we want—selecting from a menu of desires, if you will—rather than what is available, is relatively new.
This is how any good cook thinks about preparing dinner: Cook what is handy instead of starting with a shopping list that adds expense and effort. It’s not just a better way to cook, it also is more economical and makes meal planning easier, maybe even unnecessary.
And it’s not just an exercise in the practical. It also is a way to teach people how to think about cooking so that one starts to behave like a real cook who can make something delicious from whatever is available, rather than simply follow a recipe.
A humble can of chickpeas, for example. It can be the start of something special, including the obvious hummus, or it can be transformed into something more adventurous, such as a chickpea and carrot curry, a garlicky chickpea soup, or smashed and charred chickpeas with lemons and scallions.
A basic can of tomatoes can become a sweet-and-savory tomato and rice soup, chilaquiles rojos, or an Indian-style tomato-ginger soup. Eggs and leftover vegetables can become frittatas or omelets, of course, but that’s just the start. They also can be cheesy migas, the Turkish spinach-and-egg dish known as ispanakli yumurta, or a Spanish tortilla with potato chips.
With practice, a peek in the cupboard or refrigerator becomes the starting point for a meal. A trip to the farmers market or supermarket can be a source of inspiration rather than an exercise in following a checklist.
Our “on hand” pantry includes the obvious: dried beans, grains, root vegetables, canned goods such as tomatoes and tuna, pasta, eggs, bread, etc. And we dip into the freezer—now a mainstay of the modern pantry—where we find chicken, ground beef, shrimp and vegetables. We even assembled a reliable list of cupboard confections easily created from baking items everyone has.
Freed from a recipe, we start to connect with our ingredients and develop the creativity and intuition that allow us to improvise based on the season and food in front of us. And that’s when cooking becomes an adventure, because you never know what tomorrow may bring.