Karyn's Kitchen

Get Happy As a Clam

Deciding what to cook for dinner tonight is easy once you find inspiration.

Wondering what to cook for dinner tonight that’s easy? Get inspired by your travels and ingredients on hand.

Pasta is always welcome in our house and can be made with just about anything you have on hand. So what did I have? I found in the fridge some onion already diced. Half my work done for me. Hooray! I dumped that into a skillet with some olive oil to start cooking while I looked around for what else was easy. I spotted some zucchini in the fridge that was partially used already because I had julienned just the outside parts for a previous meal. The middles remained and I decided they would fill in for squash blossoms that I enjoyed in Italy. Now my vision was coming together.

spaghetti with clams, zucchini and tomatoes on a white plate

The Inspiration

My first dinner in Venice, Italy was pasta with squash blossoms and fresh clams. I didn’t have any fresh clams at home, but I had some canned ones and decided I had found my inspiration. Zucchini isn’t as decorative as its blossoms, but the flavor is similar. Think outside the box when deciding what to cook for dinner tonight. Easy!

a zucchini blossom growing in the garden

Once the diced onion had started to get some color, I added to it:

minced garlic
dried French thyme
dried basil
bay leaf
white wine
the clam juice from the canned clams

As the aroma filled the air and the sauce began to reduce, I started to get excited about dinner. I tossed into the skillet some cherry tomatoes to simmer just until the skins burst. Then I turned off the heat, added the canned clams and covered to await the cooked pasta. Canned clams are already cooked, so you simply want to allow them to heat through. If you cook them further, they will get rubbery. They’re a nice item to keep in your pantry for simple meals.

man and woman on gondola ride in Venice, Italy

I decided to plate this with a leaf of radicchio because it’s beautiful and I like a little bitter component to counterbalance so many sweet elements. I tore mine up and mixed it into the dish. A little goes a long way, so I generally mix it into salads with other greens. It’s a vegetable that keeps longer than a lot of others in your fridge, so you can peel off a leaf or two now and then and leave the rest for later. It makes cooking without a recipe so easy.

How have your travels inspired the meals you create at home? For another of mine, please read Skillful With Shellfish next.

Gotta Love a Frittata

Simple meals like this one are for any time of day.

Eggs are so versatile and can be eaten any time of day. In the U.S., we typically think of them as breakfast food, but not so in other places. I could eat a frittata for lunch or dinner with a salad. It’s easier and more figure friendly than quiche because you don’t have to worry about crust and cream. You can add any vegetables that you like and you don’t have to fuss with flipping an omelette. You gotta love simple meals like that.

Frittata with onions, swiss chard and cheese

How To

First, preheat the oven to 325. Then decide which vegetables you want to put in there and start sautéing them in a nonstick ovenproof skillet. I usually start with some diced onion and then some greens of some sort. Mushrooms or peppers are great too. Pictured above I used swiss chard. Kale in the picture below. Any dark leafy green pairs well with eggs, I think. You can use up all kinds of leftover bits and bobs in here too. Herbs and spices are welcome.

Whisk some eggs together in a mixing bowl and once the vegetables are tender, pour the eggs into the skillet. Stir so that everything gets incorporated and lower the heat. You don’t have to cook it for long on the stovetop because it’s going to finish in the oven. Top with cheese or tomatoes anything else you think would be good. Simple meals like this are so versatile.

Frittata with onions, kale, and tomatoes

Then pop into the oven and cook just until the eggs are set, meaning they don’t jiggle when you shake the pan. How long this takes depends on how many eggs you’re cooking. You can make a huge batch for a crowd or to keep for later. Leftovers are great at room temperature.

My frittata is a bit thin here because of how few eggs I used compared to the size of my skillet, but more eggs make a thicker one that’s even better. Simple and elegant, healthy and economical. Let me know what you put in yours as you start cooking without a recipe!

For another simply elegant egg dish, please read Effortless Benedict? next.

Amazing Zingy Unstuffed Cabbage Anytime

Simple meals begin with a well stocked pantry and freezer.

Simple meals like this one come together quickly when you keep basic ingredients in your pantry and freezer. Try this zingy “unstuffed” cabbage. You could go to the extra trouble of filling cabbage leaves with rice and seasoned meat, but I would rather put it all in one pot and let it do its thing.

2 white plates of red cabbage with ground turkey and rice served with Sauvignon blanc at a table covered with a decorative cloth.

My Syrian friend, Zouka, introduced me to all kinds of amazing Middle Eastern meals. At twelve years old, I fell in love with the bold, refreshing flavors of garlic, lemon and fresh herbs so characteristic of this cuisine. She is eager to share ingredients and techniques with those who take an interest in trying it themselves, making what was once foreign part of a repertoire of simple meals. My first solo experimentation in the kitchen as a teenager was inspired by tasting her food. Unaccustomed to the fragrant garlic, my family would leave me alone in the kitchen while I created my concoctions, tasting as I worked, adding more garlic…and more garlic…until I decided it was enough. That’s how I began cooking without a recipe.

In this “unstuffed cabbage”, begin by browning some ground turkey and then adding some minced garlic. Cabbage and a combination of basmati and jasmine rice go into the pot along with enough chicken broth to cook the rice. Season with salt, dried mint and lemon juice. Simmer covered, stirring occasionally, until it’s done.

Starting With Leftovers

Pictured above, I had some leftover brown rice in the refrigerator that had been cooked with turmeric. So that’s what I used. After cooking the ground turkey and garlic, I tossed in some cabbage, dried mint and lemon juice. I didn’t need to add a lot of liquid because my rice was already cooked, so I added the rice to the pot to reheat once the cabbage was tender. The acid prevents the red cabbage from turning blue. Green cabbage works just as well and I would prefer it if cooking along with dried rice.

You can play around with the ratio of all the ingredients. Do you want more cabbage or more rice? More ground turkey or other protein? For me, the lemon and mint are what make this dish both zingy and refreshing. It’s delectable and you could feed an army for very little money using pantry items. Yes, cabbage is kept in your refrigerator, but it has a long shelf life, so I consider it a pantry item. Lemons, like other citrus, can also keep longer than a lot of other fruits. Keep a little ground turkey in the freezer for such an satisfyingly simple meal anytime. Cooking without a recipe is so easy when you keep basic ingredients on hand.

Ingredients:

rice
ground turkey
cabbage
garlic
lemon juice
mint
chicken broth
salt

For more on using citrus and cabbage, please read Simple Ceviche next.

Simple Down Home Calzone

You can cook simple meals like this homemade calzone without a recipe.

We make pizzas with store bought dough regularly, but I didn’t think Michael would be very keen on a pizza without mozzarella, which we happened to be out of. So I decided to make a homemade calzone instead. Folded over and sealed up, I was sure he wouldn’t miss it. You can make all kinds of simple meals by using ingredients you have on hand.

Homemade vegetable calzone on a white plate

First off, I let a pound of store bought pizza dough rest at room temperature while I heated the oven and my pizza stone to 500. You can use a cookie sheet if you don’t have a pizza stone.

Zero waste cooking led me to some ricotta and roasted cauliflower I wanted to finish. So, after letting the food processor chop up the cauliflower, I mixed it with an equal amount of ricotta and a couple of cloves of minced garlic. Hooray for sneaking in more veggies! Spread that combination onto one half of the rolled out crust. What else could I fill this calzone with? I had some bell peppers and mushrooms in the freezer. So after sautéing some sliced onions in olive oil, I added the peppers and mushrooms to the skillet and cooked until tender. Seasoned with salt. Cooking without a recipe allows you to create an endless variety of simple meals everyone will love.

Homemade Sauce For the Calzone

Next I decided to make a quick and simple sauce to top the calzone. Sautéed some chopped onions and a couple of cloves of minced garlic in olive oil before adding some tomatoes from a can. Broke up some of the tomato chunks a little with a potato masher and simmered briefly until I liked the texture.

A quick note on canned tomatoes here: quality is very important. I use a lot of canned tomatoes and I have learned that they are not all created equal. I would rather pay a little more for organic, ripe canned tomatoes without any extra stuff added. As far as the style is concerned, whole peeled are very versatile. Chopped ones are great when you want them to hold their shape a bit.

Rolling Out Dough and Baking

Michael is the master of rolling out the dough, but I got a head start on it for him because I didn’t think it needed to be perfectly round or very thin for this meal. Once he saw what I was doing, though, he took over and tried to correct my work…with limited success. Hey, I was going to top this with sauce, so it didn’t have to look perfect. He also remembered to prick it with a fork to let the steam escape while cooking.

calzone on pizza stone beside rolling pin

After folding over and sealing up the edges, bake the calzone for 13-15 minutes or until crust is golden. Top with sauce and fresh basil to serve.

Again, cooking without a recipe is the goal for these simple meals. As with pizza, the sky’s the limit on what you can create. Develop your own intuition in the kitchen, using ingredients you have available. Below is what I had on hand and used for this Veggie Calzone. Have fun!

Ingredients:

pizza dough
ricotta cheese
roasted cauliflower
garlic
bell peppers
onions
mushrooms
canned tomatoes
olive oil
basil

Learn how to make our favorite pizza without red sauce next.

Care a Fig For Simple Meals

Experiment simple meals using figs and pork.

Last time I went shopping, there wasn’t an incredible amount of variety in meat choices. So, I purchased a pork tenderloin because there were plenty of those. With my anchor ingredient set, I decided something fruity would pair nicely with it. I decided to experiment with some fresh figs and repurpose leftovers for many simple meals.

fig pork tenderloin with rice and spinach on a white plate

Figs

Figs are my favorite in sweet and savory preparations. I am amazed at how many people say they don’t care for them. My friend, Amber, suggested that perhaps it’s because their first experience was with a prepackaged fig bar and that’s a sorry waste of a fig. I don’t mind fig bars myself, but I certainly would not say they express the true character of a fig.

Cooking Pork

I must say that I have a tendency to overcook pork tenderloin. My mother-in-law does it beautifully, but I have trouble serving it too pink. The package instructed me to cook this small one for 30-35 minutes at 350.

After preheating the oven, I rubbed the tenderloin with some olive oil and sprinkled with a little:

salt
garlic powder
cardamom

Put it into a casserole dish and cooked for 25 minutes before adding the quartered figs so everything could cook together for another 10 minutes to equal 35.

When I took the pork out of the oven, I removed the figs to a plate and sprinkled with a little salt. After resting for about ten minutes, I started slicing the tenderloin and decided to put it back into the oven for another 10 minutes because it appeared too pink for my sensibilities. (I don’t have a working thermometer at the moment, so if I am afraid that it’s underdone, I would rather cook it a little more just to be sure.) Before returning the baking dish to the oven, I drizzled a little balsamic vinegar in there along with some chopped red onion.

Zero waste cooking means the leftover pork reappeared in subsequent simple meals.

romaine salad with diced pork, figs, apricots and and toasted stuffing on a white plate — Leftover pork tenderloin topped this salad tossed with balsamic dressing. Apricots and toasted leftover stuffing balanced out flavors and textures.

pork tenderloin with broccoli on a china plate with black and gold edging. — After freezing leftovers and reheating the tenderloin, it reappeared with steamed broccoli dressed with lemon juice, red onion and parmesan

For another idea on adding fruit to your main dish, please read Feelin’ Caribbean next.

Simple Ceviche and Healthy Homemade Salad Dressing

Take a shortcut to making ceviche and enjoy healthy homemade salad dressings.

Too hot to slave away in the kitchen? Who says you have to? Make a healthy homemade salad dressing and serve ceviche instead. Okay, I confess this is not the real ceviche made by marinating raw fish in lime juice for an extended length of time. You can make a quick version with cooked fish and/or shellfish.

Start by putting pre-cooked shrimp and surimi in a big bowl. Squeeze lots of fresh lime juice over it and refrigerate while chopping the following ingredients:

green or red onion
jalapeno or serrano pepper
tomatoes
celery
cilantro
salt

Toss everything together and serve. It tastes best if you let the ceviche marinate while chilling for a few hours, but it’s not absolutely necessary as the seafood is already cooked. I won’t tell if you’re impatient and can’t wait to dig in!

I didn’t think of it this time, but I enjoyed ceviche that I had in Kauai once containing ground coriander. The next time they put fresh oregano in there. What other herbs or spices might you use? Let your imagination run wild and start cooking without a recipe. Chopped avocado would be great in this as well.

What have your travels inspired you to create? Find out how my family learned to make a legendary Caesar Salad from their travels.

Cabbage Salad With Healthy Homemade Salad Dressing

Smash a clove of garlic with a pinch of salt using your mortar and pestle. Whisk into it: equal parts white balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Toss with chopped cabbage and cilantro or mint. Add some cucumbers for additional texture and hydration. Delicious and refreshing!

red cabbage with cucumbers and mint on a white plate

How about adding an Asian flair to your salad dressing? Here’s an amazing one with healthy probiotics.

Improvise for Simple Meals and Burger Fervor

Rock simple meals with whatever is at hand.

We were in the mood for burgers, but we didn’t have any buns. Michael is a traditionalist when it comes to burgers, so I wasn’t sure if I could make this simple meal without them. Pickles are non-negotiable for sure. At our local burger joint, they know him as “Double burger, extra pickles”. Could I make him a burger without a bun? I looked in the freezer to see what kind of bread we had and then floated the idea of using pita. Imagine my surprise when he agreed to it.

Fortunately he had expanded his palate by eating burgers that way at a restaurant many years ago and decided it was good. In fact, it became his tradition to order a chili burger in pita there every time he went to a concert across the street at the famous Roxy Theater. This was in its heyday…a different era…he began to reminisce. Ah, I had hooked him on the pita.

Testing the limits, I told him that I didn’t have any big tomatoes for slicing, but suggested slicing the small grape tomatoes I had. That was fine too. I was on a roll cooking without a recipe!

Turkey burger in pita with caramelized onions, pickles, tomatoes, green onion and lettuce

Here’s an exception to my no bottled dressings rule: Thousand Island. I love it on my burger. You can also make your own for simple meals like this by mixing mayonnaise with ketchup and some sweet relish if you have it. Since I was using small tomatoes, I chopped up some green onions and tossed both with some of the dressing before putting them on the burger.

Cooking

Since I was putting these frozen fries into the oven anyway, I decided to cook the burgers in there too. You would get a better char on them using a grill or skillet, but I took the easy way. After about 20 minutes in the oven, I put them into a skillet briefly to get a little color on them. Simple meals rock.

Cooked the sliced onions low and slow in a skillet while the fries were in the oven. I wish I had gotten a better angle on the picture so you could see the caramelized onions better. You’ll have to trust me on that part. Summer just got better, even though there wasn’t a concert after dinner.

For another of Michael’s summer favorites, please read Michael’s Famous Tacos next.

Easy Eggplant Lasagna For Tonight

Here’s your easy answer for what to cook for dinner tonight.

Here’s a story about what to cook for dinner tonight that’s easy: Looking at an eggplant that I needed to use, Michael suggested that I had never made eggplant parmesan. Well, actually I have made it a number of times, but it’s been so long and if he didn’t remember, I didn’t think I needed to go to all that trouble.

I love eggplant parmesan, but it’s too labor intensive for me to think about making it very often. Baking the slices rather than frying simplifies it, but a number of steps are still required to do it properly. I generally prefer making simple meals from whatever was fresh at the market.

So, I opted instead to treat the sliced eggplant like lasagna noodles. I wanted to buy some lasagna noodles the other day, but the pasta aisle was too crowded, so I skipped it and decided this was what to cook for dinner tonight: easy!

eggplant lasagna with roasted fennel on a white plate — Eggplant lasagna with roasted fennel

Preparation

I do think it’s worth salting the sliced eggplant and letting it sit out on paper towels an hour before cooking. It draws out some moisture and any bitterness. If you’re cooking a different variety of eggplant that is long and skinny, that step isn’t necessary. But the big, rounded variety works well for this dish. By the way, if English is not your first language, have you wondered about the strange name of this vegetable? As I have explained to friends in the past, it refers to the shape, not the taste. This conversation had us in tears with laughter.

Into a greased casserole dish, I laid out the biggest slices of eggplant and then proceeded to build them up in layers like a lasagna using:

Jarred marinara sauce
ricotta cheese
mozzarella cheese
parmesan cheese
sliced eggplant

Repeat. In the middle layer, I put the no bake lasagna noodle that I did have. Then I looked for another vegetable to round out this meal and found a fennel bulb that needed to be used. So I sliced it up and scattered it into the baking dish around the eggplant slices in the empty spaces. Why dirty another cooking vessel? Work smarter, not harder and use what you have to create simple meals.

Covered and baked this for about 40 minutes and then uncovered for another 20 minutes. If you wanted it a little softer, you could cook it longer, but this is what worked for me. Simple and delicious…and my husband still referred to it as eggplant parmesan. 😂

Tender fennel is also delicious raw. See Meet the Beets for one suggestion.

Simple Salmon Sliders From the Pantry

Simple meals from the pantry are awesome.

Here’s what to cook for dinner tonight that’s easy. You can always pull together simple meals from the pantry using a can of salmon and some brown rice. I am not accustomed to eating many things from a can, so when Michael requested patties made from canned salmon years ago, I thought it was odd. But I quickly learned that they’re delicious and budget friendly. Kids love them too. Make anything in the shape of a burger and people get excited.

salmon sliders, rice and asparagus with lemon on a white plate — Salmon sliders with rice and asparagus

Preparation

With your canned salmon, mix together an egg and your choice of breadcrumbs to help everything stick together when you form the patties. ( I used panko, lightweight Japanese crumbs here.) Beyond that, you can take the flavor into whichever direction you choose. Here I decided to add a touch of horseradish and a pinch of dill and garlic powder along with some diced onion.

I often add lemon juice, but as I wasn’t making a big enough batch of salmon sliders, I left that out because I thought the lemon would make it too watery. Play around with other ingredients. Green onions, fresh herbs, Worcestershire sauce are all great additions. Cooking without a recipe allows you so much freedom to create with what you have.

The salmon sliders only take a couple of minutes on each side to cook. I kept them small because they’re easier to flip over that way. After removing them from the skillet, I tossed some asparagus into the same skillet to cook quickly in the remaining oil. Simple meals require less cleanup.

A squeeze of lemon juice on top is all that’s needed, but you could serve with any number of sauces that you enjoy. I had a little cocktail sauce that I decided to use, but tartar sauce is also good.

Canned tomatoes and canned fish are a must for the pantry. You will always find rice and other dried grains and beans in mine too. They last indefinitely and are a great supplement to other fresh items. For another tasty pantry meal, please read Pantry Pasta Perfection next.

Broccoli Beef and Other Ideas for Simple Meals

Make broccoli beef one of your homemade simple meals.

beef broccoli with rice on white plate — Beef with broccoli over brown rice

I may not know how to make Szechuan pork the way my favorite Chinese restaurant used to do it, but beef and broccoli with a quick sauce is one of those simple meals that’s easier than ordering takeout.

This thinly sliced beef was great for this. I dusted it with some corn starch and then seared it in a hot pan with some oil. Then I removed the meat and added enough water to the pan to scrape up all the brown bits with a metal spatula. (I didn’t have any beef broth handy or else I might have used that. But I decided that the browned bits would add enough flavor anyway.) Once that had reduced, I tossed in some minced garlic and minced ginger (from the freezer) and cooked those for a couple minutes before adding:

Mirin (sweet cooking sake)
Soy sauce
Go-Chu-Jang (Korean style hot/sweet sauce)
Water

I was just looking for a pleasing balance of sweet, salty and spicy. So eyeball the amounts and make it according to your taste. I always have soy sauce (salty) and mirin (sweet) and a bottle of something spicy hot around. Experiment with other ingredients if you don’t have these. Sugar and water or sugar and broth of some kind? Chili flakes? I used to keep oyster sauce and black bean sauce in my refrigerator, but I guess I don’t use them often enough to remember to restock them. Develop your intuition in the kitchen and start cooking without a recipe.

Once the sauce is boiling, toss in your broccoli florets and beef. Cover and reduce to simmer. Cook just until the broccoli is tender when pierced with a fork and the sauce has thickened up a little bit. It doesn’t take much more than 5 minutes. Quick and easy. Served over brown rice, it’s pretty healthy too, as simple meals should be.

Authentic?

Am I claiming to be an expert in authentic Chinese food? No way! Did this dish taste good and have my husband asking me to make it again? Yes.

I enjoy foods from all over the world and when I have had the privilege to sample some of them at the homes of friends from other countries, I often ask how to make a particular dish. Frequently I have been told that they will have to continue to make it for me because I wouldn’t know how it’s supposed to taste, so I shouldn’t try. Hooray for someone volunteering to cook for me! However, while it’s true that my palate would probably not be able to replicate every nuanced flavor the way a native would make it, I will forever try to do my best with what I have.

So, I encourage you also to try to identify the main ingredients of your favorite restaurant or ethnic dishes and experiment in your own kitchen. Play around with the various flavor components and see how they complement one another. You might end up liking your own version even better! Simple meals adapted to your own taste are so rewarding.

Try a similar sauce with different vegetables and chicken.

stir fried vegetables and rice on a black plate. bell pepper, garlic and green onions rest on orange napkin in the background. white teapot on the side

By the way, just because I only used broccoli florets above does not mean I threw the stems away. As long as you peel them, they’re perfectly flavorful and tender, either raw or cooked. Zero waste cooking! They were great in this salad another day.

garbanzo, broccoli and cabbage salad on a white plate — Broccoli stems with cabbage and garbanzo beans dressed with apple cider vinaigrette

Here’s an example of a “pantry salad”: canned garbanzo beans pair nicely with red cabbage and broccoli stems, which have a long shelf life when refrigerated. Simple meals can also be healthy!

For another Asian inspired dish using similar ingredients, please read Butakim next.