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The week I fed four people for $32 using nothing but lentils and whatever was on clearance at Aldi in Pittsburgh
Tuesday night when the power flickered and I had to cook everything on a camp stove in the dark was actually the best meal of the week because the lentils soaked up the smoked paprika just right and my kid asked for seconds, has anyone else had a random cheap meal turn out way better than expected?
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the_elizabeth20d ago
Wait hold on, you said you cooked it all on a camp stove in the dark but then the lentils "soaked up the smoked paprika just right" - I mean, smoked paprika is awesome (I put it on everything, honestly) but if the power was out and you couldn't see what you were doing, how did you know they soaked it up just right? Unless you were going by smell alone, which honestly is kind of a flex. That said, I had a similar thing happen with a bag of old clearance sweet potatoes and some sad looking onions from the bottom of the bin at Trader Joe's (my Pittsburgh Aldi never has that kind of luck though) where I just tossed them in the oven with cumin and they came out way better than the fancy roasted veg I usually make.
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gray_hall420d ago
The point about taste and smell lying to you when you can't see is real, I've definitely burnt stuff that smelled fine. But honestly sometimes the luck factor is half the fun, like that time I threw random spices on a sad bell pepper and got the best roasted veg I ever made. Maybe the camp stove darkness just forces you to trust your gut more, which is risky but can pay off when everything clicks.
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parker_webb20d ago
Three out of three times I've cooked blind like that, I've messed up the seasoning because taste and smell lie to you when you can't see. Smoked paprika is great but you can't actually tell it "soaked up just right" without seeing the color change or tasting it, and smelling it while it's cooking just means you're smelling hot paprika smoke. I think people romanticize the whole "cooking by feel" thing when really it's just luck that it turned out decent.
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