Eleven core ingredients

Perfectly suited to our times, Start Simple encourages an intuitive approach

Roasted red Swiss chard stems, soft and silky, were the first thing I made out of Lukas Volger’s fourth cookbook, Start Simple (Harper Wave, 2020). I had stripped the leaves days, maybe even a week, prior and stashed the bare stems in the crisper for some future undetermined use. Understandably, they were a bit straggly when I pulled them out last Friday night. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic had inevitably hit close to home and, feeling vulnerable, I wanted to transmute that emotion into resourcefulness.

Rather than toss the unsightly stems, I opened Volger’s book and preheated the oven. Twenty-odd minutes later, I had a few straight from the baking sheet. They were tender and satisfyingly salty. The rest I chopped up and added to some leftover brothy beans, which I heaped on top of a slice of rye sourdough toast and drizzled with olive oil. This unassuming enchilada component (recipe follows) was just what I needed. On another day, I might have felt mournful that I had waited so long and just thrown the stems out. But compelled to make the most of everything, I ended up with a tasty snack and meal add-on with very little effort.

Perfectly suited to our times of social distancing and self-isolation, in Start Simple, Volger encourages just this kind of intuitive approach to cooking. With health officials recommending we stay at home as much as possible to flatten the COVID-19 curve, it’s neither feasible nor necessary to feel bound by ingredient listings. Viewing recipes as inspiration — adapting them to your own individual circumstances — is the appropriate attitude now more than ever.

Volger structures Start Simple around 11 core ingredients (and a bonus dessert chapter) — including a carton of eggs, hearty greens, crowns of cauliflower or broccoli, a stack of tortillas and beans, canned and dried — all of which keep well in the fridge or larder. In contemplating how to make everyday, vegetable-forward cooking more achievable, he decided to start with his grocery-store essentials.

“I started paying attention to what I was always throwing in my grocery basket when I went to the store, and looking around and peeking in other people’s carts,” he says. “I ended up focusing on these 11 ingredients, which happen to be available everywhere pretty much all year long. They’re very common, (to the extent) that they are probably already in a lot of people’s fridges and pantries.”

In highlighting a multitude of options for these familiar ingredients, Volger illustrates ways of embracing a more realistic brand of weeknight cooking. As an experienced cook who has worked in restaurants, food production and media, he has developed a knack for being able to open the fridge, take stock of its contents and create a delicious meal. When spending time with his brother and his family, to whom he dedicates the book, Volger noticed a disconnect between the way they viewed the food in their fridge and the possibilities he saw.

“With my brother, my sister-in-law and my nieces, and their crazy life with two dogs and two jobs — nothing out of the ordinary but to me, their life looks completely crazy — they want to be eating better. They want to be eating more vegetables. They want to be cooking at home as much as possible, but it’s just been really hard,” he says.

Through offering creative, quick uses for common ingredients, Volger aims to make everyday cooking more attainable. Once readers gain familiarity with his recipes, and how various components work together, he hopes they will feel confident enough to make the dishes their own, working with what they have. His concept rests on the fact that the best meals can usually be distilled down to the promise of the book’s title — they start simple.

“One of my favourite types of recipes are the ones where I think, ‘That sounds really good.’ And then I’m like, ‘Oh my god, I already have everything I need to make that right now,’” says Volger. “So I’ve tried for this cookbook to create as many of those opportunities as possible by really using some restraint in terms of throwing harder-to-find ingredients in there, or eliminating any unnecessary flourishes. Really having it be truly simple.”