Our new series will explore the ease of one-ingredient recipes.
The Magic of One-Ingredient Cooking
Cooking delicious, home-cooked meals can sometimes feel like a major project. Complicated recipes with long ingredient lists can be intimidating, especially on a busy weeknight. But what if you could create multiple, distinct dishes by starting with just one core ingredient? This approach simplifies cooking, reduces waste, and opens up a world of culinary creativity. By focusing on a single, versatile protein like chicken, you can craft everything from a hearty stew to a flavorful soup. Let’s explore how this “one-ingredient” method can transform your kitchen routine, using a fantastic example: turning a base for Afghan Chicken Ghorma into a completely different Chicken, Chickpea, and Spinach Soup.
Simplify Your Shopping and Prep
One of the biggest hurdles to home cooking is the preparation. A long list of ingredients means more time spent at the grocery store and more time chopping, measuring, and organizing before you even turn on the stove. The beauty of the one-ingredient approach is its efficiency. You build your meals around a central component, which streamlines both your shopping and your prep work. For example, both the Chicken Ghorma and the Chicken, Chickpea, and Spinach Soup start with the same foundational elements: chicken, onions, garlic, and a blend of aromatic spices like cumin, coriander, and turmeric.
By preparing this base, you’ve done most of the work for two potential meals. You can make a large batch of the seasoned chicken and onion mixture. Use half of it tonight for the Ghorma, a rich and savory dish. Then, save the other half for a quick meal later in the week. To make the soup, you simply add water, chickpeas, and spinach to the prepared base. This method cuts your active cooking time significantly and makes it easy to have a wholesome meal ready in minutes. It’s a practical strategy that proves you don’t need dozens of unique ingredients to create varied and exciting dishes.
Unlock Health and Flavor
Focusing on a single star ingredient often encourages a healthier way of cooking. Instead of relying on processed sauces or pre-packaged flavorings, you learn to build flavor from scratch using whole foods. This recipe is a perfect illustration of this. The flavor doesn’t come from a jar; it comes from sautéing onions until golden, blooming fragrant spices like cumin and coriander, and letting fresh tomatoes cook down to release their natural sweetness. This process creates a depth of flavor that is both complex and wholesome.
This method also gives you complete control over what goes into your food. In these chicken dishes, boneless, skinless chicken thighs provide lean protein. The addition of fresh spinach adds vitamins and minerals, while chickpeas offer fiber and plant-based protein, turning a simple chicken dish into a nutritionally balanced meal. By making the soup version, you’re also increasing your hydration. Cooking this way allows you to manage salt levels and avoid the hidden sugars and preservatives common in many convenience foods. You get all the flavor with the added benefit of knowing your meal is made with fresh, healthy ingredients.
Explore Rich Culinary Traditions with One Ingredient Recipes
The one-ingredient approach is not a new trend; it’s a time-honored practice in many cultures around the world. It reflects a resourceful and intuitive way of cooking, where families would use a single main ingredient to create a variety of meals throughout the week. The Afghan Chicken Ghorma and its soup variation are deeply rooted in this tradition. Ghormas are a staple of Afghan cuisine, representing a category of stews or braises that can be adapted in countless ways. By learning the basic technique for a chicken ghorma, you are learning a foundational skill in Afghan cooking.
From this single base, the possibilities expand. The recipe shows how easily the Ghorma transforms into a nourishing soup with just a few extra ingredients. This flexibility is the heart of traditional home cooking. It’s about understanding ingredients and techniques, not just rigidly following a recipe. Exploring these “one-ingredient” recipes is a wonderful way to connect with different cultures. It allows you to appreciate the ingenuity of cuisines like Afghan cooking, where simple, high-quality ingredients are transformed into meals that are both comforting and rich in history. This approach makes global cuisines more accessible and shows that impressive flavors don’t always require complicated steps.
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One Ingredient Recipes Chicken, Chickpea and Spinach Soup
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Ingredients
¼ cup vegetable or olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced (or 1 heaping teaspoon of jarlic)
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon cumin seed
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
½ teaspoon turmeric
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
1 heaping tablespoon tomato paste
1 ½ – 1 ¾ lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs cut into bite sized pieces, about 1”
3 medium sized tomatoes, chopped
8 cups water
1 15.5 ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
6 ounces washed baby spinach (1/2 of a 12 ounce bag)
Instructions
Heat the olive oil in a pot that is at least 5.5 quarts that has a lid. Once the oil is hot, add the onions and let them cook until just lightly golden brown over a medium high heat for about 4-5 minutes. Turn down the heat to medium low and let them cook another 2-3 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Quickly add the salt, cumin, coriander, turmeric and black pepper and cook another minute until the spices give off their scent. Add the tomato paste, stir so the spices are well incorporated into the tomato paste and cook for about 2 minutes, or until the tomato paste is a deep red. Add the chicken pieces and stir again until all the chicken is well coated in the tomato-onion mixture. Turn the heat up to medium and cook the chicken until it is no longer pink and is no longer completely raw. This will take about five minutes. Stir it frequently so all sides of the chicken pieces are cooking. Add the chopped tomatoes and continue to stir and cook until the tomatoes release their liquid. Add the water and then turn the heat down to medium low, cover the pan with its lid, and simmer gently for 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes, remove the lid and add the drained and rinsed chick peas. Let the chick peas simmer and heat through for about 3 minutes. Then add the spinach. Cover the pot again and let the soup simmer for another five minutes. After five minutes remove the lid and add a squeeze of lemon to your soup and serve.
Notes
serve with salata and bread.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Category: soup
- Cuisine: Afghan
One Ingredient Recipe Chicken Ghorma
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Ingredients
¼ cup vegetable or olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced (or 1 heaping teaspoon of jarlic)
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon cumin seed
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
½ teaspoon turmeric
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
1 heaping tablespoon tomato paste
1 ½ – 1 ¾ lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs cut into bite sized pieces, about 1”
3 medium sized tomatoes, chopped
¼ cup water
6 ounces washed baby spinach (1/2 of a 12 ounce bag)
Instructions
Heat the olive oil in a pan that has a lid, add the onions and let them cook until just lightly golden brown over a medium high heat for about 4-5 minutes. Turn down the heat to medium low and let them cook another 2-3 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Quickly add the salt, cumin, coriander, turmeric and black pepper and cook another minute until the spices give off their scent. Add the tomato paste, stir so the spices are well incorporated into the tomato paste and cook for about 2 minutes, or until the tomato paste is a deep red. Add the chicken pieces and stir again until all the chicken is well coated in the tomato-onion mixture. Turn the heat up to medium and cook the chicken until it is no longer pink and is no longer completely raw. This will take about five minutes. Stir it frequently so all sides of the chicken pieces are cooking. Add the chopped tomatoes and continue to stir and cook until the tomatoes release their liquid. Add the water and then turn the heat down to medium low, cover the pan with its lid, and simmer gently for 15 minutes, stirring only occasionally to make sure nothing is sticking and there is enough liquid in the pan. After 15 minutes, remove the lid, stir the chicken and add the spinach. Let the spinach cook down and let the whole thing simmer again for 5 minutes, stirring frequently until the spinach is completely wilted and incorporated.
Notes
Serve with naan, rice, and salata.
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Cuisine: Afghan
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