One pan / one pot, one meal - recommendations

[TdeV]

Looking for cookbooks or recipes which feature the main meal cooked in one pot. I'm interested in what kind of things can go in the same pot. Someone (might have been @JAZ) had a meatball, sauce and pasta combination for the Instant Pot. How do people resolve how much water to add to one pot dish of lentils?

 

So far, I have these two:

 

One pan, One Meal by Elena Silcock with (eG-friendly Amazon.com link)

 

Whole in One (Pot) by Ellie Krieger with (eG-friendly Amazon.com link)

 

It's noticable that some One Pan, One Meal recipe authors call for "1 cup rice, cooked" and others call for "1 cup cooked rice, frozen" which seem pretty equivalent to me.

[blue_dolphin]

Melissa Clark has a book out called Dinner in One: Exceptional & Easy One-Pan Meals: A Cookbook (eG-friendly Amazon.com link).  You can see the recipes in the Amazon sample but basically, it's divided into chapters on:

• Sheet Pans
• Skillets
• One-Pot Pastas & Noodles
• Dutch Ovens
• Casseroles
• Soup Pots
• Instant Pots and Multicookers
• One-Bowl Cakes 
• Go-Withs & Basics

If the recipes sound appealing and you'd like to have the book, just PM me with your address and I'll mail it to you.  It's in my pile to donate. 

Why am I getting rid of it, you ask?  Well, here's what I wrote after the Food52 online cookbook group cooked from it back in Nov 2022:

"I'm not quite sure why I didn't click with this book. I like Melissa's books and pre-ordered this one way before it was selected for the group. I only made 4 or 5 recipes, didn't particularly care for any of them and had a hard time generating enthusiasm to try more. I was listening to Melissa talking about this book on the Salt + Spine podcast and she described how she carefully combed through each recipe to remove extra ingredients, steps, dishes, movements, etc to make cooking them as efficient as possible. This strategy has great value for getting weeknight meals on the table ASAP but my impression is that some of the flair, charm, flavor and fun of cooking got stripped out, too. I'll still turn to Melissa for reliable, easy and efficient recipes but it will be to her other books as I'll be donating this one." 

Here's a link to that Salt + Spine podcast that I mentioned.

 

I should say that quite a lot of group members really liked the book a lot.  Even those who didn't love the book, like me, thought the recipes they made were OK, just not particularly interesting so it might be worth your looking through it to see if there are any tricks to be learned. 

 

I'll add that I really like her Dinner in an Instant: 75 Modern Recipes for Your Pressure Cooker, Multicooker, and Instant Pot® : A Cookbook (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) and Comfort in an Instant: 75 Comfort Food Recipes for Your Pressure Cooker, Multicooker, and InstantPot®: A Cookbook (eG-friendly Amazon.com link)

[Smithy]

If I understand the question correctly, there are a lot of cookbooks out there that produce an entire dinner dish in a single pot. Here are a couple by our own @JAZ:

Dutch Oven Dinners: A Cookbook for Flavorful Meals Made in Your Favorite Pot (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) has The Best Chili recipe I've ever eaten (although my husband prefers his own version)

The Ultimate Instant Pot® Cookbook for Two: Perfectly Portioned Recipes for 3-Quart and 6-Quart Models (eG-friendly Amazon.com link)

 

She's done a lot more Instant Pot cookbooks, and as far as I know most or all of them use only that one pot. Is that the sort of thing you mean with your question?

[TdeV]

Thanks, @blue_dolphin.  I have Dinner in One on hold at the library, so I can let you know soon. I have a couple Melissa Clark cookbooks which I quite like.

 

Yes, @Smithy, that's what I meant. I like Janet's cookbooks too!

[Smithy]

Janet was good enough to post her recipe for Chili con Carne here after I asked. It obviously isn't the entire book, but it gives you an idea of what's in that book.

[ElsieD]

Just bought Janet's "All-In-One Dutch Oven Cookbook for Two".

 

Edit:  went back and bought her "Dutch Oven Dinners".

Edited January 28 by ElsieD (log)

[TdeV]

7 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

Just bought Janet's "All-In-One Dutch Oven Cookbook for Two".

 

My computer says I bought this cookbook in Dec 2022. I shall have to go hunting! 😄

[Katie Meadow]

The easiest meals I know that only use one cooking vessel are stir-fries. I am assuming you are allowed to call it "one dish" even if the rice gets cooked separately. Very little to clean up after a wok friendly meal, and a well seasoned wok practically washes itself. All you need is one burner and an electric rice cooker.

[ElsieD]

8 minutes ago, TdeV said:

 

My computer says I bought this cookbook in Dec 2022. I shall have to go hunting! 😄

Gosh, it happens to you too, eh?

[gfweb]

I've missed the lure of 1 pot cooking.  I could see it if I was camping, I guess.

 

 

[Smithy]

1 hour ago, ElsieD said:

Just bought Janet's "All-In-One Dutch Oven Cookbook for Two".

 

Edit:  went back and bought her "Dutch Oven Dinners".

 

*Sigh* more enabling! Until now I didn't know about the All-in-One Dutch Oven Cookbook for Two (eG-friendly Amazon.com link). Now it's in my collection. It's a good thing Kindle cookbooks don't weigh as much as regular cookbooks.

[ElsieD]

28 minutes ago, Smithy said:

 

*Sigh* more enabling! Until now I didn't know about the All-in-One Dutch Oven Cookbook for Two (eG-friendly Amazon.com link). Now it's in my collection. It's a good thing Kindle cookbooks don't weigh as much as regular cookbooks.

 

Well, you know what they say, "One good deed deserves another!".

[JAZ]

1 hour ago, gfweb said:

I've missed the lure of 1 pot cooking.  I could see it if I was camping, I guess.

 

 

 

Or (as is the case with us currently) if your dishwasher is broken. Seriously, some one-pot recipes seem to go through so many hoops to stick with one pot that they take forever. In my one-pot Dutch oven cookbook, for instance, my editor was adamant that I only use the Dutch oven, so some of my recipes there are a bit convoluted -- I have pasta recipes where I call for cooking the pasta, then draining, then finishing the sauce. Of course it's faster if you cook the pasta at the same time you're making the sauce, and I made sure to note that, just so readers were aware of possible shortcuts. But it was kind of fun to see just what I could do with only a Dutch oven.

[gfweb]

52 minutes ago, JAZ said:

 

Or (as is the case with us currently) if your dishwasher is broken. Seriously, some one-pot recipes seem to go through so many hoops to stick with one pot that they take forever. In my one-pot Dutch oven cookbook, for instance, my editor was adamant that I only use the Dutch oven, so some of my recipes there are a bit convoluted -- I have pasta recipes where I call for cooking the pasta, then draining, then finishing the sauce. Of course it's faster if you cook the pasta at the same time you're making the sauce, and I made sure to note that, just so readers were aware of possible shortcuts. But it was kind of fun to see just what I could do with only a Dutch oven.

 

That's exactly it!  It is a real technical problem if you are going to have both  t he pasta and the fish properly cooked in one pot.

Its hard enough that I could see it being an elimination challenge on Top Chef.

[liuzhou]

3 hours ago, Katie Meadow said:

The easiest meals I know that only use one cooking vessel are stir-fries. I am assuming you are allowed to call it "one dish" even if the rice gets cooked separately. Very little to clean up after a wok friendly meal, and a well seasoned wok practically washes itself. All you need is one burner and an electric rice cooker.

 

Yes. I was just about to say the same.

 

99% of my meals are cooked in one pot -  a wok - apart from the rice which is done in the rice cooker. Even when the meal is composed of several dishes.Many of my friends and neighbours only have a wok and a rice cooker.

 

Standard Chinese cooking method, but adaptable to other cuisines.

 

ETA. Some meals can be prepared entirely in the rice cooker.

 

 

 

Edited January 29 by liuzhou (log)

[Maison Rustique]

I do a lot of sheet-pan meals. Not exactly a pot, but does a pan count? I don't use any cookbooks for it, I tend to make it up as I go. Usually start with the thing that will take the longest to cook and add the rest as I go, depending on how I think things will cook. Season as you like. You can add sauces later, if you like. Or splash with some wine or vinegar.

[Dr. Teeth]

The Chef and the Slow Cooker by Hugh Atcheson is rather fun.   Not always one pot, but fairly close.   And he has some clever ideas for alternate uses for a slow cooker for those of us that simply can’t cook without making multiple pans dirty

[MaryIsobel]

On 1/29/2024 at 6:03 AM, Maison Rustique said:

I do a lot of sheet-pan meals. Not exactly a pot, but does a pan count? I don't use any cookbooks for it, I tend to make it up as I go. Usually start with the thing that will take the longest to cook and add the rest as I go, depending on how I think things will cook. Season as you like. You can add sauces later, if you like. Or splash with some wine or vinegar.

I do a lot of sheet pan meals too. I think some people (my sister) have the wrong idea about them and just throw everything on a pan and cook together. I do as you do - longest cooking first and go from there. Seems pretty elementary to me that chicken thighs and green beans won't take the same amount of time. I found a good chart for my sister somewhere on the internet that gave roasting times for different proteins and veg. She's a convert now.

Edited February 7 by MaryIsobel (log)

[ElsieD]

45 minutes ago, MaryIsobel said:

I do a lot of sheet pan meals too. I think some people (my sister) have the wrong idea about them and just throw everything on a pan and cook together. I do as you do - longest cooking first and go from there. Seems pretty elementary to me that chicken thighs and green beans won't take the same amount of time. I found a good chart for my sister somewhere on the internet that gave roasting times for different proteins and veg. She's a convert now.

Any idea where that chart came from (she asked hopefully).

[MaryIsobel]

20 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

Any idea where that chart came from (she asked hopefully).

If not this one, it was very similar:

[Maison Rustique]

11 hours ago, MaryIsobel said:

1

If not this one, it was very similar:

Thank you!! Great help