what I eat and WHY
EATING RESPONSIBLY BY RO B E RT J E N S E N • P H OTO G RA P H Y BY M A RC B ROW N
A
young friend recently stopped by my house as I was cook-
attention to the ingredients in decent meals you eat in everyday
ing dinner—a favorite rice-and-greens dish that is simple,
restaurants, and watch friends and family who cook. Don’t worry
cheap, tasty and nutritious. I’d just started sautéing the on-
about being good at it—just cook something for yourself and eat it.
ions and garlic in some olive oil. My friend watched for a moment
At least that’s how I did it. And, at first, it wasn’t pretty. Here’s
then said, with inappropriate reverence, “I don’t know how you do
the “recipe” for the first dish I cooked: Cut a block of tofu into
that.” “How I do what?” I thought. Cut up an onion, slice a clove of
cubes and put them in a pan. Add a big can of tomato sauce. Steam
garlic, pour some oil and turn on a burner? It’s not exactly paint-
some cauliflower and, when it’s tender, throw it into the sauce.
ing a masterpiece or performing brain surgery. I likely would have
Simmer that for a while. Boil water to cook rice. Cook the rice.
made fun of my friend if not for the fact that, at one point in my
Dump the tofu-cauliflower sauce on the rice. Serve.
life, I would have found sautéing onions and garlic exotic, as well.
Okay, that’s barely cooking, and it sounds kind of nasty. But it
That evening, he and I talked about learning to cook in a world
was my first step. I can’t recall how I came up with the idea for that
of fast food and microwave meals. Human health requires eating
meal—it was probably a version of something I ordered in a restau-
healthfully, and that starts with understanding cooking, but that’s
rant—but it was edible and reasonably healthful. Along with the
not always easy in a culture that makes it convenient to eat without
vegetable, the tofu and rice made a complete protein. I also bought
cooking. Because so many of us have had so little experience with
tomato sauce without added sugar.
“real” food, it can be intimidating to cook from scratch.
I’m not, and never was, a “foodie.” At 30, my interest in cooking
Here’s some advice from experience: Don’t be intimidated by
developed not from wanting to keep up with cultural trends but
the Iron Chefs, or anything else on TV. Remember, people were
from reading critiques of industrial agriculture—where I became
cooking long before there were expensive restaurants and gourmet
aware of not only how unhealthy, but how ecologically unsustain-
cookbooks. Start with what you know and build from there. Pay
able, our food system is. That reading included Wendell Berry’s
48
WELLNESS 2017
EDIBLEAUSTIN.COM