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Star cuisine usually doesn't fill you up – we love stew!
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Not only children love things that can be eaten by hand or a spoon. This has not changed for our author in the last 30 years. There are many other things that are so great about a meal that comes out of just one pot …
by Viola Kaiser
I probably got it from my grandpa: he loved soups and everything to do with stew. My mouth is watering just thinking about his turnip stew. Pea soup, lentil soup, carrot stew, chilli with or without carne or curry – I love all of these dishes. I am not alone in this. Cooking different ingredients together in one pot has a long tradition and is absolutely international. It's just called Chowder, Hotpot, Irish Stew or Cocido.
I'm hungry after small portions
One of the most important characteristics of a stew is that it can be really filling. With lots of carbohydrates, fat and all the trimmings. I like this very special. It sure tastes wonderful in the five-star gourmet temple, but the portions there are often so small that at least I'm still hungry afterwards. I just prefer a plate that is filled to the brim. Stew was always geared towards filling you up properly. The Roman gladiators already knew this when they scooped up their cereal porridge with beans to strengthen themselves.
Not only is it easy to shovel, it is also extremely easy to manufacture. It's even better that everyone can cook stew. A few carrots, potatoes, soup greens and an onion – that's enough to make a delicious dish. For those who like it more sophisticated, add sausages to the pea soup, a few crabs to the potato stew or a dash of coconut milk to the curry. Delicious. Do you have to be a particularly good cook for that? Rather not.
Sociable, sustainable, healthy: an all-rounder!
In times when we live so excessively that we keep throwing food away, the stew has an absolutely sustainable aspect. You can actually cook everything in it. An apple in the carrot and ginger soup? Yesterday's lamb in carrot and potato vegetables? White sausage in the bean stew? Of course it works when it just has to go. Throw it together and try it out – the stew is ideal for people who are keen to experiment and creative.
He's also sociable, by the way. Because what is best cooked for many people who come to visit? I agree. My favorite dish! It is definitely easier to prepare and serve than a three-course meal with lots of finesse. You also need a lot less plates and cutlery. And you can eat it anywhere. On the floor with the bowl cross-legged in front of the TV, if necessary standing in the office kitchen, ideally at the table with friends.
Not a Porsche, more like a Golf
The whole thing is healthy too. After all, there are a lot of vegetables in it – and therefore a lot of vitamins. Apart from the fact that a really nice hot stew simply warms the soul. Which can never be bad for the immune system.
Stew is certainly not the Porsche of the dishes that can be cooked. More like an old VW Golf. But it's not at all a poor man's meal for me. I recently read an interesting article about Uzbekistan and the rice stew "Plow", which is very popular there. There was an Uzbek proverb in it. It read: "When you are poor, you eat plow. When you are rich, you only eat plow." That sounds very plausible to me.