Food Tastes Better When Less Is More

Shakespeare once said, "Brevity is the soul of wit" and although he was talking about words, we think the thought applies nicely to food. "Less is more" is sometimes a difficult concept to grasp (especially if you're an American), but it can be the missing ingredient in your cooking.

Take soup for example. It's a great base and starting point for many flavors and although it lends itself nicely to cleaning out your fridge and getting rid of all those "must go" ingredients, it can sometimes become a hot mess (literally).

In my own home, soup wasn't really a thin, broth-y creation. My family was more of thicker and stew like folk. All of them delicious in their own right, but soup time was always a way to show off the "make something out of nothing" badge of honor that we all wear. It's what makes a cook a cook and the rest call for takeout — but something I wasn't able to learn until I was older is that it doesn't always have to be so complex. My parents were amazing at making something out of nothing and although sometimes it feels as though everything should go in a dish for that purpose, it can be just as tasty, if not more so, to restrain and make fewer ingredients shine through.

Cooking with less ingredients encourages the buying of better ingredients in the first place and will generally make you more satisfied with your meal. Letting those few ingredients which were created, chosen or picked with love and care, sing from your knife or spoon will in the end, create a more pleasurable experience and create a better relationship with food.

For more, make sure to check out the splendid write up by Sara-Kate last year on Cooking Better With Less!

So, the moral of the story is: While we love the frugal satisfaction of cleaning out the last scrap of cheese or veggies from the fridge and making something delicious out of it, we also celebrate restraint and the ability to do more with less.

(Image: Wikipedia & Wardrobe Costumes)

Comments (6)

I couldn't agree more. I prefer to buy good ingredients and then keep the preparation simple.

When I went o Sicily with my husband for the first time he was AMAZED at how delicious the food was and he couldn't believe that it was such simple ingredients....

- a salad of lettuce, salt, olive oil and lemon juice
- pizza with simple tomato sauce, mozzerella cheese and shredded basil
- a steak or pieceof fish grilled on a habachi dressed with a drizzle of EVOO and lemon juice
- spaghetti tossed with sauted garlic sauted brocoli and grated cheese
-crusty bread with a few slices of salami and cheese

i try to follow the rules of KISS: keep it simple stupid!

For me, developing as a cook--getting better at it, basically--has definitely meant paring it down. My personal code for avoiding the too-much syndrome is a two-word warning: 80s pasta. If you lived through that, you know what I mean.

I agree in theory, although I don't always find it easy to remember in practice (because there is something fun/satisfying about combining a dozen ingredients). But I totally concur with Lasiciliana about the simple Italian salad - it's the easiest and best salad there is.

Ironically, it can be very difficult to make "simple" food perfect.

You summed up the idea of less is more beautifully. I would add that food made with less pretension often tastes better too. Kind of an abstract ingredient but it does make a difference.

Yeah - I have this thought a lot when I'm trolling for recipes on epicurious. Too many flavors all layered on top of each other, for no particular reason. Just to give you a longer grocery list, I suppose.