The Lazy Genius Podcast - #261 - The Recipe Decoder

Episode Date: May 9, 2022

In my book that released last week, The Lazy Genius Kitchen, I shared something kind of revolutionary. A cooking formula that could change how you approach recipes forever. It’s called The Liquid Index, and it is your recipe decoder. It’s kind of a big deal, big enough that I want to spend an entire episode on it today.   Helpful Companion Links Buy The Lazy Genius Kitchen wherever books are sold! Watch The Lazy Genius Kitchen mini-series here. Andy’s episode airs on Tuesday! Instagram post about making two completely different meals with the same ingredients Download a transcript of this episode   This podcast is hosted by Kendra Adachi and executive produced by Kendra Adachi, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey there, you are listening to the Lazy Genius podcast. I'm Kendra Adachi, and I'm here to help you be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. Today is episode 261, the recipe decoder. In my book that released last week, The Lazy Genius Kitchen, I shared something kind of revolutionary, a cooking formula that could change how you approach recipes forever. It's called the Liquid Index. And it is your recipe decoder. It is the thing that can help you have way more confidence when you come across a recipe and know that you can, in fact, cook something. Or you can look at a recipe that seems a little complicated and you can easily break it down to its essence through the lens of this liquid index. It's kind of a big deal. Like, big enough, I want to spend an entire episode on it today.

So whether you are a recipe person or a riffer, I really hope that this is helpful for you. to see some of the meals that you cook, see them more clearly for what they are. Now, before we jump into that, speaking of the Liquid Index, tomorrow's episode of The Lazy Genius Kitchen Show is with Andy Baxter and his wife, Sarah, and it focuses a lot on the Liquid Index. Andy is half of my favorite band, Penny and Sparrow, so that was such a treat. I went to Andy and Sarah's house in Alabama, and I helped them figure out the kinds of meals they could cook during a

busy season of life that they were in. And the liquid index was a big part of that. Plus, in that video, you get to see me describe the liquid index to humans for the first time and how chaotic it became a little chaotic. I made them both laugh and confusion as I tried to explain the liquid index, which, to be fair, isn't in itself confusing, but the name could have been better. Like, that's why this episode is called the recipe decoder instead of the liquid index, because while the liquid index is a perfectly great name, you'll hear in a second why it maybe should have been workshopped a little more, but no matter, it's fine. It's in print now. We will just go forth. We will rename this episode all as well. So I'm going to explain the magic of the liquid

index and how it can decode your recipes and also give you some structure on creating your own with what you have. It's kind of like a riffer's paradise, really. So I'm going to explain it now, but I just wanted to remind you to watch that episode of the Lazy Genius Kitchen Show tomorrow. It releases Tuesday, May 10th at 2 p.m. Eastern. And the best way for you to not miss it is to subscribe to the Lazy Genius YouTube channel. And also all the links are at the lazy genius kitchen.com. Side note, if you're on the West Coast, Penny and Sparrow is touring in your neck of the woods for the next couple of weeks. I just feel like I need to tell you that.

They're going to Europe for a big European tour at the end of May. but tonight, I checked, they're in Phoenix tonight on the day this comes out, and tomorrow in the next few days they're going to be in various parts of California. I think they're doing a show in Portland. They're so much fun life, like so fun. It's just like two guys, a guitar and they have a drum machine right now, but they have the best repartee and environment that exists in a music venue. Like, they are just so much fun. And their newest album, Ali Ali, is a delight. Maybe my favorite, maybe my favorite of any that they've ever put out, which is saying something. So I just want to say, because I mentioned Andy, if you are a fan of music and you tend to like music that I like,

and you live in the Western part of America, just know that Penny and Sparrow are close by. Okay, let's decode some recipes. If you have your copy of the Lacey Genius Kitchen with you, because if you ordered it, you do. Isn't that exciting? I kind of want you to like grab it and go look at the charts, the liquid index charts with me while I'm talking, you don't have to. But if you ever want to listen to this episode as you're looking at the lists in the charts, I think it might enhance your experience a little bit. But you don't need to see the list for any of this to make sense. You don't even have to have the book for any of this to make sense. It just, the book makes it make more sense and be more complete. So you can keep walking or driving or folding or laundry

or whatever you're doing. So here's the general problem with recipes. Let's just start there. okay. I'm actually going to read an excerpt from the book because I love this analogy too much to not use it here. It's already been written. So this is on page 75. Here's where we've gotten recipes wrong. We think of them as individuals, that they're all unique and beautiful and have nothing to do with each other. Make this thing and you're done. Make this other thing and you're done. The way we approach recipes is as if, is as if, is as if, you guys. That's not. not what it says. I just can't read. Is as if their government spies unwilling to share any information. We don't let our recipes talk to each other and share how they're alike. We haven't yet noticed

that recipes are the same general instructions in the same general order, just using different ingredients. Okay, so let's stop there. Does this ring true for you? I think that when we read a recipe, we're reading it as a singular story, right? It's like, it's got its own plot. We close the book and then we look for another story. But recipes are way more interwoven than that. All the stories impact all the others. It's kind of like the Marvel universe. And I realize I don't have the energy to expand that metaphor. So we're just going to stop right there. But the point is, we can start learning to read our recipes as though they're all speaking the same language and exist in the same universe. And the liquid index is a very, very helpful key in doing that.

Now, the liquid index only works for meals that have most of the ingredients together. The liquid index does not code break for meat and three meals, right? For like a big piece of meat and the individual sides of things. That is not the kind of recipe we're trying to decode. But also, and I say this in the book, it's also on page 75, and I'll just read it. Meat and three is killing you. Meat and three is killing you. Let me read this from the book. The expectation that every meal needs to have a main course of meat and three sides is unsustainable. I'm shooting you straight. I've heard from hundreds upon hundreds of you over the last few years about how your partner grew up with a mom who cooked meat in three every meal. So that's what he or she expects from you.

Now listen, if you and your partner decide together to prioritize meat and three as what matters most in your meals, go for it. But you also have to talk about what you're willing to trade for it. You will trade time. Other tasks will have to get dropped or delegated. You will trade money. Sustaining variety across consistent meat and three meals will definitely cost something. You will trade responsibility. And in this case, I mean literally trade. One person cooks, the other cleans up. However, if that way of eating doesn't matter most, let go of the expectation that every meal must have multiple components. It does not. You do not have to cook dinner like your Martha Stewart. Okay. That's from the book. I hope those words, like give you a little permission to ease up,

ease up on your expectations around the meals you cook on a regular basis. Again, it all comes down to what matters to you. If meat and three doesn't matter, don't cook meat and three. Now, if you don't cook meat and three all the time, the liquid index is going to be hugely helpful for you. And here is one of the things I love about it the most. If you know how to cook one kind of soup, the liquid index helps you realize that you can cook pretty much all the soups. If you You know how to make homemade spaghetti sauce or meat sauce, you know, you can cook a million other things. I am always so fascinated by people who say that they only know how to cook like three things. And when they tell me that one of their three things is something like their mom's, you know,

meat sauce recipe, I'm like, you can make so many other things. You have the skills to make so many other things. But because our recipes follow pretty much, not entirely, but pretty much the same formulas, knowing that formula helps you see recipes differently and helps you realize that you can cook so much more than you think you can. So here is the order. Here is how the liquid index works. You cook certain foods in a certain order, and that order and lists of ingredients and all kinds of details for this are in the book, are in the lazy genius kitchen. So it's laid out well. It's easy to grab. It's easy to reference. It's really great. But I'll tell you what the order is here, of course,

because that's why we're here. So the basic order of most recipes starts out the same way, and then it kind of diverges. So let me explain. Step one is to saute aromatics and bite-sized protein in fat. Okay? That's step one. Aramatics are things like onions, calorie, celery, carrots, bell pepper, garlic, ginger, chili peppers, that kind of thing. Bight-sized protein. cut up pieces of chicken, ground beef or pork or turkey, anything that's bite size. It's not like a whole piece of meat, right? And then fat, you know, oil or butter or whatever. But that's where you begin. That's where you begin. Now, you might saute the aromatics first and then add the meat to the pan and get that going. But a ton of recipes start this way. They start with sauteing aromatics

and bite-sized protein in fat. Step two is you add bulk. there is a complete list of bulk foods in the book as well that these are things like potatoes beans, other vegetables that are not aromatic, tofu, lots and lots of things. And one of the great things about adding bulk is that you can use food that is prepped, like roasted vegetables, steamed vegetables, leftover vegetables from Change Your Life chicken, beans from a can because those are basically prepped, like they're not dried anymore, you know, they're cooked beans. this is kind of like the dream of a meal prepper, even if you only prep one thing, even if you

have one thing in your fridge, but you can quickly add bulk to your pan with these things that are already a little farther along. They don't have to be, but it helps if they are. Now, that's step two. Step three is to add liquid. Now, here's where the liquid index gets its name and also where Andy and Sarah laughed at me the most when I explained it to them in their episode. The idea here is that you have a pan, right? You have a pan with aromatic, bite-size protein, and something that bulks it up. Now, you have the option to add liquid. Now, you can skip that option completely and not add anything. You can add a little liquid to the pan, or you can add a lot of liquid to the pan. It's very scientific, very, very scientific. Those are your three

options that you have with this very non-creative name that I came up with in the book. if you don't add liquid, okay, if you take the option to not add liquid, I call that a saute. If you add a little liquid to just kind of bring everything together and thicken it up, I call that a stew, which is not the greatest choice in hindsight. I realize that, that's okay. But like a bolognaise sauce is a stew, curry is a stew, chili, chili might even be a stew in this context, right? Liquid exists and is an essential part of the recipe, but it's still like a pretty thick thing, you know? And then when you add a lot of liquid, it's called soup. We know what that is. We'll be right back. Amazon presents Jeff versus Taco Truck Salsa, whether it's Verde, Roja,

or the orange one. For Jeff, trying any salsa is like playing Russian roulette. with a flame thrower. Luckily, Jeff saved with Amazon and stocked up on antacids, ginger tea, and milk. Habaniero, more like habanier, yes. Save the everyday with Amazon. Aw, isn't something we need to travel for. It's something waiting for us in everyday life,

whether in a city street or a moment with a work of art. I'm Dacker Keltner, host of the Science of Happiness podcast. join me for Cities of Aw, a special series on how our public spaces can spark awe, wonder, and enhance the quality of public life. You can find us wherever you listen to your podcasts. So that's step three. Add or don't add a certain amount of liquid. Okay. Now, step four is that you can serve that food, eat that food, that collection of ingredients by itself.

that's kind of obvious, or you can put it in something or on something. And again, there are major lists in the book of the possibilities here that you can serve something on rice, in a taco shell, in a hollowed bell pepper, in a piece of lettuce, like a lettuce wrap. And then you can add toppings. That's kind of step five. You can add toppings, fresh herbs, cheese, nuts, sauces, whatever. this way of making a meal is so versatile based on what you have, based on the flavors you like, your skill set. But I think the power of this is that it will help you understand recipes better. You will be able to look at a recipe in a cookbook that looks like, I don't know, a little more complicated maybe, or at least the photo that you're looking at. It does not look like food you

normally make. It looks a little too many layers, too many things, maybe a little too fussy. But when you scan the recipe, you can see that this recipe that's called crispy ground pork with broccoli rub, polenta, and gramelada is really just a saute served on polenta topped with this parsley situation. You don't have to think about all those components separately or be wigged out because you haven't made polenta before or that all of it feels really complicated. You can just see that in the recipe, you saute ground pork and garlic and olive oil. You can do that. You can do that.

That's step one. Then you're adding bulk with steamed broccoli rob. You could do that too. Or you could pivot. You could think, you know, I don't really like broccoli wrap. I don't even know what it is. Let's substitute another bulk item. And then you go back and look at your list.

And for the record, there are also lists in the Lacey Genius Kitchen of ingredients by cuisine. So if you're cooking something that is more like Italian, in nature, like garlicky pork and polenta, you can look at the Italian list in the book to get ideas of what goes together. But you see that the recipe follows steps one and two of the liquid index. Now, it doesn't have liquid in it, which means it's a saute, and it's served on polenta. Now, let's say you don't have polenta. You could pivot that recipe again. You could make it a stew instead of a saute by adding a little liquid, by having a little liquid. By adding a can of crushed tomatoes. And then you serve that on pasta instead of on polenta.

Right? You could keep it a saute, not add any liquid, but you serve it in, instead of serving it on polenta, serve it in a hollowed out roasted zucchini because you have way too many zucchini from your neighbor's garden or whatever. Now, the recipe you're looking at, let's go back to that grimalotta thing. It says there's a grumalotta. Grimalada is just a combination of usually parsley, lemon zest and garlic, it adds like a bright punch to a meal. And you could totally make it. But you could also, you could also go, huh, they're adding a topping to this to add freshness, which I talk about that. I talk about the balance of flavors in the book, you know, but you could say to yourself, okay, I don't have, I don't have Grimilada or the ingredients to make Grimilada or the time

to make Grimilada, even though you're just like chopping things up. It doesn't matter. Sometimes we don't have time to even do simple things like chop. What topping do I have that might work? You could tear a few shreds of basil from like your yard if you grow basil. You could do a drizzle of store-bought pesto, a sprinkle of parmesan, a squeeze of lemon juice, or you could just leave it as it is. Like a topping, it does add a different component to a recipe, depending on what the topping is and the recipe is, obviously. But you could go without the topping. You know, you could. You could. You totally, totally could. You can make the entire recipe from that cookbook and just be like, you know what, I'm not doing that Grimilada. It's fine. It's just a

topping. I'm going to lose the freshness a little bit, but that's okay. I'm just going to make it as it is, right? The liquid index helps you create your own recipes with more confidence, and it helps you decode recipes that feel a little complicated or intimidating. And it helps you know where you can adjust an existing recipe to meet your own needs. You can add a different liquid. You can add more liquid to an existing recipe that's more stew in nature and make it a soup. You can add variety to something you already make and love by putting it in or on something different than usual. It is just the best choose your own adventure vibe with your meals. And as you pay attention to what you're cooking more and more, you will see these steps, this order all over the place.

You will see it everywhere. And you'll feel more and more confident in your ability to make food. So you can take these steps and honestly just like go forth and play from this episode. But if you would like more detail, more guidance, more lists, they exist in the Lazy Genius Kitchen. A book that is out in the world. It's just so exciting. And real quick, because I just remembered this. I did an Instagram post.

This was a long time ago, like a couple years ago, I think. But it highlights the liquid index. and I didn't even realize it at the time. If you would like to watch it, it's in my IGTV on Instagram at The Lazy Genius. It's like a tan box, like a text box with white text on it. And the text says how to use the exact same ingredients to make two completely different meals. So in that video, I am showing you how I sauteed a bite-sized chicken with bell pepper and onion as the aromatic. Okay?

I added bulk. I had two pans going, actually, like I cooked chicken and bell peppers. And then I separated them into two pans. I added bulk with some roasted sweet potatoes to each pan. And then in that video, to one pan, I add red curry paste and coconut milk, which was a little liquid. And I made a stew that we all know and love as sunshine curry. And I served that on rice.

And in the other pan, I added Chipotle peppers. for some flavor and more bulk with black beans and no liquid. That is a saute that I also serve on rice. But that could have gone in a tortilla or on a plate of cheesy microwave nacho chips or in a cassidia. So in that video, I'm actually showing the divergence of the liquid index. A lot of things start off similarly. And depending on when and how you add flavor and liquid, you can have wildly different meals with similar ingredients and transferable skills.

I really think that this thing is going to give you a ton of confidence and life and enjoyment as you move through your recipes, as you learn to riff if that is something that you want to learn. I'm just super, super pumped about it. And I'm going to try to not be too mad at myself for calling it the liquid index instead of something like a little bit better. Maybe like the recipe decoder. know. But I guess it's, it may be that's a good thing I didn't call it the recipe decoder, but it's because it's not just about decoding recipes. It's giving you permission to play around with your own recipes from your own baseline, right, from what you already know. So I'm so excited about it. I hope it helps you. I hope this episode gives you some inspiration

today. And again, if you're looking for the lists in the lazy genius kitchen, I'm so excited for you to get the book and you can put your own combos together. All the things. It's so fun. anything anything to help us enjoy our kitchens more right we need a lot of that now before we go let's celebrate the lazy genius of the week this week it is karen h who wrote this hi kendra i'm so excited about the lazy genius kitchen arriving in my mailbox on tuesday i'm excited too karen and you have gotten it by now i hope it is amazing i have a decide once that i want to share i was watching the show with erin moon she's talking about the lazy genius kitchen show i mentioned already she mentioned that she does charcutory on Sundays, and I do something similar that is my decide once. Thank you for that

magic language that's added so much authority to my decisions, by the way. I have what we call salad bar Sunday, where I basically throw every kind of cheese, condiment, veggie, and cured meat. I throw it out, not throw it out. I like throw it out on the counter, I guess, and I add in whatever cold leftovers from the week might work. And everyone just makes what they want. I find my kids eat a lot of good for them foods, and I can clean out the fridge, for a solid start to the week. Just thought I would share. Corinne, I think this is such a fantastic idea.

I love that it's doing a couple of jobs for you. First, it's giving you a plan for dinner every Sunday so you don't have to think about that anymore, right? And I also love that it's a way to use up leftovers and clear out your fridge. One of the biggest and I think most impactful parts of the Lacey Genius Kitchen book is prep. I talk a lot about prep.

And not prep like cut up things in your fridge, but the flow of life in your kitchen, the rhythm that it has. This kind of meal is a great way to keep that rhythm going because it's impacting your space, your meals, your meal plan, the food you have because you're using what you have and your flow. It's just a really great idea. So thank you for sharing it and for being this week's lazy genius of the week. Okay, you guys, that's it for today. What a week it's been.

I am recording this from the past from a couple days before the book actually releases. And when you're listening to this, I will have launched the book. I will have had a launch party in my hometown in Greensboro, North Carolina, and I will have taken a trip to New York City with Jamie Golden. I imagine I am very tired right now, but very happy and grateful. And you all are just a huge part of that. You have been so supportive through this entire book launch. We have some more things this month that are coming.

this book will be part of our language and our rhythm forever, because this book will never not be relevant to your lives and to this podcast when we talk about anything in the kitchen, the same way that we talk about the lazy genius way all the time because we use those 13 principles every single time we have any sort of conversation, right? So I'm just really excited to keep talking about it and hearing from you and how it's helping you, have what you need, use what you have, and enjoy your kitchen like you never have before. Don't forget, we have two more episodes of the Lazy Genius Kitchen Show. I already mentioned that tomorrow is the Liquid Index with Andy and Sarah Baxter. It is so funny and fun. There is also a bonus episode where Andy and I share our favorite

movie scenes that occur at a dinner table, and it is surprisingly riveting conversation. And then next Tuesday will be our final episode of The Lazy Genius Kitchen Show with Terrence Jackson, who many of you know from the PMG, from the pop cast family. The Popcast with Knox and Jamie is my favorite podcast. Jamie Golden is one of my favorite people in the whole world. I mean, I love Knox, too, but you know, it's fine. And Terrence works for their company, and it's just a delight. And so if you have any exposure to the popcast with Knox and Jamie, you probably know of Terrence. His episode is so fun. It's so Terrence. And we build him a meal matrix in real time, like a single guy meal matrix. It's just a lot of fun. So I hope you watch.

And speaking of fun, you guys are fun and lovely. And I could not be more grateful to have this be my internet family. Thank you for coming along on this book launch journey with me. Thank you for buying the book. I hope you're loving it. And if you've not gotten it, I really hope you check it out. Not because I want to sell books, but because your life could be easier and feel more like you, especially in the kitchen.

And I think the lazy genius can help you do that. I'm very confident in that. And I'm guessing at this point, there are probably reviews on Amazon and Goodreads if you want, like, social proof. That does feel like a risky thing to say at this exact moment because the book is not out when I'm recording this and there are currently no reviews. But I think there will be some. And I think there'll probably be mostly good ones by the time you're listening. Wouldn't that be so sad if you went and there were like two reviews and they were both terrible? I mean, I don't think that will happen. This is getting sad. This metaphor is bad. Let's just stop. The book is great. I hope you love it. I hope it helps you feel like yourself in your own.

kitchen and make it work for you. I appreciate you listening today. Thank you so much for being here. And until next time, be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. I'm Kendra. I'll see you next week. Have you ever felt like you were living just a B or B plus life? It's so dangerous to live that. More dangerous than a B minus or a C plus life? Because when you're living a B or B plus life, you don't change it. You think it's good enough. Is it? I'm Susie Welch. I host a podcast called Becoming You. People think, okay, an A-plus life is not available to me, but there is a way. We are all in the process of becoming ourselves.

Listen to Becoming You wherever you get your podcasts.