A No-Recipe Recipe?

The New York Times published a book with the great title of No-Recipe Recipes. It became a best-seller.

The idea was to suggest that it’s possible to cook without a list of ingredients or steps. The goal is improvisation.

Here is a sample – “Pick up a heat-lamp roast chicken at the market on the way home — it’s O.K.! — and tear it apart to feed four, or half of it for two, shredding the meat with your fingers. Mix the chicken with a few handfuls of baby arugula, a large handful of sliced scallions and a lot of chopped cilantro. Cut an avocado or two into the mix if you have them on hand. Then make a dressing out of lime juice — one juicy squeezed lime will do — a pressed garlic clove and a few glugs of olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper.”

Often we plan down to the smallest variable to maximize our time and productivity. But another way to look at it is planning also takes time, effort and can create stress and expectations.

What might happen if instead you decided to schedule (not plan) a no-recipe recipe evening or weekend? What might it look like if you improvised an evening or a weekend?

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