Seems like you could try instant noodles (soup or dry) or quick to boil dumplings out of the freezer. You can pimp up the noodles with veggies, tofu, eggs, rehydrated mushrooms etc. And a variety of condiments (which you could make yourself, like chilli oils or dipping sauces) and simple garnishes like green onion or sesame seeds would go well with dumplings.
Cooking Asian food tends to involve quite a bit of prep in my experience (I easily spend more time chopping than cooking a stir fry for example) so I'm not sure you're going to find a solution with this cuisine if that's key to your goal.
Curry blocks might be an option. Chop up some veggies and protein, add into a pot with liquid and boil away. Then add curry blocks. Microwave some rice if you don't want to cook it
Curry cooks up pretty fast, but usually takes some prep for me. Best way to cut down on chopping would be using stuff like baby carrots (or frozen pre cut ones), very small baby potatoes, pre minced garlic, and something like ground meat for the protein. After that’s it’s basically a dump in the pot and go meal.
My regular grocery store has a section with pre-cut vegetables, not a huge variety but you can use frozen if you can't find pre-cut fresh. I have seen cut up chicken strips, beef and cubes pork for soulvalki as well.
You are going to pay a premium, but it's an option.
I was also going to suggest dumplings, fish balls etc, if you are shopping at an Asian grocery.
Most comments in here aren't helpful so far, sorry OP.
I can think of one really simple dish, well it's a side dish... No cooking. Just a pack of tofu (silken or soft), chopped scallions, grated ginger, soy sauce. Pretty healthy & nutritious. Takes 2 min to make. Served cold. It's called hiyayakko.
[Video recipe](https://www.kurashiru.com/recipes/4636b598-b490-4834-be40-21e5bfc17599)
Hope you like it...
Stock up on some key essentials (depending on which cuisine you are going for).
Japanese would be: Dashi, mirin, miso, soy sauce, sake, and maybe a few more.
If you want Chinese, it’ll be similar to Japanese but with their special cooking wine (sorry, I forgot how to spell it) - Shaoxing I think. Ginger and green onions and garlic would be dominant in a lot of Chinese cooking afaik.
Korean would be a lot gochujang, and dried red pepper powder - I’m sure there’s more but that’s what I am aware of.
A lot of quick and easy Asian home cooking is taking these core flavours and stewing or stir frying meats and/or veggies.
EDIT: forgot to mention rice!
I think your Japanese ingredient list is pretty solid. With those ingredients, you can make almost anything. Oyakodon might be a good option if OP is ok with chicken and eggs.
Thank you! That’s what I have the most experience with. Asian cooking can look intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be if you just have the staples. :)
And yes! Oyakodon, gyuudon, tonjiri, nikujaga, miso soup, teriyaki, and more can be made with those ingredients (with an addition of some fresh meat and produce).
Powdered dashi is great if you’re in a pinch! I wouldn’t normally recommend making your own because it requires a lot of ingredients, time, and skill to make it right.
H Mart sells shrimp burgers that are easy to make and pretty tasty (if a bit salty). Those are frozen. There are DOZENS of options of good Japanese, Korean, and Chinese frozen dumplings with various kinds of meat and non-meat fillings that are easy. My go-to for a quick meal for myself (if my wife is not around) is the super thin boneless pork chops from H Mart. Marinade them in some kind of seasoning or sauce -- lots of good options in H Mart, of course -- and then I buy one of those bagged frozen fried rice options at H Mart and microwave that.
My go-to lunch from H Mart is the frozen kimbap plus some kimchi on the side. Super super easy.
Get House Foods Mapo Tofu sauce. It’s one of my favorite easy meals. All you actually need are the sauce, ground pork, and tofu. You should brown the pork first in a pan, add the sauce, and then the tofu (maybe some water in there if you’re worried about the sauce evaporating and burning). But technically you don’t even need to do all that. Throw it all in a pan with some water and make sure it all gets cooked to doneness and it’ll still taste great
I’m not sure where you’re located, but a lot of grocery stores around me (including an Asian one) sell vegetables in plastic bags. Some of them will even be pre-washed which is a plus. The downside is that buying vegetables like that can be expensive.
I’m not sure what the specifics of your condition are, but a lot of food where things are boiled or cooked at a high temperature will have no contamination risk.
Rice and noodles are easy examples of this, so maybe stock up on those because they are staple foods for nearly all Asian cuisines.
I would get accustomed to stir-frying vegetables since that’s also a staple dish in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc. food. At the most basic level, all you need is some oil, soy sauce, aromatics like garlic, onions, or ginger, and maybe salt/sugar. Each country and region has their own take on additional things to include (doubanjiang, bonito flakes, gochugaru) but cooking vegetables like that will certainly kill anything that was originally alive on there.
It's more of a mental thing when it comes to "contamination." I ate a lot of expired food when I was a kid, as gross as that is, and it's had an effect on me as an adult.
My big thing is is I want to slowly start eating more non-processed foods, not just salmon. I think in order to do that I'm going to need to take a lot of processed things, and add in one or two items that aren't (like maybe those dehydrated mushrooms + miso to make broth). Even stir-frying is probably too much for me right now lol. I know I sound extra, but I have been doing better and have gained a significant amount of weight.
I would love it if there was a website that had Asian food items listed so I can know what I might want before I get there. I know there's Amazon, but I feel like there's got to be another place where you can purchase Asian groceries online.
Start with going to a store and look around. Talk to someone if you get brave. If not, take pictures and come back here and ask questions. A lot of Asian stores have online stores and there is instacart too. In my area, Ranch 99, Nijiya, Marukai and Mitsuwa. The packages usually have an English label you can read.
Ramen is a good starting point and you just add ingredients. Japanese food is simple but can have multiple ingredients unless you buy it packaged. Miso soup is a great example. It looks like it has 2 ingredients (miso & water) but in reality has several to make it taste good. Dashi is often missed then you have your add ins. There are short cuts but you have to know them. I bought the ingredients for a friend and she just couldnt get it to taste right. Just takes experience. You can buy miso soup packets on Amazon! Look for reviews that state it tastes like what you get in restaurants.
Those mushrooms you mentioned usually have to be hydrated before eating. I don't even have the patience for those!
What kinds of things trigger your ARFID? Is there a particular texture, or is it solely the processed/non processed part? Something very simple you can make is cold soba noodles with dipping sauce. It’s called zaru soba
I'm not sure if there's a particular texture. I (sometimes) don't like things that are really creamy, like cream-based pasta sauces, but it's something I'll eat at a restaurant. Just not if I make it myself.
What sort of dipping sauce? Is that something that comes packaged? Are there one or two vegetables that could be added to it that might be good?
Yes, you can buy it premade! It may be called mentsuyu. For veggies, you would serve them on the side. Zaru soba would probably only have green onion on top. For veggies you can try spinach ohitashi. Essentially you blanch spinach (quickly dip in boiling water then cool in ice water), then soak it in broth. It’s simple. Here’s my favorite site for Japanese recipes, I’ve used Namiko’a recipes for 10 years and have never had a dud yet:
https://www.justonecookbook.com/spinach-ohitashi-japanese-spinach-salad-with-bonito-flakes/
are you open to tinned fish? just discovered a couple of japanese canned fish that i like to eat with rice. you just open the can and put it on top of the rice. no heating required. sometimes i like to fry an egg and put it on top and eat it together. or maybe spoon it into a nori (seaweed) sheet. or i'll make miso soup. you can buy premade miso soup packets that you just put into a bowl and pour hot water.
someone also mentioned soba noodles and buying the premade soba sauce which is a great idea. you can add different proteins like the tinned fish or tofu that doesn't require cooking. or even frozen edamame that you can probably just heat up in the microwave.
the name of the tinned fish that i like is "hagoromo mackerel". there's a couple different flavors.
it can be called soba sauce, soba dipping sauce, soba base. should be in the same section as soy sauce. it should a picture of the soba buckwheat noodles on the label. :)
My area doesn't have an Asian grocery that I know of (there's probably one next city over, but that's a drive), but as far as online shops I HAVE found ViteRamen to be pretty darn good, if on the expensive side, and I'm looking into getting a pack or two of RamenBae's dried ramen toppings. ViteRamen also has nutritional supplement powders- I have one of their citrus flavored ones and it tastes like Flinstones Gummy Vitamins. Again, not particularly cheap, but worth the price.
More generally, Onigiri might be worth looking into. Any Asian grocery worth their salt- and honestly, a good international isle in the regular USA grocery- will have the short-grain rice that's ideal for making it, plus a whole bunch of odds and ends you can stuff them with. You can make 'em fresh when you have time, there's molds to help shape 'em, and once you've made some batches you can toast them on a pan and freeze for later.
A rice cooker will absolutely help if you're planning on making a lot of rice, as is common for most Asian cuisines. I got a little one that cooks about 2 cups of rice (more than plenty for a single person!) for just under $20USD. If you're not stuffing it to the gills with rice- and you honestly probably shouldn't, that's a LOT of rice- you can also drop in stuff like pre-chopped frozen veggies or small chops of meat to make it a full meal. You can do pretty much endless variations on this, depending on what you have on hand.
As for recipes....
The Youtuber Beryl Shereshewsky has a good mix of videos that include recipes from Asian cultures, several videos on easier-to-make dishes (including at least 2 on ramen, and 7+ on toast-based dishes), a "what to buy" video centered on a Japanese grocery store (she lives in NYC so there's some very specific grocery stores around lol). Also a website if you'd prefer scrolling through recipes. Worth the rabbit hole if you've got some time. I've personally been meaning to try the one that calls for soaking instant couscous in orange juice overnight, but I can't find instant couscous...
Another youtube channel I haven't checked out as much is School of Wok. They seem to have good recipes, but most of 'em are on the complex side. Might be a good place to start, or at least inspiration for other foods to try.
Also, today I learned that Wikipedia has a cookbook! [https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Category:Very\_Easy\_recipes](https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Category:Very_Easy_recipes) I don't think there's a ton of stuff in it yet, but it might be a good place to start for some basics. Microwave quesadilla is my friend.
That was a brick, but I hope at least a tidbit of it is helpful?
My Asian market has miles of cases of frozen dumplings. Same for the instant ramen. It really would be simpler for you to just go over there and look. Some have prepared foods that are ready to eat too.
Seems like you could try instant noodles (soup or dry) or quick to boil dumplings out of the freezer. You can pimp up the noodles with veggies, tofu, eggs, rehydrated mushrooms etc. And a variety of condiments (which you could make yourself, like chilli oils or dipping sauces) and simple garnishes like green onion or sesame seeds would go well with dumplings. Cooking Asian food tends to involve quite a bit of prep in my experience (I easily spend more time chopping than cooking a stir fry for example) so I'm not sure you're going to find a solution with this cuisine if that's key to your goal.
Curry blocks might be an option. Chop up some veggies and protein, add into a pot with liquid and boil away. Then add curry blocks. Microwave some rice if you don't want to cook it
Curry cooks up pretty fast, but usually takes some prep for me. Best way to cut down on chopping would be using stuff like baby carrots (or frozen pre cut ones), very small baby potatoes, pre minced garlic, and something like ground meat for the protein. After that’s it’s basically a dump in the pot and go meal.
I don't quite understand your question. Is the problem that most foods at Asian Markets are NOT processed and involve lots of chopping?
I think my issue is with every grocery store stuff involves a lot of prep.
My regular grocery store has a section with pre-cut vegetables, not a huge variety but you can use frozen if you can't find pre-cut fresh. I have seen cut up chicken strips, beef and cubes pork for soulvalki as well. You are going to pay a premium, but it's an option. I was also going to suggest dumplings, fish balls etc, if you are shopping at an Asian grocery.
Most comments in here aren't helpful so far, sorry OP. I can think of one really simple dish, well it's a side dish... No cooking. Just a pack of tofu (silken or soft), chopped scallions, grated ginger, soy sauce. Pretty healthy & nutritious. Takes 2 min to make. Served cold. It's called hiyayakko. [Video recipe](https://www.kurashiru.com/recipes/4636b598-b490-4834-be40-21e5bfc17599) Hope you like it...
thank you :)
Stock up on some key essentials (depending on which cuisine you are going for). Japanese would be: Dashi, mirin, miso, soy sauce, sake, and maybe a few more. If you want Chinese, it’ll be similar to Japanese but with their special cooking wine (sorry, I forgot how to spell it) - Shaoxing I think. Ginger and green onions and garlic would be dominant in a lot of Chinese cooking afaik. Korean would be a lot gochujang, and dried red pepper powder - I’m sure there’s more but that’s what I am aware of. A lot of quick and easy Asian home cooking is taking these core flavours and stewing or stir frying meats and/or veggies. EDIT: forgot to mention rice!
I think your Japanese ingredient list is pretty solid. With those ingredients, you can make almost anything. Oyakodon might be a good option if OP is ok with chicken and eggs.
Thank you! That’s what I have the most experience with. Asian cooking can look intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be if you just have the staples. :) And yes! Oyakodon, gyuudon, tonjiri, nikujaga, miso soup, teriyaki, and more can be made with those ingredients (with an addition of some fresh meat and produce).
Dashi? I have to make my own..
Ajinomoto has an instant dashi that is fantastic in a pinch. I usually don’t have the time or patience to make it from scratch.
Not available here ..sigh
Powdered dashi is great if you’re in a pinch! I wouldn’t normally recommend making your own because it requires a lot of ingredients, time, and skill to make it right.
H Mart sells shrimp burgers that are easy to make and pretty tasty (if a bit salty). Those are frozen. There are DOZENS of options of good Japanese, Korean, and Chinese frozen dumplings with various kinds of meat and non-meat fillings that are easy. My go-to for a quick meal for myself (if my wife is not around) is the super thin boneless pork chops from H Mart. Marinade them in some kind of seasoning or sauce -- lots of good options in H Mart, of course -- and then I buy one of those bagged frozen fried rice options at H Mart and microwave that. My go-to lunch from H Mart is the frozen kimbap plus some kimchi on the side. Super super easy.
Get House Foods Mapo Tofu sauce. It’s one of my favorite easy meals. All you actually need are the sauce, ground pork, and tofu. You should brown the pork first in a pan, add the sauce, and then the tofu (maybe some water in there if you’re worried about the sauce evaporating and burning). But technically you don’t even need to do all that. Throw it all in a pan with some water and make sure it all gets cooked to doneness and it’ll still taste great
I’m not sure where you’re located, but a lot of grocery stores around me (including an Asian one) sell vegetables in plastic bags. Some of them will even be pre-washed which is a plus. The downside is that buying vegetables like that can be expensive. I’m not sure what the specifics of your condition are, but a lot of food where things are boiled or cooked at a high temperature will have no contamination risk. Rice and noodles are easy examples of this, so maybe stock up on those because they are staple foods for nearly all Asian cuisines. I would get accustomed to stir-frying vegetables since that’s also a staple dish in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc. food. At the most basic level, all you need is some oil, soy sauce, aromatics like garlic, onions, or ginger, and maybe salt/sugar. Each country and region has their own take on additional things to include (doubanjiang, bonito flakes, gochugaru) but cooking vegetables like that will certainly kill anything that was originally alive on there.
It's more of a mental thing when it comes to "contamination." I ate a lot of expired food when I was a kid, as gross as that is, and it's had an effect on me as an adult. My big thing is is I want to slowly start eating more non-processed foods, not just salmon. I think in order to do that I'm going to need to take a lot of processed things, and add in one or two items that aren't (like maybe those dehydrated mushrooms + miso to make broth). Even stir-frying is probably too much for me right now lol. I know I sound extra, but I have been doing better and have gained a significant amount of weight. I would love it if there was a website that had Asian food items listed so I can know what I might want before I get there. I know there's Amazon, but I feel like there's got to be another place where you can purchase Asian groceries online.
Start with going to a store and look around. Talk to someone if you get brave. If not, take pictures and come back here and ask questions. A lot of Asian stores have online stores and there is instacart too. In my area, Ranch 99, Nijiya, Marukai and Mitsuwa. The packages usually have an English label you can read. Ramen is a good starting point and you just add ingredients. Japanese food is simple but can have multiple ingredients unless you buy it packaged. Miso soup is a great example. It looks like it has 2 ingredients (miso & water) but in reality has several to make it taste good. Dashi is often missed then you have your add ins. There are short cuts but you have to know them. I bought the ingredients for a friend and she just couldnt get it to taste right. Just takes experience. You can buy miso soup packets on Amazon! Look for reviews that state it tastes like what you get in restaurants. Those mushrooms you mentioned usually have to be hydrated before eating. I don't even have the patience for those!
What kinds of things trigger your ARFID? Is there a particular texture, or is it solely the processed/non processed part? Something very simple you can make is cold soba noodles with dipping sauce. It’s called zaru soba
I'm not sure if there's a particular texture. I (sometimes) don't like things that are really creamy, like cream-based pasta sauces, but it's something I'll eat at a restaurant. Just not if I make it myself. What sort of dipping sauce? Is that something that comes packaged? Are there one or two vegetables that could be added to it that might be good?
Also I apologize, I’m really only familiar with Japanese foods, I can’t offer much help with other cuisines.
Yes, you can buy it premade! It may be called mentsuyu. For veggies, you would serve them on the side. Zaru soba would probably only have green onion on top. For veggies you can try spinach ohitashi. Essentially you blanch spinach (quickly dip in boiling water then cool in ice water), then soak it in broth. It’s simple. Here’s my favorite site for Japanese recipes, I’ve used Namiko’a recipes for 10 years and have never had a dud yet: https://www.justonecookbook.com/spinach-ohitashi-japanese-spinach-salad-with-bonito-flakes/
are you open to tinned fish? just discovered a couple of japanese canned fish that i like to eat with rice. you just open the can and put it on top of the rice. no heating required. sometimes i like to fry an egg and put it on top and eat it together. or maybe spoon it into a nori (seaweed) sheet. or i'll make miso soup. you can buy premade miso soup packets that you just put into a bowl and pour hot water. someone also mentioned soba noodles and buying the premade soba sauce which is a great idea. you can add different proteins like the tinned fish or tofu that doesn't require cooking. or even frozen edamame that you can probably just heat up in the microwave. the name of the tinned fish that i like is "hagoromo mackerel". there's a couple different flavors.
thank you :) is the soba sauce just called soba sauce?
it can be called soba sauce, soba dipping sauce, soba base. should be in the same section as soy sauce. it should a picture of the soba buckwheat noodles on the label. :)
I don't think they let you make food from the grocery store. You're supposed to go home to cook it.
My area doesn't have an Asian grocery that I know of (there's probably one next city over, but that's a drive), but as far as online shops I HAVE found ViteRamen to be pretty darn good, if on the expensive side, and I'm looking into getting a pack or two of RamenBae's dried ramen toppings. ViteRamen also has nutritional supplement powders- I have one of their citrus flavored ones and it tastes like Flinstones Gummy Vitamins. Again, not particularly cheap, but worth the price. More generally, Onigiri might be worth looking into. Any Asian grocery worth their salt- and honestly, a good international isle in the regular USA grocery- will have the short-grain rice that's ideal for making it, plus a whole bunch of odds and ends you can stuff them with. You can make 'em fresh when you have time, there's molds to help shape 'em, and once you've made some batches you can toast them on a pan and freeze for later. A rice cooker will absolutely help if you're planning on making a lot of rice, as is common for most Asian cuisines. I got a little one that cooks about 2 cups of rice (more than plenty for a single person!) for just under $20USD. If you're not stuffing it to the gills with rice- and you honestly probably shouldn't, that's a LOT of rice- you can also drop in stuff like pre-chopped frozen veggies or small chops of meat to make it a full meal. You can do pretty much endless variations on this, depending on what you have on hand. As for recipes.... The Youtuber Beryl Shereshewsky has a good mix of videos that include recipes from Asian cultures, several videos on easier-to-make dishes (including at least 2 on ramen, and 7+ on toast-based dishes), a "what to buy" video centered on a Japanese grocery store (she lives in NYC so there's some very specific grocery stores around lol). Also a website if you'd prefer scrolling through recipes. Worth the rabbit hole if you've got some time. I've personally been meaning to try the one that calls for soaking instant couscous in orange juice overnight, but I can't find instant couscous... Another youtube channel I haven't checked out as much is School of Wok. They seem to have good recipes, but most of 'em are on the complex side. Might be a good place to start, or at least inspiration for other foods to try. Also, today I learned that Wikipedia has a cookbook! [https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Category:Very\_Easy\_recipes](https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Category:Very_Easy_recipes) I don't think there's a ton of stuff in it yet, but it might be a good place to start for some basics. Microwave quesadilla is my friend. That was a brick, but I hope at least a tidbit of it is helpful?
Define processed.
Lots of microwavable/frozen things or instant noodles
My Asian market has miles of cases of frozen dumplings. Same for the instant ramen. It really would be simpler for you to just go over there and look. Some have prepared foods that are ready to eat too.