spinach and mushrooms

Welcome back. If you tuned in yesterday, you already know what week it is.

For day two of #BudgetWeek, I chose a dish that speaks for itself and gets the job done. Spinach and mushrooms is something that most normal human beings dump over a grilled steak as garnish, but if you're vegan, you know that these ingredients are so much more than mere decoration.

To be perfectly clear: this is not a stir-fry recipe, mostly because for this one we are keeping things 100% sauce-free. This dish goes back to the basics in a big way. It's very important to keep things simple when you're white and on a budget, like me.

mushrooms

spinach

onion

tomato

garlic

olive oil

salt

pepper

Look, this slop isn't just gonna up and make itself. Let's give the small-talk a rest and start breaking down some veg.

Dice the onion. Cut the tomatoes in half, same for the garlic. If your spinach came with stems, you can leave it whole and unmolested. The mushrooms, you're going to want to slice thinly. This maximizes our surface area and will give us the flavor profile we are so desperately seeking.

Heat up a squirt of olive oil and get your onions moving. After they begin to soften and turn translucent, put the garlic in, as well. Give them a moment to acquaint themselves with one another. Add the mushrooms and some salt and wait for them to do the same.

Once your mushrooms are brown and delicious, it's time to toss the fresher ingredients into the mix. The tomatoes may seem like a silly thing to include, but trust me when I say they will give the dish a touch of bright acidity that I feel is indispensable.

Shove everything around in the pan until things start to get interesting. Once the greens are wilted, you're pretty much done. Good for you.

This dish can be enjoyed in a number of ways. You can serve it over polenta. You can eat it on a slice of toast. You can even mash it all into a baked potato; the choice is yours.

Me, myself? I like to cut out the middleman and just dump it into a container of leftover rice that's already been sitting in the fridge for a couple of days; no hassle, no fuss, and, most importantly, absolutely no pretense. Any other way, and it just doesn't taste right.