Rediscovering "Peasant Food"

If you go back far enough, your ancestors probably lived on pretty simple fare- beans, grains, vegetables, fruit, and whatever meat could be had and cured. The meat may have been common or rare, depending on their circumstances. The diet of the very wealthy- white flour, abundant meats and fats, and plenty of sweets- has become our everyday fare now in America, but it hasn't been that way for very long.

All the nutritional research in the world seems to indicate that Daniel and his friends were right, that a "peasant diet" in which vegetables and whole grains predominate is much better for health than the rich fare of the king's table. It doesn't require a nutrition degree, or a pantry full of rare and expensive ingredients, to cook like they did. Dried beans, brown rice, and some veggie seeds (or frozen vegetables or a big head of cabbage and a bag of potatoes) are dirt cheap. Add a few herbs in pots, and a bit of meat to flavor the pot (or not), and you've got it. It's not elitist, or racist, or any other form of "-ist" a partisan would try to bring to the discussion. 

A hunk of cornbread and a bowl of soup on a cool and rainy day can be beautiful. 

Once in a while you have to rhapsodize about lunch.