40 Ingredients Forever

Ever stare down the same ingredients wondering what you're going to cook tonight that’s different from last night, and the night before? Sometimes it takes some help from a friend (that’s me, Ali Slagle).

40 Ingredients Forever is devoted to recipes that are abundant in flavor and joy yet streamlined in process and shopping—because they’ll all be made using my 40 go-to ingredients.

There will also be an advice column — show me your forever ingredients! — and general help with doing dinner, even when you really don’t want to.

What are the 40 ingredients?

Head here

Why 40 ingredients?

Using fewer ingredients in more ways isn’t boring—it’s something to strive for. We can do more with less. It means less food waste, a smaller grocery bill, fewer trips to the store, and no more lingering bottles of “what am I gonna do with that?” You’ll know these ingredients super well so you can use them with abandon (maybe without a recipe). It also just makes things easy…

Who’s talking here?

40 Ingredients Forever is corralled by me, Ali Slagle. Tetris-ing recipes with real-life guardrails is very fun for me, which phew since it’s been my career for 15 years. As a freelancer, I do (almost) whatever anyone will pay me to do, but mostly I develop my own recipes and test other people’s recipes. 

My first cookbook, I Dream of Dinner (so You Don’t Have To), has helped people make dinner and got lots of nice accolades including a James Beard nomination.

You might’ve also seen my recipes at Bon Appetit, the Washington Post, or the New York Times—perhaps the ginger-dill salmon (most popular recipe class of ‘20), burst tomato gnocchi (class of ‘21 and all time), or the Greek chicken (‘22). Before freelancing, I learned so much on the editorial and creative teams at Food52 and Ten Speed Press. 

What happens here?

Free subscribers get 1 recipe per month.

For a deal of $1.50 per recipe, paid subscribers get so much more:

• 4 complete-meal recipes per month.

• Show me your Forevers and I’ll make you dinner: An advice series where a reader shares their ingredients they always have (and maybe are tired of) and I’ll dream up three meals that use them. (Submit yours here!)

• Other things you’d find helpful? (Open to suggestions.)

Why become a paid subscriber?

Maybe you’re saying to yourself, “I already pay for your recipes elsewhere. Why pay for your work on Substack?” Think of it this way: Say I was an actor whose movies you liked on Netflix. If I wrote, directed, produced, shot, and acted in my own film that wasn’t on Netflix and you wanted to see it, you’d probably have to pay to do so.

For more context, here are some shouldn’t-be-secrets about freelancing: 

• In addition to being an expert at whatever you do, you must be a business: accounts payable, accounts receivable, agent, publicist, dishwasher, all of it.

• You pay for your own healthcare, which is shockingly expensive as an individual. 

• No one is obligated to hire you or even respond to your emails. Job security, who’s that?

• You have to do your very best every time because you want to get hired again so you can, like, pay for healthcare.

• You hold none of the power.

• I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

40 Ingredients Forever is my attempt to have a little more agency and make the above a bit more manageable. My work is physically, mentally, and emotionally consuming (

If you like my recipes and want me to make more, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. Besides buying my book, it’s the only way you can directly support and follow my work.

P.S. For every 100 paid sign-ups, I donate 10 paid subscriptions to people who can’t afford it; if you’re interested in being comped, sign up here.

Get in touch 

alislagle@substack.com or Instagram

Recipe testers: Theo Kaloudis, Cybelle Tondu, and Caroline Lange

Brand designer: Linda Huang

Advisor: Dan Stone