Hello, again
And the top 5 posts from 2025
The calendar has ticked over to 2026 and I’ve just dropped off 40,000 words to my book editor — as good a time as any to say hello again. So happy you’re here.
In case you have no idea where “here” is, 40 Ingredients Forever is a newsletter devoted to the mundane but formidable task of feeding yourself every single day. It does so with an abundance of flavor and joy but minimal shopping — because every recipe is made with my 40 go-to 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?” It also just makes things easy, much like a capsule wardrobe. If you’re suspicious of this premise, know that more than 60 dinners have come from my 40 ingredients so far, and there’s plenty more to come.
Tetris-ing recipes with real-life guardrails is very fun for me, which phew since I made it my career of somehow 15 years. You might know my first cookbook, I Dream of Dinner (so You Don’t Have To): Low-Effort, High-Reward Recipes, or you might’ve seen my recipes at Bon Appetit, the Washington Post, or the New York Times. Another cookbook is coming next year.
Which might lead you to say to yourself, “I already pay for your recipes elsewhere. Why pay for your newsletter?” There’s more on why this newsletter has a paid option on the About page, but you can also think of it this way: Say I was an actor in a movie 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.
Free subscribers get access to 1 new recipe per month.
Paid subscribers ($6/month or $50/year) receive 1 email per week with one of the following:
At least two, new complete-meal recipes using the 40 ingredients, plus access to all already-published recipes.
Dinner Tetris: 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!)
Access to unlocked links to my recipes published elsewhere.
Treats and other fun stuff, plus other things you’d find helpful. (Open to suggestions.)
A sampler platter: 2025’s top 5 posts
One more thing: Subscribing to all the newsletters you want to support adds up, in both time and dollars. (Did you read about the guy who spends $28K a year on Substacks?)
It is an imperfect system, but it’s the one we have right now to make a living. Thank you to everyone who finds my little newsletter of service and wants to support this work. If you ever find that what you’re receiving isn’t suiting your needs, please let me know.
It’s not the solution, but for every 100 paid sign-ups, I donate 10 paid subscriptions; if you’re interested in being comped, sign up here.
Biggest, best wishes for this new year.
Can attest that it’s great to be a subscriber and to own your cookbook! Does this mean a new one is coming this year?
This idea of doing more with less — and letting a small, well-loved set of ingredients carry you through the week — really resonates. It’s such a sane, generous way to think about feeding yourself over time.
I’ve been exploring something similar in my own writing with Pantry Poems: building repeatable meals and habits around a few dependable staples, so eating well feels easier and more sustainable, not more aspirational.
Congratulations on the book draft — and thank you for articulating this so clearly