The 13 best dishes you don’t have to chew
Whether you’ve been roughed up by the oral surgeon or gone off the rails at Thunderdome, the result is the same: chewing hurts. Don’t worry. There’s plenty of delicious food that doesn’t require your jaws. Just open your mouth and let it slide right in.
Soup
Okay, it’s a bit of an obvious one. But for good reason. Soup is delicious, nutritious, comforting and available in all shapes and sizes. Whether you go for a ready-made one (tip: this one is great), a healing chicken soup or a from scratch white bean soup à la Alain Caron. It all goes down equally easily.
Mash
Chop and mash, mash and chop, and in it goes. Finding it tough? Pour on some gravy. Tip: this is how you make it perfect.
Shakshuka
Breakfast, lunch, dinner—shakshuka is always a good idea. Even if your jaws aren’t bothering you. Besides: doesn’t the name alone give you instant energy? Shak-shukaaa.
Creamed spinach and mashed potatoes
Power food in a creamy outfit—what more could you want? Exactly: even more creaminess in the form of mashed potatoes. Can you manage a little chewing already? Add fish fingers or salmon and you’ve got a complete meal.
Smoothies
We’ve spotted a pattern by now: dishes beginning with the letter S are smooth and instantly swallowable. Puréed fruit in the form of smoothies obviously shouldn’t be missing. Ideal if that banana still won’t go down on its own.
Pasta
Italians should look away for a moment, but if you cook your pasta a little longer than al dente, you can slurp it straight down. Lady and the Tramp style, if you like.
Oatmeal
We mainly know it as a sweet breakfast, but did you know oatmeal is delicious when savory too? Stir in a little cheese, add spinach (creamed) and an egg, and you’re done.
Olvarit
Okay, you can tell: we’ve moved beyond shame and the category of ‘dishes’. Welcome to the category of disgustingly delicious foods that are perfect for chew-free days. Who else can’t chew? Exactly: babies. Word from the editorial team: not only the fruit purées, but also the pumpkin and green bean mushes are top-notch.
Custard
Vanilla, chocolate, coffee caramel—or go festive and choose vlaflip.
Pudding
Some days, eating dessert as a full-fledged meal is completely okay. Breakfast with semolina pudding, lunch with Chipolata pudding and dinner with Dame blanche—how does that sound?
Applesauce
Some people eat it with their lasagna (yes, really—even with one of those microwave versions), others with a meat-potatoes-vegetables dinner, while others simply spoon the jar empty. You decide.
Avocado
Our advice: forget the toast for now, simply sprinkle your avo with some salt and pepper and eat it straight from the skin with a spoon. Also delicious: add a little sriracha.
Rocket pops
The ravers among us may already have had their fair share of these, but ice cream remains a stroke of genius. The day(s) after too. The same goes for bananas, by the way.
Image: YouTube
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