Whether you consider it a chore or you love gathering your loved ones together over a home-cooked meal, it’s not always easy to get the results you hope for when you’re cooking.
It’s easy to get discouraged over one burnt roast or some overdone vegetables. But it doesn’t need to be that way.
Cooking can be a great way to decompress and engage in some self-care. It can even be therapeutic! And you don’t need to be making complex dishes that take hours of prep to take your cooking up a level.
We’ve compiled a few tips and tricks that are simple but will completely change your game in the kitchen.
Invest
in the right tools
This may come as a shock, but you’re not going to enjoy cooking unless you have everything you need to do it right.
Before you rush to invest in a fully outfitted kitchen, you only need a few good-quality tools to build a great foundation. A high-quality chef’s knife that you sharpen on the regular, a reliable chopping board that doesn’t slip, a non-stick pan, tongs, and an inexpensive peeler are all you need on your kitchen crack team.
Trust us, these will make all the difference.
Don’t
rush the prep
Once you’ve committed to cooking it can be tempting to dive right in and rush through the prep stage. We’re here to tell you that the prep has more impact on your final dish than you give it credit for.
You may not be able to dice onions as fast as a chef does and you may find gathering your ingredients pointless when you know where everything is, but you’ll thank yourself for taking the time to do these things right later.
The consistency of your chopped ingredients will affect how evenly they cook and will lead to better mouthfeel in your finished dish. Having all your ingredients on hand will also help you taste your dish and make adjustments as you go along.
Timing
is everything
Do you find yourself constantly worrying about whether or not your food is fully cooked? Do you keep things on the heat for much longer than necessary?
Just between us and your cooking, you can always cook your food more but you can never cook it less. So bite the bullet and take that pan off the stove!
When you take your food off the heat just before it’s done, you can let its internal temperature do the rest and cook your dish to perfection.
Clean up
as you go
If the sight of all the cleaning up you need to do is enough to put you off the meal you just made, you may not like what we’re about to say.
Trust us, if you make conscious efforts to clean up as you cook, you’ll feel a lot better about your cooking once you’re done.
Even if all you’re doing is rinsing a few utensils while your pan’s on the stove or washing off your chopping board while your dish is in the oven; it will make a difference in your cooking style.
Another silver lining? This way you can just enjoy your food once it’s cooked instead of dreading the dishwasher load to come.
Keep
things fresh
This tip works on two levels.
One, don’t tire yourself out by cooking the same thing every time you set foot in the kitchen. Dare to go beyond the well-trodden path and add a twist to your favorite recipes, or try something new!
Trying new things in the kitchen can be a great confidence boost and will make your culinary journey more fulfilling. Who knows, you may even pick up some new skills without realizing it or find your new go-to recipe!
Two, most of your produce doesn’t need to be stored in the fridge.
Get in the habit of buying your groceries in exactly the right quantities you need instead of overshooting them. This means you can keep most of your fruit, like bananas and oranges, and vegetables, like avocado and tomato, out of the fridge.
That way you can put together more fresh and nutrient-packed meals.
What little tips have you picked up that help you take your culinary skills to the next level? Share them with us in the comments below!