How to: save time while cooking
Old-fashioned, perhaps, but: good preparation is half the battle. Really. And especially in the kitchen. Because finishing faster means sitting down to eat sooner. And that’s exactly where we want to be. Here’s how to do it:
Do you always take so long to cook that your waiting friend gets hangry? Or do even the most foolproof recipes fail when you make them? Not anymore with these tips. You’ll soon have oceans of time left for other things. And you can sit down to eat sooner. Binge-watching, anyone?
Read the recipe
Sounds like a ‘duh’ moment, perhaps. But when was the last time you actually read the entire recipe before cooking? That’s what we thought. It takes a few minutes, but ultimately saves you much more time. Because damn, you didn’t need to chop those cloves of garlic at all—they could simply have gone into the pan whole.
Mise en place
Weighing and chopping everything in advance and then putting it into bowls may seem unnecessary. But trust us: it really helps. Think of it as a kind of guide that pulls you through the kitchen. You also have fewer things to think about straight away, because your ingredients are ready to go.
Small trash bowl
Celery and garlic in the left corner of your cutting board. Ginger in the middle. And red chili pepper in the bottom right. Nothing is more annoying than an overcrowded, messy cutting board. And constantly walking back and forth to the trash is annoying too. So keep a small trash bowl at the ready for all your waste and to keep your workspace clean. You can buy a mini kitchen trash can. But you can also simply use a bowl or an empty package.
Peeling
Vegetable- and fruit-peeling for dummies: don’t. Many fruits and vegetables don’t necessarily need to be peeled. Especially when you’re cooking them. The peel adds a certain texture to your dish. Perhaps even more importantly: many of the nutrients are found precisely in the peel. We do recommend peeling an avocado or kiwi. But zucchini or carrots, for example? Nope.
Room-temperature butter
Baking recipes often call for butter at room temperature. If you put your butter in the microwave to warm it up, it’ll turn into oil in no time. Oops. Instead, put the required amount of butter in a ziplock bag (seal it!) and place the bag in a bowl of warm water.
Lids are useful
Water boils much faster when you put a lid on the pan. This keeps the heat in the pan. And that way, you can enjoy your creamy pesto pasta in no time. Enjoy!
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