Photo: Alyson McPhee
Unless you’re mega-wealthy, you need to either learn how to cook or exist on an endless supply of takeaways and convenience food. For some, it’s a joy to cook, but for many of us, it is more like torture. If you fall into the latter category, you’ll find value in these six indispensable kitchen tips for people who hate cooking:
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Use Kitchen Equipment That Makes Your Life Easy
Induction cookware, slow cookers, blenders, a good set of garlic crushers – kitchen equipment like this is designed to make your life easier. If you have dull knives, flaking nonstick pans, and other items that make cooking a drag, ditch them and get something better. You’d be surprised at how much of a difference the right tools can make to your time in the kitchen.
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Explore and Save Recipes
Building your go-to repertoire will make your time in the kitchen easier. Instead of just having one reliable dish, you could create a rotation of a tasty pasta dish, a noodle dish like Vietnamese Pho, a rice-based meal, and an easy one-pot roast.
Sure, you’ll have to do some experimenting, but including variety in your diet keeps things interesting. You may also find that experimenting with foods from different cultures adds a fascinating new dimension to cooking that makes it more fun.
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Get Social
One of the easiest ways to make cooking more manageable is by involving other people. This could mean holding a potluck at your house or taking turns with your partner to cook. It could even mean involving the whole family in prep so that everybody has a hand in cooking the meal.
Creating food this way makes the process more fun, and it takes the pressure off you. Even if you only do this kind of cooking once a week, it really does make your life easier.
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Batch Cook
Batch cooking means that you may only have to cook once a week. Imagine that! Of course, this cooking session will be a little lengthier than average, but if it results in a whole week of convenient (and healthy) consumption, that’s a win.
The way it works is that you cook up huge portions that you split and refrigerate or freeze to warm up throughout the week. The recipes don’t have to be complicated, making this a great time and effort saver for kitchen avoiders.
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Take Shortcuts
If you hate cooking, there are so many shortcuts you can take that make your life easier in the kitchen. For example, one good marinara sauce can go with meatballs or be turned into a stew, chili, or pasta sauce. It will also make the perfect pizza topping. Taking shortcuts is something even professional chefs do, so don’t be afraid to take them!
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Make Basic Food Fancier
Basic meals like beans on toast, chips and fish fingers, or burgers are very easy to make, especially when you are short on time and energy. One thing you can do to enhance your meals with minimal effort is to make these basic options fancier.
It’s all about taking the basic easy recipe and then enhancing it with some simple switches or additions, like adding a new sauce, a different bread, some fresh salad, or some different seasonings. We love to put baked beans on sourdough then cover it in hot sauce and grated vegan cheese. Simple but effective!
You may never love cooking, but with the tips above, you can have an easier time creating tasty, nutritional food in your kitchen.
