Cooking is many people’s favorite thing to do.
Getting to the kitchen and preparing your meals can be fun and exciting.
However, food preparation is said to be the biggest time waster.
Today, we look at how you can cook faster and easier.
Why’s Cooking Exhausting and Time Consuming?
Cooking at home is one of the best decisions you can make. This way, you’ll be sure to eat fresh, hygienic meals. However, it can be tiring and a huge time waster. Preparing meals requires a lot of energy and time that you would use to do something else.
Think about it. You have to wash your food, cut vegetables, and wait for ingredients to cook, which can take a lot of time, depending on how many they are. After all of that, you’re just left with dirty dishes to clean.
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How to Cook Faster and Save Your Energy In Ten Tips
As you can see, this is quite a short time.
However, it takes time to master how to cook in a short time.
Here are ten tips to help you cook faster without getting too tired.
1. Organize Your Kitchen
It’s hard to remain efficient and organized when your kitchen is messy.
You’ll take a lot of time searching for ingredients, cooking pots, and other tools to use, which also drains your energy.
For this reason, you should organize your space in a way that makes sense.
Store the knives, chopping boards, and measuring spoons in one place, such that they’re readily available.
Thus you don’t need to run back and forth in your kitchen.
2. Decide What You Want to Cook
If you don’t know what to cook, you’ll waste a lot of time trying to figure it out.
Don’t step into your kitchen with no idea what you will cook.
Additionally, If it’s possible, avoid grocery shopping several times a week.
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This can consume the time you have spent doing something else.
If you can, have a meal plan for the whole week, and include extra meals, just in case you want to change your diet.
Then, go to the grocery and buy the specific things needed for your meals.
3. Salt Your Water
For the recipes using boiled water, ensure you add some salt to the water before boiling.
Besides adding flavor, it raises the water’s boiling point.
Additionally, it’s best to use a hot pan. Starting your meals in a cold pan is a time waster in the kitchen.
But with a preheated pan, your food will start cooking immediately after you put it on the stove, which saves time.
4. Cook in Batches If It’s Possible
Batch cooking can be a timesaver as you’ll be warming and serving the food you prepared throughout the week.
It involves making certain dishes in bulk to last the whole week.
See Also: What Should You Do If You Suck At Baking And Cooking?
You can prepare and roast vegetables and serve them in portions when the week begins.
Roasting makes your meal flavorful and offers several uses when planning your menu.
For instance, you can use vegetables as a salad on your pizza, a side dish for the main dishes, or a base for any meal.
Besides vegetables, you can make sauces, broth stews, and pureed soups in batches.
5. Use Room Temperature Meat
Many people habitually take meat from their fridge straight to the cooking pot, which is a mistake.
Instead, after removing it from the refrigerator, you should let it sit on the counter for a few minutes.
This evaporates moisture, meaning you won’t waste time when cooking.
Additionally, room temperature meat cooks evenly compared to cold meat, which rapidly cooks on the outside but doesn’t heat up sufficiently on the inside.
6. Use The Right Tools to Cut Proteins
We spend most of our time in the kitchen washing and cutting produce.
Chopping produce can take a lot of time,.
Use a Y-shaped peeler when preparing vegetables to save time and prevent cutting yourself.
Some chefs also recommend buying a mandolin.
This is mostly used in commercial restaurants, but you can also use it at home.
It creates consistent and thin curls for salads, carrot ribbons for making zucchini carrot noodles, and croutons.
7. Perfect Your Convection Cooking Skills
Don’t ignore the convection settings on your stoves.
Ovens with these settings cook food faster compared to standard ovens.
Also, when cooking, remember to cover all the pots used with a lid.
Doing that reduces the influence of external air temperature on your food. Therefore, you will prepare it faster using less energy.
8. Clean as You Go
Besides cooking, we also spend time cleaning the kitchen afterward. Now, this can add to the exhaustion.
Most expert chefs recommend cleaning as you go.
While it may feel overwhelming initially, it’s easier than it looks and will simplify your work.
Always have a bowl nearby to hold trash when cooking and to prepare ingredients.
You can then put your disposable items in this bowl.
Thus, you will cook efficiently and have a better workflow.
Additionally, use dishwasher-safe tools and gadgets. Hand washing utensils after cooking can be tiring.
But throwing everything in the dishwasher can save time and energy.
9. Wash Produce When You Buy It
When cooking, try to save as much time as possible.
But waiting for produce to dry after washing it can consume much of your time.
Instead, it’s better to wash your vegetables and fruits once you get home from grocery shopping.
Wash thoroughly, so you don’t need to wash it again soon, and store it in the right container in your fridge.
This way, whenever you want to cook, you can proceed straight without wasting time washing produce and waiting for them to dry.
10. Read Your Recipe Thoroughly
Finally, ensure you read and understand the recipe before cooking.
Once you know what you are supposed to do, you can organize yourself well and allocate time for each task.
Determine what step is the longest and start with that.
For instance, roasting is typically harder than most other cooking. So, start with that and allow it to cook while preparing other things.
Final Thoughts
Cooking is certainly time-consuming and exhausting.
That is why many people would rather order a takeout.
However the above methods will ensure that you’re more efficient while cooking.