With all the TV cooking shows, celebrity chef tips and online recipes, it’s easy to forget about the basics of simple everyday cooking.. To take us back to basics and remember the joy of cooking, we've gathered 11 simple cooking tips from people who ACTUALLY COOK everyday. This group of real cooks includes first and foremost the mothers of some of our team members, so this would be the right place to thank them (I love you Mom!!) for their cooperation and valuable cooking tips!
11 Tips for Simple Everyday Cooking
- Herbs cannot replace salt altogether. People tend to use less salt than needed while cooking and replace the salty flavor with herbs. If you taste the dish while cooking and you feel like it needs more “depth of taste”, salt will usually solve the problem.
- Oh-oh! Used too much salt? Just add a potato to the pot and take it out after 10 minutes. The potato will soak up some of the salt.
- When cooking meatballs, put them in the pot only when the sauce is boiling hot. This will keep them from falling apart during cooking. Once they’re in the pot - don’t use a spoon to try and turn them over, this will only mess things up. Instead, lightly shake the pot so the sauce covers the meatballs.
- Upgrade your rice making! Instead of adding 1-2 tablespoons of oil to the rice and water, start with the same amount of oil and saute the rice in it. Then add water and salt. You’re using the same ingredients to make the rice, but a different cooking process. It’ll taste much better!
- If you’re having people over and want to prepare the salad in advance, just cut the vegetables ahead of time. To preserve the vegetables firmness and fresh flavor, add the dressing or seasoning only when you serve the salad.
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Ditch the slicers and dicers! This may not sound like a scientific tip to you, but our moms guarantee that a knife is still the #1 gadget for chopping vegetables and making salads that don’t suck. Cleaning is much easier this way too.
- Some wine left over from dinner? Pour it into an ice tray and freeze for using when you cook a recipe with wine in it.
- Spice racks are a nice addition to the kitchen design, but they’re not always that practical. Spices are better kept in cool dry place in order to stay fresh longer.
- Meal prepping is great, but you cannot prepare salads in advance! We love our “4-way-salad-meal-prep-in-a-mason-jar” videos just like the next person, but in reality salads need to be consumed fresh.
- You don’t need to add oil to the water when cooking pasta. It won’t stop the pasta from sticking together. Just stir it every now and then to keep it from sticking.
- Soup always tastes better the next day!