RESET YOUR PANTRY FOR HEALTHY COOKING. Get rid of heavily processed foods, old spices and condiments, and anything you don’t want to eat anymore. Out of sight, out of mind. Instead, fill your kitchen with whole, minimally processed foods. For snacks, look for dried fruits, nuts, and whole-grain crackers. Keep your pantry filled with whole grains like brown rice and farro, whole-grain flours, whole-grain pastas and breads, canned vegetables like tomatoes and artichokes, long-keeping vegetables like potatoes and winter squash, canned beans, dried beans and lentils, fruit spreads, jams, jellies, and a variety of hot sauces and salsas. Organize everything so it’s easy to grab. Make a shelf for all the beans, another for the grains, another for the nuts and seeds. In your fridge and freezer, keep a steady supply of fresh seasonal vegetables and fruits; dark leafy greens; lettuces; fresh herbs; fresh juices; nondairy milk, yogurt, butter, and cheese alternatives (if these interest you); frozen fruits; and frozen vegetables like peas and corn kernels. When you step into an organized, well-stocked kitchen, the cooking goes so much faster, and it’s so much more fun.
REPLACE DRIED HERBS ABOUT EVERY SIX MONTHS.
BATCH COOK. The idea of making a big meal on Sunday and then repurposing it throughout the week is a great one. It’s all about stretching your meals. Roast whole heads of cauliflower or broccoli at a time. Roast a couple of batches of root vegetables like sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips, onions, and celery root. Pan-sear or grill a slew of mushrooms. Make a big batch of Corona beans or lentils or a batch of rice or quinoa. We never cook beans or grains for just one meal. We always make a big batch. Maybe the beans are a side dish on Sunday, a taco filling on Tuesday, blended into a dip on Wednesday, and part of a soup on Thursday. Make a double recipe of Wicked Healthy Cheese Sauce (here), Nana Sarno’s Red Sauce (here), or Mango Sriracha Caramel (here). You can freeze most sauces. Then just tweak them by adding different seasonings through the week. Batch cooking is the only way restaurants can turn out hundreds of meals a night. Avoid the dinnertime rush by doing the same thing at home.
THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS “LEFTOVERS.” THEY’RE JUST COOKED INGREDIENTS WAITING TO BE TURNED INTO ANOTHER DISH!
READ THE RECIPE ALL THE WAY THROUGH. Seriously, do this. Ever get halfway through a recipe and find you don’t have an ingredient? Before you start cooking, give the recipe a quick read to avoid a mid-cook crisis. That also helps you strategize for efficiency. If both the taco filling and guacamole call for chopped onions, chop all your onions at once. Group similar tasks together, like getting all the ingredients from the fridge at one time, so you’re not running back and forth. See here for more on using our recipes.
PRACTICE MISE EN PLACE. This French term literally means “put in place.” Before you start cooking, get your equipment ready, prep your ingredients, and have everything you need measured out and ready to go. Getting prepped makes cooking so much faster, easier, and more fun. Stir-fry is a great example. The actual cooking takes only a couple of minutes. Most of the work is chopping and mixing before you even heat up a pan. Get in the habit of prepping before you cook to make cooking less stressful. Mix your sauces, chop your vegetables, and marinate ingredients as far ahead of time as possible—even in the morning before you go to work.
MEEZ-ON-PLOSS
MISE EN PLACE GOES WAY BEYOND THE KITCHEN. IT IS A STATE OF MIND. –CHAD
MISE EN PLACE ALONE CAN SAVE YOU TONS OF KITCHEN STRESS!
Don’t be shy. Grab the knife like you mean it! Hold the handle but also the back edge of the knife right behind the heel of the blade. When your fingers hold some of the blade you get more control over the knife. Stand with the knife perpendicular to the food you’re cutting. As you cut, keep the tip of the knife pointed down and let the blade and the weight of your body do most of the work. The knife should mostly move forward and backward to slice. It shouldn’t take much downward force. With your other hand, hold the food. Arch your fingers like an eagle’s claw to grasp the food, but tuck your thumb behind your fingers to keep from cutting yourself. It helps to rest the blade against your arched fingers. Then you can slowly move your arched hand and the knife blade together as you cut the food. Aim to cut food into same-size pieces so they cook at the same rate. There’s also some research showing that different knife cuts, such as long slices on an angle, expose more surface area and release more flavorful compounds from the food. So try to cut the food the way it’s suggested in the recipe. It makes a difference!
CONSIDER TIMING. Look at what takes the longest and start those things first. Preheat the oven. Light the grill. Start the pasta water. Marinate the vegetables. Get those things going so you can prep other ingredients right before you start cooking. If you’re organized and “mised out,” you should have an idea of what to start cooking when and approximately when things will be done. Once you get faster with a knife, you’ll be able to do some chopping while you’ve got pans on the stove.
HONE YOUR KNIFE SKILLS. We won’t lie. Plant-based meals involve a lot of chopping. If you’re short on knife skills, do some chopping in a food processor. Pick up a mandoline for quick slicing. Models that have julienne blades are even more useful, and they’re pretty cheap these days. Even with fancy cutting tools, though, you will at some point be holding a chef’s knife. Start with basic knife-holding technique to make chopping easier—and safer (see Basic Knife Technique at left). Keep those blades sharp! Every few uses, tune up your knife on a honing steel. Store your knives on a magnetic strip or in a knife block. Storing them loose in a drawer will only dull the blades.
WE LOVE CHOPPING—IT’S THERAPEUTIC!
REMEMBER: SHARP KNIVES CUT, DULL KNIVES SLIP!
COOK CLEAN. Even cats clean up their messes right away. Clean as you go! Get in the habit of discarding trash and wiping down countertops as you prep and cook. It’s so much easier to get stuff done when the kitchen is clean. It calms your mind. Keep a clean towel folded near your workspace. Move food out of the way once it’s prepped. Stack empty bowls and pans and move them to the cleanup area.
IF YOU EVER COOK WITH DEREK AND YOUR TOWEL IS LEFT UNFOLDED ON THE COUNTER, HE WILL FOLD IT FOR YOU. HE’S A BIT OCD ABOUT THAT. –CHAD
HAVE PATIENCE. Chopping and timing get easier with practice. Cooking is a lot like riding a bike, yoga, and every other activity: The best way to get better at it is to do it more. It shouldn’t be a drag and stressful—it should be fun! Just be patient and focus on your form. Speed will come. Your skills will develop. And then you’ll be more confident and look forward to putting together meals that nourish your family, your friends, and yourself.
HALF OF BEING A GOOD COOK IS JUST SHOWING UP! –DEREK