One of the founding principles of Whole30 cooking is this: You don’t need to cook complicated meals from fancy recipes—all you need are fresh ingredients and basic kitchen techniques. In fact, some of the most delicious Whole30 dishes we’ve ever made were simple “ingredient meals,” no recipe required.
Think of a burger topped with a fried egg, roasted sweet potato spears, and a garden salad; grilled chicken, peppers, and onions smothered in salsa and guacamole with a side of sliced mango; or canned tuna on top of fresh greens, topped with jicama, blueberries, and sliced almonds, drizzled with a homemade creamy vinaigrette.
We can hear your stomach growling from here.
If the idea of following a recipe makes you nervous, you could legitimately cook your way through your entire Whole30 just using this Kitchen Fundamentals section. (Although you might want to try your hand at a few Dressings and Sauces just to keep things interesting.) This is where we teach you all of the basic cooking skills—how to cook meat, seafood, and eggs, four different techniques for cooking vegetables, Whole30 staples like homemade broth and condiments, and helpful cooking and kitchen tips.
If this isn’t your first Whole30, you’ll still find this section helpful. We’ll give you guidelines for cooking times and temperatures, detailed charts to help you make the most of your meat thermometer, and a few (simple) recipes that an experienced cook will easily be able to customize dozens of different ways.
Plus, you’ve probably been cooking bacon wrong, and that alone is worth the read.
Let’s begin this section with a tour of your Whole30 kitchen, and the tools that will make the next 30 days an estimated 72 percent more fun.*
*No actual scientific studies were completed, but we’re pretty sure this is true. BACK