whole30 cooking fundamentals
“I had always been a terrible cook. Cooking totally stressed me out, and I was envious of people who loved it. The Whole30 forced me to seek out recipes I could make. I started following Whole30 food bloggers and bought new cookbooks. I started cooking most days of the week. Now, meals for me and my family are healthy and delicious! I am definitely better at cooking and much more kitchen-confident as a result of my Whole30.”
— Andrea R., Nashville, TN
In this section, we’re going to teach you how to cook meat, seafood, eggs, and vegetables, and make some Whole30 fundamental ingredients like bone broth, mayonnaise, and clarified butter.
We’ll also walk you through some basic knife cuts, because boy, will you be chopping.
This section is where you build your kitchen confidence, perfecting your techniques for roasting, baking, steaming, searing, and grilling. You’ll learn how to cook your steak to the perfect temperature, how to keep your chicken breasts juicy and tender, and discover you actually do like mayonnaise. (You do. Trust us.) You’ll experiment with four different ways to cook your vegetables, (quadrupling your chances of falling in love with Brussels sprouts), discover making bone broth is actually really easy, and learn which grilling technique is right for those pineapple slices you’ve been craving. Consider this section the perfect prep for the more than one hundred recipes to follow in the fourth part of this book.
We could go on, but we won’t, because you look hungry.
Bon appétit.
Knife Cuts
Chiffonade (Ribbon Cut)
The French word chiffonade means “little ribbons,” referring to leafy greens like spinach, lettuce, kale, and herbs like basil that have been cut into long, thin strips.
To chiffonade, stack your greens or herbs from large (on the bottom) to small (on top) and roll into a cigar shape. Then, cut thin slices perpendicular to the roll to make ribbons.
Dice
To dice means to cut food into small blocks of a specific size. Dicing creates evenly sized pieces so they’ll all cook at the same rate. You’ll see three sizes mentioned here: large dice (1-inch cubes), medium (or unspecified) dice (½-inch cubes), and small (or fine) dice (¼-inch cubes).
To dice, slice the vegetable into rectangular strips that are ¼ inch thick (small dice), ½ inch thick (medium), or 1 inch thick (large). Line the strips up together and cut across at the same size to create cubes. Don’t bust out the ruler here—it’s less important that your dice are exactly the right size, and more important that all your cubes are similarly shaped.
Julienne
This knife cut makes long, thin strips (like matchsticks) on longer vegetables like carrots, potatoes, jicama, and bell pepper quarters. Technically, a proper julienne will measure ⅛ inch square and 2 inches long.
To julienne, trim off the sides of the vegetable (if necessary), creating a flat surface on each side and turning it into more of a rectangle shape. (You can still use the ends for salads, soups, or other meals.) Slice the vegetable lengthwise into ⅛-inch slices. Stack the slices and cut again lengthwise at ⅛-inch increments to create matchstick-size strips. Again, don’t worry about the exact size—just cut them thin and uniform in thickness.
Mince
The word mince just means to very finely chop. It’s usually used with garlic, onions, and chile peppers like jalapeño.
To mince, slice the vegetable into very thin strips. Line the strips up together and cut across in very thin slices to create tiny pieces. To mince garlic, you can also use a garlic press—it’s much faster than cutting by hand.
We may also ask you to “finely chop” ingredients like celery, mushrooms, or other vegetables. That’s somewhere between a small dice and a mince—just chop until the pieces are small, and don’t worry about their shape or size.
Rough Chop
This is the easiest knife cut, because it’s nowhere near as precise as a dice or julienne. A rough chop is perfect for soups, stews, or vegetables headed for the food processor—where it doesn’t matter how pretty the vegetables look.
To roughly chop, cut the vegetable in half horizontally and vertically. Slice in half a few more times until the pieces are in large chunks. Don’t overthink this! Just take those veggies and chop ’em up.
