There's something about 30 minute meals that makes home cooking attractive. I for one, love to cook and don't mind spending hours, even a whole day preparing food in my kitchen. However, most times, I have to get dinner on the table fast, especially having a four-year-old who has no qualms about letting mommy know that he's hungry.
So by necessity I've had a lot of practice preparing quick easy dinner recipes in less than half an hour. In fact, for my weekly meal plan I always include meals that will be easily done in that time. Below are some tips I've found that have helped me.
Know Your Method
If there is a written recipe involved in whatever you're cooking on the night, make sure you are familiar with it. If you don't know it by heart, put the recipe somewhere you can easily refer to it. If it's on a piece of paper, stick the paper on your fridge with a fridge magnet. If you're using a cookbook, just be careful not to soil the pages of the book with ingredients as you cook.
Stay Organized
Before starting to cook, have all of your cooking equipment and utensils at the ready. This is particularly important when using a cooking method such as stir-fry, where the actual cooking takes only minutes. Make sure you have your mise en place, which simply means to have all your ingredients prepared and ready to go before you start cooking. Also use the garbage bowl famously coined by the queen of 30 minutes meals Rachael Ray to easily discard waste while you cook. This avoids you running to the garbage repeatedly or making a royal mess of your kitchen during the cooking process.
Use ingredients that cook quickly
Chop veggies in smaller pieces so they cook quicker. Use thin sliced chicken breast or beef instead of attempting that lamb shank recipe you’ve been itching to try.
Take help from the store
Today the grocery store has lots of ingredients prepared to help the home cook, such as pre-washed greens, slice mushrooms, carrots and other veggies, and many more. My favorite fall back in this department is minced garlic and crushed ginger. I find they are huge time savers in my 30 minute kitchen. For some purist cooks using pre-minced garlic and the like would be sacrilegious. However, to each his own – use what works for you and your family.
Now that you have some tips on how to successfully create 30 minute meals, you may want to try out some of these recipes which all can be completed in under 30 minutes.
