Are you interested in improving your cooking skills? While not everyone needs to cook like a chef, there are specific tips you can follow to ensure that your recipes always turn out perfectly. Now, if you're just getting started in the kitchen, it's normal to feel slightly overwhelmed. However, it's important to remember that the more you practice, the better of a chef you'll become! Whether you have a passion for cooking, or now have more time to spend in the kitchen, it's never too late to throw on an apron and learn a few new cooking skills. Follow these beginner cooking tips to improve your cooking skills and take your meals up a notch.
Read Recipes Ahead of Time
Though it might sound a bit obvious, this tip is one of the most important of all. Often, when we come across a recipe that sounds delicious, it's common to skim the recipe in search of the ingredients needed, rather than thoroughly reading the recipe. While scanning a recipe is an excellent way to know if the dish is something you're interested in making, it's essential that you thoroughly read the recipe before purchasing and preparing the ingredients. Reading a recipe thoroughly once or twice before making a meal is an excellent way to know what cooking skills and kitchen equipment will be needed. Depending on the recipe, it might call for utensils like a strainer, a cheese grater or even a potato peeler. Having everything you need to make the dish properly will ensure that your meal turns out the way it's intended to.
Purchase Fresh and Quality Ingredients
If you've ever made a meal with high-quality ingredients or fresh food picked straight from a garden, then you certainly understand the difference that quality ingredients have on the taste of a recipe. A good recipe (and a good chef) can do magical things with food. The right recipe can take a plateful of ingredients and combine them to create a dish that will satisfy nearly everyone's taste buds. However, ultimately, a meal is only as good as the ingredients used.
Quality and fresh ingredients significantly impact the taste of your food. Fresh, natural food often has a much more vibrant flavor and agreeable texture. This abundance of flavor usually means that you can use the "less is more" approach when adding ingredients. Fresh herbs, fruits and veggies can easily take a recipe from a tasty meal to a restaurant-quality dish.
Our Favorite Quality Ingredients
Organic Quinoa Grain
One of our favorite ancient grains, Organic Quinoa Grain is a good source of iron and is jam-packed with high-quality protein. It's delicious and nutty flavor make it the perfect base for soups, salads, pilafs and even breakfast bowls! Use quinoa in a sweet recipe like this Banana Almond Overnight Quinoa with Chia Seeds or use it to make a more savory dish like these Spinach Quinoa Bites.
Organic Coconut Flour
A tasty and nutritious alternative to traditional flours, our Organic Coconut Flour is created from the highest quality desiccated coconut. Its versatile flavor and excellent texture makes it one of our more popular gluten free flours. A fantastic choice for sweet and savory recipes, use coconut flour as a coating for your favorite protein (fish, chicken, meat) or add it into baked goods. No matter how you choose to use this flour, it's a high-quality ingredient that every kitchen should be stocked with.
Organic Steel Cut Oats
Not only is Bob's Red Mill Organic Steel Cut Oats delicious, but these oats are award-winning! In fact, these oats took home the winning trophy at the 2009 Golden Spurtle World Porridge Making Championship in Carrbridge, which earned them the title of the World's Best Oatmeal. Now, who can argue with that?! Freshly milled from high protein organic oats, a steel burr mill is used to cut the oats into precise pieces. They're a good source of fiber, complex carbohydrates and protein, and are incredibly versatile. Use Organic Steel Cut Oats to make pilaf, risotto, dumplings and more!
Throw out Expired Spices
Spices are a great way to add character to a dish. They contribute a burst of flavor to food without adding many (if any) calories, fat, sugar or salt. Unlike many sauces and store-bought condiments that are generally filled with sugars and processed ingredients, spices are a completely natural way to "spice" up any meal. When it comes to cooking with spices, most fresh spices have a flavorful and robust taste and aroma. This means that when using spice to amp up the flavor of your food, a little goes a long way. When enhancing a dish with spices the fresher the spice the better. Fresh spices or freshly ground spices are often much more flavorful and will boost the taste of your plate with minimal effort. However, expired dried spices often lose much of their flavor, and when added at the end of the meal can create a powdery flavor that isn't as pleasing. When deciding which spices to add to your recipe, if possible, try to use fresh, recently purchased spices. This will ensure that your meal tastes better than ever.
Use spices to create savory dishes like this Curried Lentil Sweet Potato Stew or sweet desserts like these Apple Spice Muffins. The possibilities are endless!
A few of our favorite spices include:
- Turmeric
- Chili powder
- Cayenne
- Cumin
- Garlic Powder
- Bay leaf
- Oregano
- Cinnamon
Keep a Few Food Essentials on Hand
We've all been there. You're craving something specific or have a delicious recipe in mind only to open the fridge and realize you don't have any of the needed ingredients. Or worse, you don't have much to eat at all. Stocking up on pantry and kitchen essentials and keeping a simple inventory of what you have in your kitchen before each grocery store run is a great way to ensure that you always have food on hand. Having even just a few necessary ingredients stocked in your kitchen will allow you to get creative and cook a delicious meal. Plus, a well-stocked kitchen may also keep you from ordering that unhealthy takeout, which would be easier than making a grocery store run. With the right ingredients on hand, you can quickly put together a last-minute meal for the family, or whip up a tasty dessert to surprise the kiddos with.
You don't have to build up all your inventory at once. In fact, we suggest purchasing a few kitchen staples at a time first to determine if they are ingredients you use often. To help, here are a few kitchen and pantry essentials to keep your home stocked with:
Kitchen Food Essentials
- Yogurt
- Eggs
- Peanut Butter
- Fresh Fruits
- Vegetables
- Protein
- Condiments
Pantry Food Essentials
- Regular Rolled Oats
- Onions
- Organic Quinoa Grain
- Organic Farro
- Potatoes
- Bulgur
- Pearl Barley
- Garlic
Equip Your Kitchen
A well-stocked kitchen is an integral part of cooking! Keeping your kitchen stocked with all of the tools you'll need to make even the most straightforward recipe can be a complicated task, especially if you're just starting! Having the correct equipment in your kitchen will save you from frustration and disappointment. When looking over a list of kitchen essentials, purchasing all of these tools at once might seem like a lot. This is why we recommend first purchasing the basics—the tools you need to cook a successful recipe. Then, if you later decide that cooking more challenging recipes is something you'd like to try out, you can purchase more advanced equipment, or borrow it from a friend!
When purchasing tools for your kitchen, think of it as an investment. The more quality tools you buy, the more favorable your cooking experience will likely be! Plus, because kitchen equipment generally lasts a long time, you won't have to repurchase the same equipment soon.
Curious about which kitchen essentials you should invest in first? Keep scrolling for a list of some of our must-haves.
Kitchen Essentials
- Chef's Knife
- Small Skillet/Sauté Pan (6-8 inches)
- Large Skillet/Sauté Pan (10-12 inches)
- 2 8 or 9-inch round cake pans
- Baking Sheets/Sheet Trays
- Wire cooling racks
- Blender
- Can opener
- Food processor
- Hand Mixer
- Box grater
- Cutting boards
- Kitchen Scissors
- Measuring cups
- Meat Thermometer
- Mixing bowls
- Rolling Pin
- Spatulas
- Strainer
- Tongs
- Vegetable Peeler
- Whisk
Now that you're well versed in these cooking tips, we hope that you use this beginner guide to cooking as a resource for all of your cooking needs! Whether you encounter a challenging recipe or need a few new ideas for pantry essentials, reviewing these beginner cooking tips is a great way to improve your cooking skills one step at a time. Remember, cooking doesn't have to be hard. Use these skills to set yourself, and your kitchen, up for success. With just a little bit of practice, we're confident that you'll be crafting delicious recipes in no time!
Do you have a beginner cooking tip of your own? If so, let us know in the comments below.
