Tips & Tricks for the Disinterested Chef

Illustration by Megan Landman

For many, cooking during a pandemic has provided a sort of release: many who didn’t have the time to learn or experiment before have been running rampant with new trends and recipes. For others, however, cooking is still a daunting experience filled with mystery and intrigue. With restaurants only open for pick-up and companies like Uber and SkipTheDishes draining bank accounts everywhere, learning to cook has never been more necessary. We all know how easy it is to spice up some leftovers with a bit of butter in a pan, but creating something from scratch can seem to be much more complicated. With all the YouTube videos and blogs counteracting each other on the ‘right way’ to make different recipes, it’s clear why cooking is not everyone’s favourite daily task. 

The first thing to remember is that unlike baking, cooking is a very forgiving activity. Add too much salt? Try adding a bit of vinegar (or something acidic) and cooking it a bit longer. Recipe calls for chili powder but all you have is cayenne pepper? That’s okay, just use less cayenne since it’s much hotter. Most common mistakes made by ‘bad chefs’ are easily fixable, but usually the answers come from experience. 

The best place to start cooking is with soups and simple stews or curries. With a base of stock or bouillon, adding vegetables and spices until the flavour hits the mark is fairly easy: and with everything thrown in, these dishes are full of healthy goodness to energize the busy student. Furthermore, these dishes are easy to freeze and reheat even months later, making them even more suitable for student life. To supercharge a soup, try making the stock from scratch, too: boiling bones, vegetables and scraps in water for a few hours to save for any and all soup-making endeavours is an easy way to draw even more nutrition into your dish. 

With the trendiness of that one baked feta pasta recipe, people are also starting to see how simple it can be to make a delicious pasta sauce. For tomato-based sauces, the most common issue is that people often don’t cook the sauce long enough. In order to reach a nice, creamy texture with none of the sharp flavour that comes from the tomato’s natural acids, time is key. Adding an herb or two to a pan of butter or oil is another way to deepen the flavour of a dish, especially sauces (or creamy soups). Basil, thyme, and oregano pair well with tomato bases, while salt and pepper are the simple key to a nice alfredo. 

With the stress of living through a global pandemic and the boredom so many feel when stuck at home, many people turn to snacking for comfort. The key to controlling the “quarantine 15” is to ensure that alongside all the comfort food, there are healthy snacks available too. Hummus is a quick and easy staple that can be paired with many snack items, from carrots to pretzels. Having baked tofu or sliced deli meats readily available makes a healthy lunch much more accessible. 

The key to making cooking easy and less daunting is to stay stocked with the essentials. Crushed tomatoes, oil, potatoes, onions, and garlic are all staples to many recipes. Having dried pasta, rice, lentils, and flour on hand makes a big difference when in need of something fast, easy, and fresh. Whether or not these, as well as a wide variety of dried herbs and spices, are readily accessible can make or break a dish: or at least make it easier to stir up a quick meal. 

Cooking shouldn’t be people’s biggest worry in a pandemic. It can be difficult to find accessible recipes (especially without much cooking experience) but with the right ingredients and mindset, creating something delicious can be a painless experience.