10 Things That Will Make Cooking Easier Than You Think
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You work hard. Even once you’ve left the office (as usual, one hour later than you hoped), that rectangular-shaped mini-desk that fits in your pocket chirps on the half hour, and you, dutiful employee that you are, address each ping. You’re double-thumbing a response to your boss as you cross the threshold of your front door when you spot your family (or your cat) on the couch, watching you. Their eyes are filled with hunger.
Crud. Dinner.
Don’t kill yourself! There are ways to make dinner—not the kind that comes in a box—more doable.
Embrace the store-bought rotisserie chicken. Once you and said warm, juicy chicken are in your kitchen, you can shred it (saving the bones for stock!) and turn it into a variety of meals: toss it with radicchio and shaved, salty cheese for a main-course salad; add it to a big bowl of cooked pasta and sautéed onions; make or purchase some soup and toss the chicken into it; and, when all else fails, throw it between two slices of bread. That’s called a sandwich, which we totally support for supper.
Make a big batch of salsa verde. Good condiments can make all the difference, turning a phoned-in dinner of baked salmon or roast chicken breasts into something zingy. That look of hunger in their eyes? It evaporates once they smell those herbs and garlic.
Pre-cook grains. Boil and drain rice or farro or freekeh on Sunday and store it in the fridge in air-tight containers. Then all you need to do is warm it in the microwave and you have some starch to flesh out your meal. Same goes with lentils and beans.
Buy more fish. Few things cook faster.
Keep puff pastry dough on hand. As we’ve mentioned before, it’s the home cook’s secret weapon, and it can be topped with basically anything.
Stock your pantry with…stock. Once you heat it up, that rotisserie chicken or fish or grains can go into it and you’ve got a stew supper.
Cook it raw. Kale and other hearty greens, even brussels sprouts, can be great raw; you don’t always need to cook them. Just make sure to slice them and toss them in a good amount of lemon juice or other kind of acid to soften them a bit.
Skip recipes, skip shopping lists, hell, throw out your whole idea of dinner. Buy what appeals to you and forget about the “meat and two sides” thing. Maybe you just want to eat avocado toast and a couple soft-boiled eggs.
Speaking of eggs: eggs. They’re not just for breakfast. A cheesy omelet, mixed greens, and a glass of wine for dinner? That makes us very happy.
Doctor up instant ramen. Throw out that packet of flavor dust and instead, serve the noodle in stock, adding sliced greens and scallions and whatever else you want (see: rotisserie chicken, above; see: eggs, above).
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