9 tiny changes that will massively speed up your cooking

Alright, now you know my top strategies for becoming a faster cook! What are some of yours?

I think one important reminder is: just keep cooking. Experience is a blessing. It takes too much time now but soon it will be quicker and it will be embedded in your routine.

you don't need to buy jars, just wash the jars that your jam and fancy olives and whatever else come in and reuse!

#1 Tip To Become A Much Faster Cook. Think the process and steps out completely before you actually do it. This only takes all of about 30 seconds but can often lead to using just one pan instead of a couple so less time digging out pans and utensils, , Almost always makes cooking quicker as you're not thinking about what's the next step or ingredients, and results in far less dishes. So it saves time in 3 different ways.... Something as simple as making a broth can dirty a shocking amount of dishes with all the filtering if you don't think it through.

Hi, just want to say that as someone with ADHD who never learned to cook this video is literally everything I could ever ask for in a cooking instruction video. Extremely clear, everything explained, to the point with no extra fluff, and a focus on the skills AROUND cooking that SUPPORT cooking (which I have to say have never crossed my mind until now). I love all of these tips so so much. I've never watched a cooking video as helpful as this one ever. It's like you know the exact things I struggle with and have a solution for each of them, it's crazy. Thank you SO MUCH!

Another tip: Try to buy/use tools that are dishwasher friendly. Even if you don’t have a dishwasher, you may have one someday and you will be grateful

One thing that's saved me time in the kitchen is just simplifying the meals themselves--I keep a rotation of simple meals that don't require more than a handful of ingredients and trips to specialty food stores. I love cooking so I keep the fancier recipes for the weekend and rely on staple ingredients only for most of my weekday cooking. It keeps my pantry neater too not to have too many different ingredients on hand all the time.

Also got two tips to add: (1) Soak your legumes to reduce the cooking time. It even works to portion them up and soak them inside the fridge for 36 hours up to several days, so you have all your legumes handy for the week. (2) Cook your (soaked!) legumes in a pressure cooker to reduce cooking time even further, while also avoiding the need to check and stir. You just have to get your ingredient water amounts and timings right once for your exact pressure cooker, then follow the same processes every time to get the same perfect results.

And after you get your kitchen scale... for recipes that don't provide weights, measure the ingredient out by volume, weigh it, and write it down for next time you make the recipe. Or look on the package, because the weight per tablespoon or per 1/4 cup or whatever is often there (on nut butters, flours, etc.) in the nutrition facts label, so you just have to do a little math, which is faster than washing a measuring cup that had almond butter in it!

Clean as you go 100% agree, my father always taught us to clean as we go while cooking when we were younger as teens.. as an adult I still do it and yes, less dishes and lack of feeling overwhelmed with pots and pans etc every where..

I love that these are practical things I can start doing now, not stuff that feels intimidating or requires me to learn some crazy new method or tool.

Another good tip is to cook simpler food! Nothing cuts down on cooking time more than choosing a recipe with fewer ingredients to chop

Thank you, Nisha! These are fantastic tips! I have a tip to add, too - just the other day, Adam Savage (of Mythbusters) uploaded a tour of his newly reorganized shop, and a number of the shelving units were built by a maker on the shorter side. Instead of fishing around to see if a small drawer had the component he needed, he installed mirrors above them so a quick glance could let him or another model-maker know if they had the necessary parts instead of grabbing a stool or stepladder. Our pantry is, unfortunately, rather deep, and you're more likely to find a can of cherry pie filling from 2012 than the ingredient you're actually looking for. So I'm thinking of transferring a bunch of things to jars, labeling the tops, and putting mirrors above them. Wish me luck, lol

I am so slow when I cook. I usually double the amount of time the recipe says it's going to take. I chalk this up to ADHD & time blindness. Lol! I have started prepping most things (mostly chopping veggies) before I start the actual dish &, aside from having to wash extra dishes, I like doing it that way. I also like your tip about don't worry about being faster! I love cooking & the kitchen is my happy place. I'll take some of these things & incorporate them, & then just enjoy cooking.

A lot of speed in the kitchen just comes with comfort and time. I will make things in my partner's home, even before I started prepping it for myself to move in, and he was astounded with how much faster I was than him. I usually would just look at him when he said something and ask how frequently I cook compared to him. I then point out how he plays instruments with his eyes closed, and he generally understands. It's a skill just like anything else, and that comes with practice.

So brilliant, thank you. What saved me in this regard was Flylady's (aka Marla Cilley) advice: "Do not let any soiled kitchen item out of your hands until it's washed or taken care of." So I either wash or rinse and put in the dishwasher before putting it down, no matter how much of a rush I am in. It works beautifully. I also have a towel on a designated side of the sink where I place rinsed items if the dishwasher is unavailable. This has worked amazingly for us.

To make the focus even wider, when you move and have the chance to get a new kitchen, plan it according to how you work, so that pans, spices, knives, fridge and stove are all close together. I took the time to do exactly that when planning our new kitchen and it makes cooking and everyday life really so much easier

I also print out my recipes but I take it one step further - I put them in a clear plastic folder (to go in a binder afterwards) so I don't sully them during the prep. I put a sticky note on it with any adjustments I made, plus which pot or pan I used; nothing worse than using too small of a pan or skillet and having to transfer everything mid-cook and then dirty a second dish!

If you need a lot of hot water, to boil vegetables, pasta, make rice etc, divide it up. I put some in an electric kettle, some in the microwave in a Pyrex, and some in the pot I will use to cook. I can get a couple quarts boiling in about 90 seconds. I also start my pressure cooker with hot water, it comes to pressure much faster. Finally, I chop a weeks worth of onions in my food processor, and freeze them in half onion size clumps on a tray, and put into a bag. A clump can go straight into the pan.

🤯 After watching this a couple months ago, I started using a SCALE instead measuring cups. I’ve been cooking professionally for a long time and never saw anyone do this. I just made pancakes at home this morning: I was delighted they turned out perfectly and I had fewer dishes to wash because I had weighed the flour mix, egg replacer and nondairy milk in the same dish (using tare button) rather than dirtying a measuring cup for each one. 🤯 Life changing. Thank you. 🙏