By Sara
Looking for some time-saving cooking tips? Stick with me and you’ll hopefully find some ideas!
Saving time is a premium ask these days, especially when it comes to time spent in the kitchen. Eating a plant-based diet takes less time than eating a standard American diet. There are many reasons I believe this is true, with one of the most obvious being that you needn’t sanitize the kitchen quite as frequently, as you do when eating meat, to prevent food-borne illnesses. Granted, I still like to wipe my kitchen down each week prior to starting my meal prep as well as once I’ve finished eating anything or cooking. However, gone are the days that I sanitized in between different steps of the cooking process!
So if you want to go plant based but are really limited for time, what do you do? I’ve gathered a few ideas, and kitchen hacks to get you in and out of the kitchen lickety-split.
“By eating homemade meals all week, you have more control over what fuels your body.”
1. Grocery delivery:
Ordering your groceries from a local grocery store and having them delivered to your home is one way to save a lot of time. Think about the time it takes you to drive to and from your store, find a parking spot, walk the aisles and then stand in line to pay for your items. This is a way to save between 1-2 hours, depending on how close you live to the store.
You can also do a delivery service such as Thrive market, which is touted as the “Costco for organic foods”, with deliveries strait to your door. Another option to try out is Misfits Market or Imperfect Foods, where you can have a vast array of fresh produce as well as other groceries delivered. They are constantly expanding their selection, and have a good variety.
Skipping the grocery shopping in stores can give you back a little time to spend with your family. Just make sure to stick to a shopping list so that you aren’t wasting money on food you can’t eat.
Just set up delivery for a day and time you’ll be home and able to immediately unpack the groceries. This way, you can get any produce that needs washed and chopped taken care of before your cooking day(s).
It’s not necessary to do meal planning, you can still get dinner on the table quickly without doing so if you just take an hour or so to wash and chop all your veggies for the week. This way, when you get home following a busy day, you just need to take the ready-to-cook ingredients out and cook them for a quick meal.
2. Kitchen Tools:
By investing in some kitchen tools that can do some of the “heavy lifting” for you, you will greatly speed up your time in the kitchen. The top 3 that I will recommend include:
A food processor that can help to dice, slice vegetables. The Breville Sous Chef is a great tool that will greatly speed up your prep time. It can even peel potatoes! Talk about saving valuable time! Food processors have come a long way, and can make life so much faster!
This is one of the best time-saving cooking tips. When eating plant-based, there is a lot of time spent chopping and prepping veggies and fruit.
Vitamix blender: This high speed blender makes quick work of the sauces and such that you’ll want to add more flavor to your meals. You can use it for smoothies, nice cream, sauces, home made condiments, salsas, and so much more. A work horse that can blend up nuts without the need to soak them beforehand. This is the Vitamix blender similar to the one I’ve had and used every day since getting it about 10 years ago. It is still working like a champ!
Instant Pot: With as many legumes as a whole food plant-based eater consumes, this pressure cooker makes quick work of beans. Cooking time is dramatically reduced with just this one appliance. You can throw the ingredients for soups, stews, and chilis into it, program a delay start, and time it so it is ready as you walk in the door. Being a multifunction cooker, it also makes whole grains cook quickly. It will function as a slow cooker, steamer, rice cooker, and you can even make your own yogurt in it! By having so much functionality in 1 appliance, it will also save you storage space! Some of the fancy ones can even be programed via your phone, so you can change the time to start cooking if your have to work late.
3. Mise en place:
By having your veggies chopped and ready to go, you can easily gather all your ingredients for your favorite one-pot meals and get dinner on the table quickly. This method of having all your ingredients ready is a real time saver in the moment, especially for quick-moving cooking, such as with stir fry. By having the items all prepped, it will allow you to move through a recipe without delay, so is the best way to save extra time in the kitchen. Chop your fresh herbs and store them in small bowls until it is time to add them to your meal.
4. Make larger batches:
If you make a chili, soup, stew, curry, spaghetti sauce casseroles or something else that will freeze well, make a double batch, and then freeze individual portions so that you can use after that long day when the last thing you want to do is cook dinner. Freezer meals are a great way to save a ton of time and get bellies full pronto! Or you can repurpose your leftovers so that you can eat the same food multiple different ways. Such as chili, then chili over baked potatoes.
5. Keep your pantry well stocked:
Having a pantry with all the dried goods you could possibly need (including all the spices and herbs!) helps to ensure you can throw together a meal the next time you are needing to get food on the table stat. And having a lot of spices is important to give your food the best flavors, and prevent you from getting bored with your meals. Store foods in glass jars to allow you to see the contents and better be able to find what you need quickly.
6. Purchase vegetables pre-cut to save prep time:
Another of my best time-saving cooking tips!
You can purchase fresh pre-cut vegetables, or frozen. This ensures they have been washed and you get to skip a couple of steps, so you can throw a meal together without using much time to do so! Dinner time will be so much less stressful!
7. Have a plan in place:
Make sure to read through your recipe(s) from start to finish so that you know what to expect. Gather all of the supplies and ingredients you will need. Preheat the oven if required. Cook foods that go into the oven first. Clean as you go: while foods are cooking, clean up after yourself, wiping off counter tops, putting items away after use and washing dishes as well. A little planning will get you out of the kitchen and onto your next to-do quickly.
Have a list of easy recipes that are good options for when you are super tight on time. One-pot meals are great so that you save time by having to wash less dishes following the meal. Make sure to keep as many of the common ingredients for your favorite recipes on hand so that you have them in a pinch.
With these time-saving cooking tips, you should be able to throw together meals or meal prep for the whole week! This way, you can eat homemade meals all week, giving you more control of what fuels your body.
