7 Time Saving Kitchen Tips and Tricks

We get it, there are days where you come home from work and are furiously hungry. You want something delicious and you want it now. Instead of grabbing the nearest bag of chips, we’ve got seven time saving kitchen tips and tricks to have you cooking faster. 

Use a kettle to boil water faster.

Boiling water in a pot takes A LOT of time. Depending on what your making and how much, a pot of water can take nearly 15-20 minutes to boil. Boil your water in an electric kettle first and you can knock that time down to 3-4 minutes!  

Cut ingredients smaller, so they cook faster.

It’s science; a whole potato takes much longer to cook than potato wedges. Cutting your ingredients into smaller sizes makes the cook time drop drastically, depending on the ingredient. For example, quartered potatoes take 20-25 minutes to become tender in boiling water, but cut those pieces in half and you can cut your cook-time to 10-15 minutes.  

Split the tasks; work in pairs.

This is one that we always encourage, even if it didn’t save you time, because cooking with someone is just so much fun. It’s a bonus that it also saves you time in the kitchen. Divide up the tasks or better yet, have someone clean up as you cook. You’ll cut down on cooking and cleaning time, win-win. 

Read through the entire recipe BEFORE you start cooking.

This hack is important. Reading the recipe beforehand, even if you’ve made it before, helps you be prepared for what’s coming up next. Instead of stopping after every step to read the next step, pre-read and you’ll know what to start next. 

Mise en Place (aka be prepared)

This one kind of goes hand-in-hand with previous cooking tips, but if possible have everything out and organized in front of you before you start cooking. That way you’re not scrambling to find an ingredient or utensil you need in the middle of a cooking step. 

Use appropriately sized pans. 

There’s a reason pans come in all different sizes and it’s a good one. Using a pan that is too big for its contents will just take longer to heat up. However using a pan that’s too small will cause your ingredients to be overcrowded and get less heat than they need to cook in a timely manner. 

Work in a clean space.

Working in a clean space, helps declutter your mind. Ingredients won’t get lost in the piles of dirty dishes or kitchen towels – plus it makes for an easier and shorter clean up after you’ve cooked your meal. This also goes for the cooking process. Keep a garbage bowl or better yet your HelloFresh meal kit bag to store organic waste to help keep your cutting board clear. 

Now it’s time to put these new found kitchen tips to the test! Try it with one of our delicious recipes, may we suggest our Italian Meatloaf, Creamy Sun-Dried Tomato & Spinach Penne, or Zesty Hoisin Chili Beef.