Reduce Prep Time when Cooking

If you’re juggling a busy schedule, spending lots of time every day on food prep probably isn’t feasible. Instead of dining out or settling for unhealthy packaged meals, make your meal prep more efficient. Designate some free time on the weekends to chop ingredients for the week’s meals. Try cooking pasta and veggies in the morning while you get ready to save time at dinner hour. Use time-saving kitchen tools that make prep easier, and strategize when you cook to make the most of your time.

Steps

Preparing Items Ahead of Time

1. Chop and store fruits and vegetables for the week. To save time on busy weeknights, designate a block of time Sunday night to chop, slice, and dice fruits and veggies for the rest of the week’s meals.
   • You can place chopped fruits or veggies in a plastic bag or storage container with a damp paper towel and store them in the fridge.
   • Place chopped onions and other go-to ingredients in a freezer bag and freeze them for up to three weeks.
   • Store potatoes, apples, and other items that turn brown in the fridge in a bowl of ice water with a squeeze of lemon juice.
2. Combine seasonings ahead of time. Try to plan your meals for the week ahead and think of which spices you’ll need for them. Premeasure them in the morning or over the weekend and store them in small storage containers or plastic bags.
   • Pre-measured seasonings will save you time when you actually cook your meal, ensure you use the right amount, and guarantee you won’t forget a spice.
3. Prepare meat in bulk. Instead of cooking meat for just one meal, prepare a larger quantity that you can either freeze or refrigerate for a quick meal later in the week. Reuse your leftovers creatively so you won’t get bored eating the same thing.
   • For example, shred your roasted chicken leftovers to make quesadillas or chicken salad.
4. Cook lots of pasta in the morning. Try boiling a large pot of pasta in the morning while you pack lunches, make coffee, eat breakfast, and complete other tasks. Boil it until it’s al dente, drain the water, then cover it and refrigerate it until dinner.
   • Multitasking in the morning will save you a solid 15 minutes at dinnertime. Set a timer if you’re worried that you might forget about the boiling pasta.
5. Parboil vegetables in the morning. Boil your veggies until they’re not quite tender, transfer them to a bowl of ice water, drain them, then refrigerate them until dinnertime. This will cut prep time at dinner hour and, since you’ll only have to warm the veggies, reduce overall cooking time.
   • For example, parboil veggies like broccoli, carrots, and asparagus in the morning, then add them to a stir-fry, a pasta dish, or just serve them as side dishes.
   • Shocking them in ice water will also preserve their color and up your presentation game.
6. Learn to love roasted veggies. Compared to stir-frying or sauteing, roasting is a relatively hands-off cooking method that requires minimal prep. Instead of spending lots of time finely mincing, slicing, or dicing, you’ll only need to give your veggies a rough chop. Simply drizzle them with olive oil and seasonings, then pop them in the oven at 375 degrees Fahrenheit (190 degrees Celsius) for 30 to 45 minutes.
   • Aside from turning them once while they roast, you’ll be free to get ready in the morning or finish up that bit of paperwork you took home from the office.

Using Time-Saving Kitchen Tools

1. Use a sharp chef’s knife. A sharp, good quality knife is the biggest kitchen time saver. Invest in a well-balanced chef’s knife and knife sharpener. Work on your Use-a-Knife to prep food more efficiently, and remember to curl your guiding hand’s fingers inward to avoid cutting yourself.
   • For some cutting tasks, like trimming and deboning, it’s quicker and easier to use a good set of kitchen shears instead of a knife. Choose a sturdy pair that can come apart for easy cleaning.
2. Put your metal egg slicer to good use. That egg slicer collecting dust in your cupboard is much more versatile than its name implies. You can use it to slice ingredients like mushrooms, strawberries, and kiwis.
   • When shopping for an egg slicer, choose an all-metal model. The better the quality, the better it’ll handle items other than hard-boiled eggs.
3. Get a good peeler. Peeling is one of the most time consuming and tedious prep jobs, so a sharp, durable vegetable peeler is a key time-saving kitchen tool. Using a high-quality peeler instead a dull one or paring knife will allow you to quickly and evenly prep carrots, apples, and other fruits and veggies.
   • Using tricks of the trade can also help you reduce your peeling time. To peel a head of garlic, smash it with the heel of your hand to loosen the cloves, then shake the cloves between two bowls.  
   • If you microwave a head of garlic for 20 seconds, the cloves will slip right out of the skin.
   • To peel potatoes easily, score them (just slicing the skin) around the middle, boil them for 15 minutes, drain the water, rinse them with cold water so they’re cool enough to touch, then gently peel off the skins.
4. Stock up on multiple flexible plastic cutting boards. After chopping your veggies, you can curl a flexible cutting board to quickly and easily pour them into a storage container or hot pot. Since they’re dishwasher safe, they’ll also reduce your clean up time.
   • Use multiple cutting boards to avoid cross-contamination and cut out the time it would take to wash one board between uses.
5. Invest in a food processor, blender, and mandoline. Food processors and mini-choppers can mince, slice, and dice large quantities of food much faster than a knife or grater. In addition to reducing prep time, blenders and immersion blenders are essential for tasks like pureeing.
   • Try making a quick soup or sauce by pureeing leftover veggies, like spinach and other leafy greens.
   • You can also slash your cutting time by using a mandoline to uniformly shave, slice, or julienne ingredients.

Staying Organized

1. Take a minute to strategize before you start cooking. Before diving in to whip up dinner, take a moment to visualize each task. Check your recipe or estimate how long everything will take to preheat, prep, and cook so you can figure out how to multitask your meal.
   • Form a quick strategy and map everything out. Can you slice the onions while the oven preheats, saucepan gets hot, and butter melts? Maybe you can season the salmon and pop it in the oven while you caramelize the onions for a quick sauce. Then, five minutes before the salmon’s done, warm the potatoes and carrots you roasted this morning. Just before taking the fish out of the oven, deglaze the onions with some white wine and add herbs to finish the sauce.  
2. Delegate tasks to family members. If you have kids, cut down on your prep work by having them perform age-appropriate tasks, like washing or chopping veggies or whisking up a dressing. In addition to organizing and dividing the labor, you’ll spend quality time together.
   • You could also invite a friend over to cook together. Prep and cooking will go faster, and you can socialize without spending the money you would at a restaurant.
3. Use a countertop garbage bowl. Peels, stems, eggshells, trimmings, wrappers, and other odds and ends inevitably pile up when prepping and cooking meals. Instead of running back and forth to the trash can, keep a large bowl or container by your prep area so you can quickly toss away scraps.
   • Since you won’t be running across your kitchen with handfuls of food scraps, you’ll probably keep your floor cleaner, too.

Sources and Citations

See also

• Follow a Recipe when You Don't Have All the Ingredients
• Make a Citrus Glaze (for Baking)
• Pan Fry
• Make Stocks for Soups and Sauces
• Substitute Commonly Used Ingredients
• Cook Sponge Cucumber
• Boil Artichokes
• Make Half‐Popped Popcorn
• Make Dinner Without a Kitchen
• Cube Sweet Potatoes

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