The main products for easy cooking are those things that do not need to be prepared or practically do not need to be prepared: vegetables, fruits, dairy products, cereals, rice and pasta. Our simple and easy recipes for beginners and housewives include simple salads, starters and side dishes, and easy recipes for most beginners, such as sandwiches or toasts. To begin with, let’s discuss the choice of products, as they must be fresh and natural. If we want to get a delicious dish, we also need to try and choose products of excellent quality. If you buy vegetables and fruits, it is better to choose each one by hand, rather than buying packaged ones, so it will be easier for you to determine their freshness and choose the best samples.
If your dish includes meat and fish, you should also consider some factors when buying: the time of delivery of food to the store, conditions and shelf life. These products require special attention: choosing expired food can lead to intoxication. Also, pay attention to the production time and shelf life of eggs: they also require immediate consumption. Let’s list the products that even a beginner can easily and quickly prepare:
- Vegetables and fruits
- Eggs and dairy products
- Cereals and grains
What can be prepared from them?
This can be vegetable and fruit salads, baked vegetables, scrambled eggs and omelettes, porridge and cereals, for example. You can also combine these products in one dish: add an egg to a salad or put fruit in a porridge. Cooking can be compared to art: you need to know the basic rules, but a real maestro creates his work according to his taste. Be sure to visit the BBC website to learn British tips for choosing foods and preparing simple meals. You can also order a printed magazine, “Easy cook”, and enjoy cooking learning from a recipe book! We really love this website with detailed descriptions of the preparation of each dish and colourful photos. This is one of our favourite cooking sites, as well as the magazine.
New easy cooking trends
Now around the world, the “whole food” trend is more developed than ever that is, dishes made from fresh whole products are especially popular, most often without animal ingredients, without traditional flour, and even more so without semi-finished products. There are no difficulties here, everything is quite simple and clear in addition, such recipes can be adapted to local products, lifestyle and budget.
One of the simplest ideas is a multi-part salad. It can be in the traditional form, where all the ingredients are mixed, or it can be in the form of a lunch bowl where the ingredients are placed on a spacious plate separately in the form of a kind of palette of flavours. In order for the salad to be delicious and satisfying, the components can be divided into two categories: vegetables, herbs, lettuce leaves and cereals, legumes, pasta, nuts.
The first category contains all of us are familiar products, from which we prepare a variety of salads. And it can be not only tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers, but also young carrots, zucchini, radishes, turnips, radishes, different varieties of onions, broccoli, cabbages, avocados, apples, oranges, grapefruits, pears and grapes, many varieties of lettuce and fresh herbs.
The second category of products will make our salad more delicious. Separately, you can boil your favourite cereals or legumes, for example, brown rice, millet, buckwheat, spelt, bulgur, couscous, beans, lentils, chickpeas, mash, small pasta. You can add both cereals and legumes to the salad at once! It’s also great to use cheese like mozzarella, feta, and tofu. For a crispier texture of the salad, additional taste and fullness, you can add a handful of nuts, chop them with a knife or in a blender.
Another option for easy and healthy dish is an omelette with vegetables. It can be prepared in the traditional way, or it can be baked in the oven, including in the form of portioned muffins. It’s very simple to cook, just slice your favourite vegetables and lightly stew them with oil and spices. You can choose green peas, tomatoes of different varieties, peppers, broccoli, string beans, fresh spinach, green onions or leeks, mushrooms. For extra flavour, chop a clove of garlic and add it to the vegetables, it will also be cool to add dried tomatoes. Then pour all the egg mixture, just beat 2-3 eggs, adding a little low-fat cream, and cook the omelette until it gets cooked.
The main secret is that many ingredients can be replaced with similar ones so that a specific recipe will not constrain and limit you. You can repeat the very idea of the dish, leaving its essence and playing with similar products, if suddenly you do not have something specific at hand. Don’t be afraid to experiment – just cook with pleasure!