4 Ways You Can Easily Improve Your Cooking Skills

Learning how to cook is great, but if you’re feeling like your skills are very limited and you’re not confident enough to do more – it’s time to work on that. Anyone can be a great cook, and all it takes is the right approach to things. You’re not going to improve your cooking skills if you only cook once a week, or if you’re too afraid to try out new recipes. Cooking is your gateway to meals you’ve never experienced before, and the more you learn, the more open you’ll be to trying out new things.

You can make recipes that you’ve never heard of until now, and learn about different foods from other cultures. As long as you can get the ingredients, your options are limitless. There are plenty of benefits to improving your cooking skills. It’s also an activity that can and should be shared! You’re cutting down prep time, and having fun with others in the kitchen.

Easy Ways to Improve Your Cooking Skills

Go at your pace

If you’re going to learn, it’s important to challenge yourself, but you shouldn’t jump straight in at the deep end. You want a recipe that’s going to teach you something, rather than discourage you. For example. This easy-to-make chicken tortilla soup in the instant pot might be a good approach for beginner cooks, as it doesn’t require too much experience from you, and it’s likely something you’ve never tried before.

Learn new techniques

As a beginner cook, you might be spending a lot of time messing around with ingredients, trying to get everything ready before you start cooking. Learning a new chopping technique for the way you handle your vegetables can help you cut down that prep time significantly, and also make it less dangerous for you. It’s also important to remember that a dull knife isn’t safer, as there’s more chance for it to slip while you’re chopping. Sharp knives might be more intimidating, but they’re time-saving, and they’re not going to redirect where you don’t want them to.

Techniques are best learned with high-quality equipment that’s reliable enough to help you in the long term. Both beginners and seasoned pros are often getting hand-forged Damascus kitchen knives that can last for years to come. This equipment helps you learn faster, eliminating the frustration of getting stuck with a faulty blade that can’t handle the chopping you need.

Watch others cook

Reading recipe books doesn’t tell you everything you need to know. There are a lot of things experienced chefs will do that you’re simply unaware of, which is why it could benefit you to watch others cook. Cooking channels on YouTube can be very insightful, and you may find that you’ve been misunderstanding instructions or terminology or that the way that you go about things is very inefficient.

Tidy while you cook

The worst part of cooking for yourself is cleaning up all of the mess after you’re done. No one wants to have to deal with that when they’ve got a hot meal waiting for them, and it’s not great to do it after you’ve eaten, either. It’s better if you can find the time to clean up as you go. Wash out the bowls and pans you’ve used while the rest of your food is still cooking, and you won’t have to waste any time once it’s all cooked.