[Closed] Cooking for the short of time

The Bible for quick and delicious, non-faffy meals

We've got mountains of cook books (she's obsessed!), but this is by far the most battered, dog-eared and covered in ingredients, which tells you everything you need to know

Fajitas.

So simple my 11 year old can make them.

Toast. Everything on toast. Can't beat it. Brown bread.

The Gousto site that sells recipe boxes also lists the recipe details, most of which only use standard ingredients. Some simple, easy stuff there..

Get the Jamie Oliver 30 Minute Meal book.

Then throw it away as it is utter bollocks.

You need a slow cooker, prep and load it up before heading out to exercise, arrive home to a decent meal ready and waiting. Internet is full of slow cooker recipes.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/collections/30_minute_dinners

Get the Jamie Oliver 30 Minute Meal book.

Then throw it away as it is utter bollocks.

Absolutely this! To do any of those recipes in 30 minutes you'd have to be in possession of a time machine.

Slow cooker for least amount of work.

All the major supermarkets have big collections of recipes on their website, that's my goto at the moment.

I've got a couple of Joe Wicks books, everything I've cooked has been good, all minimal faff & healthy (obviously!!)

The Mrs has got a few Slimming World books, recipes all pretty easy & I've been pleasantly surprised that most of them are really nice as well!

Slow cooker is our saviour.

We also batch cook. It's as much effort to make 2 portions as it is 4 so make 4 and freeze two.

Bang in microwave a couple weeks later.

I'm struggling a little with we are on fairly bland food just now due to jnr and us eating all the same things so strong chilli's and Currys are out 🙁

Batch lady is the book de jour in our house.

Plenty of one-pot meals around but I'd go for...
Risotto - for something so quick and simple, with a bit of effort, it's surprisingly satisfying. Real comfort food.
Endlessly variable.

Batch lady here too, some very good stuff.

her Chicken pasta alfredo is phenomenal, but has more cheese, cream and butter in there than you'd eat in a week!.

Cheap as chips sticky chicken thighs, marinade chicken honey mustard pepper garlic
40 mins in the oven
Garnish with chopped olives and tiny lemon bits
Nicked from Nige

We also batch cook. It’s as much effort to make 2 portions as it is 4 so make 4 and freeze two.

Bang in microwave a couple weeks later.

You beat me to it by three minutes.

When I was living alone I got into the same rut, living off tins of soup or whatever because, what's the point of cooking for one? But, cook for four, one portion for tea, one in the fridge for lunch tomorrow, two in the freezer. Do that for a week and you've got healthy home-made ready meals for the next fortnight.

I’m time poor, Mrs lunge and I both exercise 3 or 4 times per week in the evening so tend to get home around 8pm

I don't mean this in a dickish way, but if you're doing so much exercise that you can't find time to eat then you might want to consider re-prioritising. If you're living off salt- and sugar-laden crap then you're potentially undoing whatever benefits you're gaining? Take an extra night off and spend it in the kitchen.

Slow cooker is our saviour.

We also batch cook

This ^^

... and an advance menu plan for the week tied in with your shopping trips.

Sounds dull and a bit of a chore,but once you get in to it, you save time and don't waste as much food.

Coming back to this now I am off a client call - I agree with all of the above - batch cooking is great (I particularly like slow-cooked pulled port chilli) and slow cookers are great.

However, for an easy win when you didn't manage to get the slow cooker on and you've run out of frozen pre-cooked meals, this dead easy carbonara is great (in fact I am doing it tonight as we always have busy Wednesdays with various running of kids around).

You need this guy:
https://www.youtube.com/user/TUKAFUKA

Loads of recipes on his YouTube channel but don't watch it if you've got young kids around as it's kind of the antithesis of Jamie Oliver and uses lots of naughty words. 😉

Second the comment about batch cooking. I've done it for years with pasta sauces, chilli, bolognese and so on. Few of those in the freezer and it's 10 minutes to cook some pasta or rice and defrost one of the servings to go with it.

Buy a slow cooker. The prep maybe takes longer than 30 but you get back the time when just reheating in microwave.

Ok I'll get shouted at, but I like the Jamie Oliver '5 ingredients book'. There are some basics you need with the '5 ingredients', such as oils, white/red wine vinegar, etc. But in the main most of the recipes are easy and quick to prepare.

I also like Mary Berry. In most of her books it says the exact time to prepare and cook.

A simple dish:
Diced chicken stir fried in a wok.
Boil some penne pasta.
Pop cooked chicken in with the 'drained pasta', then stir in a couple of tablespoons of pesto.

Slow cookers are your friend.

Risotto – for something so quick and simple

Although risotto in itself is quite slow to cook - it needs a good 30 minutes of quite close tending really. Unless you know of a different way - I would be keen to know!

I have a bunch of recipes I do for when I need to be quick, usually cooking for 1, so the least faff the better! -
Burgers. Can be made as exotic as you like - Stick em under the grill and prepare onions, salad, sauces, bacon etc in the 15 mins it takes to cook em.
Pasta - chicken/tin toms/ham carbonara/ salmon carbonara/ sausage -[url= https://www.olivemagazine.com/recipes/meat-and-poultry/pasta-with-sausage-kale-and-mustard/ ]this one[/url] - anything goes really
Fajitas been mentioned already. Don't touch Old El Paso junk, but Santa Maria or Capsicana fajita mixes are superb.
Talking of pre-prepared stuff - some of the Blue Dragon kits are great - the Pad Thai Noodle one is well tasty.
oh and Paella - theres a quick version on the Beeb recipes site which is ok. But you can't beat a proper one (well, without the mussels, can't be bothered with them).

Buy a slow cooker. The prep maybe takes longer

This is my downfall. I'm a slow cooker.

I'll probably get mocked for this but, in the supermarket vegetables aisle there's loads of different prepped mixed veg bagged up. Eg, diced root veg for a quid sold as "vegetable soup mix," perfect for your slow cooker with your protein of choice, handful of chopped spuds, stock and herbs. It's the lazy way for sure but it's (anecdotally) better quality than the frozen stuff and if it saves you half an hour of chopping...

Although risotto in itself is quite slow to cook – it needs a good 30 minutes of quite close tending really

It really doesnt. Onions garlic softened add rice wine lemon juice, lemon rind, stir then add a load of stock leave to simmer very gently check to make sure its not going dry. I'll often remove from heat with lid on in heavy pan. Add a bit more stock and cooked chicken and frozen peas heat done.
All that bollocks about stirring maybe important to a a chef but its not needed to make a nice meal.

Absolutely this! To do any of those recipes in 30 minutes you’d have to be in possession of a time machine

to do them the first time, reading and checking the recipe as you go of course things take longer. But if it’s something you like and repeat often then of course they are faster.

Nigel slaters fast recipes then to be fast on the first try though

ottolenghi recipies are funny in that respect - he writes them in a very methodical fastidious manor and trying them the first time takes an age but when you repeat them they’re usually very quick and easy

Sir fries with pre chopped veg and some meat if wanted and soy sauce, couldnt be quicker with noodles.

Veg curry, onions garlic, curry powder, add veg, mix, little bit of water lid on steam for a few mins, done.

STEAK! Lidls Deluxe Ribeye - covered in garlic pepper and salt. Wang it (© J Oliver) on the griddle pan or under the grill for a couple of mins. Can't beat it.
- with chips(or sweet potato)/sweetcorn/peas/spinach - all quick. Even enjoyed by my 18 year old fussy git son. 🙂

Absolutely this! To do any of those recipes in 30 minutes you’d have to be in possession of a time machine.

Or a professional chef with a really organised approach, a great understanding of the recipe and no faffing... but he has a 15 minute book as well which I think most people can do in 30:
https://amzn.to/36lrtGq

Or Nadiya Hussain has a number of cheats all about saving time:
https://amzn.to/3iadjKo

All that bollocks about stirring maybe important to a a chef but its not needed to make a nice meal.

What you are making is not risotto - its rice stodge. Perfectly edible, but a totally different thing! However I think the OP is interested in time from opening front door to eating not the effort - so its irrelevant.

Pasta is my go-to 15 minute meal, at least once I learned to cook it properly. Works with whatever you have in the fridge and minimal prep.

This is really good and it's easy to add what you want to the base sauce:

I'll probably get lambasted, but as someone who does a lot of exercise in the evenings, lives alone, likes cooking and nice/varied meals, but hates shopping (and if you're time poor, it takes time...) I rate the guosto boxes.

Fiver per serving, infinitely varied meals every week, no food waste, actually relatively little un-recycleable packaging, and i don't need to buy a litre of rice wine for a meal i'll likely only cook once before said bottle goes off (further cutting waste). And it means my shopping trips are far less frequent. usually cook them then either save the 2nd serving for lunch or freeze for future use.

YMMV (and i give it roughly 5 minutes before someone gets all upset at me about it), but they work well for my personal lifestyle, and nearly every meal I've cooked from them has been excellent. I tend to get them every 2nd week now, as 8 servings of dinner per week is surprisingly hard to get through with a relatively busy schedule and only one mouth to feed!

This is really good and it’s easy to add what you want to the base sauce:

What sort of $%^&ing maniac measures whole cherry tomatoes in pints?

Wang it (© J Oliver) on the griddle pan or under the grill for a couple of mins.

With your actual wang? Surely that's risking serious injury and is in direct contravention of established food hygiene practices.

Wang it (© J Oliver)

the copyright on Jamie’s wang has now expired and its now in the public domain. So you can stick your wang in a George Formby Grill and there’s nothing he (or George Formby) can do about it.

He still has exclusivity over Chonk© though.

and there’s nothing he (or George Formby) can do about it.

He could beat you to death with his little stick of Blackpool Rock

Sir fries...

A la Downton or j rees-mogg?

Fajitas, so simple even I can cook the ingredients.

The Jamie Oliver 15 minute meal book is generally better than the 30 minute one as he just sticks to a single dish rather than including various side dishes and drinks/desserts.

The Joe Wicks ones are decent too.

Slow cookers aren't quick.

You've browned the meat and onions etc in a pan first. They are good in that you can "cook" at a time to suit you then leave it for the next day.

I'm going veggie, so currently in the process of batch cooking loads of stews, curries, chilli etc as Ive found getting any actually flavour into veg takes a lot more time for most recipies.

So batch cooking and use your 30minutes to make some fresh bread or other accompliment.

Although risotto in itself is quite slow to cook – it needs a good 30 minutes of quite close tending really. Unless you know of a different way – I would be keen to know!

Once you get to know how much stock goes with how much rice you can bang it all in at once, stir every now and then, and just top up towards the end of cooking if needed.

For two people I use 1 cup of rice and 500ml of stock, + 100-200 ml to top up at then end.

I think the complaints about the Jamie Oliver 30min book are overdone - you might not be able to cook them in exactly 30min but they're still pretty quick recipes to cook. You do need to have a vaguely organised kitchen and practise mise-en-place, as if you start wasting a minute looking for a clean frying pan and another searching for the parsley you'll quickly go over 30min as it all adds up.

Once you get to know how much stock goes with how much rice you can bang it all in at once, stir every now and then, and just top up towards the end of cooking if needed.

I know how much stock to add. It goes in a ladle at a time, stirring until the rice is cooked. If I CBA then I make something else.

One trick I sometimes use is to soften the onion, add the rice, glass of wine, stir then come back to it later to finish off.

Thanks for all the ideas.

Slow cooker is our saviour.

We have one but I've always struggled to get good food out of it, it always ends up as generic stew. Good recipe's anyone?

I don’t mean this in a dickish way, but if you’re doing so much exercise that you can’t find time to eat then you might want to consider re-prioritising.

Not an unfair comment, hence the post. Realistically, the exercise won't be stopping so the food does need to improve.

I rate the guosto boxes.

We did use Hello Fresh for a while, but it was not cheap and we stopped. May be worth revisiting.

Pasta

Yeah, we try and eat quite low carb (not zero carb though, and I accept I did mention spag bol in the original post), so the odd pasta dish works but we'd only really eat it once a week unless one of us was racing at the weekend.

We did use Hello Fresh for a while, but it was not cheap and we stopped. May be worth revisiting.

We only use them when on a good offer. There are friend referrals etc.

We did use Hello Fresh for a while, but it was not cheap and we stopped. May be worth revisiting.

guosto do referral offers - think you get three boxes cut price or something? DM me if you'd like a code (I would get one box reduced).

Realistically, the exercise won’t be stopping so the food does need to improve.

You could just eat later. I don't usually start cooking until 8:30 anyway which means dinner at 9-9:15 most days.

You could just eat later. I don’t usually start cooking until 8:30 anyway which means dinner at 9-9:15 most days.

Much later and I'm asleep!
Club runs finish at 8:15pm ish, 15 mins to get home means that 2 days per week I'm the same as you.
The other 2 week days (Friday isn't a week day on my house!) are similar, maybe 15 mins earlier.
We tend to go to bed around 10pm so eating any later is a challenge!

Once you get to know how much stock goes with how much rice you can bang it all in at once, stir every now and then, and just top up towards the end of cooking if needed.

I really disagree with that comment - the rice should be kept relatively dry (ie, the stock/wine should be absorbed quite quickly as it is added a ladleful at a time so the rice is moist, not in a pool of liquid) and be stirred regularly to release the outer parts of the grains of the rice to create the creamy texture that you need. If you bung it all in together you are just boiling rice in stock.

We tend to go to bed around 10pm so eating any later is a challenge!

lol I don't get home from training on Mondays and Wednesdays until nearly 11pm... I admit on those days dinner is usually scrambled eggs on toast or an omelette 🙂

Instant Pot does a lot of this for us. It can slow cook etc but a lot of the time we stick stuff in to pressure cook for a certain time then it just keeps it warm till we're ready. Not being stood near the stove or stirring away is great, and if one of the kids needs something you don't come back to a burned mess. Loads of good recipes including risotto without stirring, and it does great soft boiled eggs in about 9 mins total.

too much liquid too quick in risoto and you end up with savoury rice pudding .

the key to slow cooker is dont just assume you can leave it for 10/12 hours while at work .

you do have to pay attention to cooking times - different meals need different times.

i find the slow cooker does work best for bean and veg stews / curries / chillis .

My favorite being back vein/Spaull chilli - cheap fatty veined meat marinaded , browned in the griddle and then cooked for 24hours in the slow cooker till it does a "puleld pork" style fall appart when the fat has melted.

What a flavour.

Dinner 9-9.15 pm that's 8hrs later than I was taught , tea time between 5.30 and 6
Is this a North/ South divide thing or am I a complete philistine ?

I really disagree with that comment – the rice should be kept relatively dry (ie, the stock/wine should be absorbed quite quickly as it is added a ladleful at a time so the rice is moist, not in a pool of liquid) and be stirred regularly to release the outer parts of the grains of the rice to create the creamy texture that you need. If you bung it all in together you are just boiling rice in stock.

Wine and lemon juice need adding to rice and stirring takes two mins tops. After that as long as you add the right amount of stock and cook gentle its fine, might not be top quality but its quick easy tasty food. Theres too much emaphasis on what chefs do these days and so many people dont cook food from scratch and therefore eat unhealthy fatty sugary crap. Who has time to spend an hour stirring risotto? No one so people buy some ready made shite. Spag bol is the same, those stir in sauces are shit, just add some tinned toms and some italian herb mix and leave it to simmer for a bit, tastes great. Oh no you cant do that, in Italy people dont use those herbs and dont add veg or whatever, who gives a crap just get cooking and spend less time worrying about chefs.

You can do risotto in oven too.

Dinner 9-9.15 pm that’s 8hrs later than I was taught , tea time between 5.30 and 6
Is this a North/ South divide thing or am I a complete philistine ?

North/South divide I think, then I've added a touch of Spanish daily life to completely mess up the timings 😀

Is this a North/ South divide thing or am I a complete philistine ?

Yes. (-:

I've tried to excise the word "dinner" from my vocabulary, it just confuses people. I have lunch (when I can be bothered) and tea.

Of course, "tea" then confuses Americans, they think I'm referring to a brew. And a "brew" in the US is a beer. I think I'm just going to quit eating.

practise mise-en-place

I had to google that. That's ace though, my spice jars being in alphabetical order isn't OCD after all, it's mise-en-place! Brilliant.

10 years working in hospitality means that you get used using the correct terms:
Lunch - the middle of the day.
Dinner - the evening meal.

Not difficult is it?

Wine and lemon juice need adding to rice and stirring takes two mins tops. After that as long as you add the right amount of stock and cook gentle its fine, might not be top quality but its quick easy tasty food. Theres too much emaphasis on what chefs do these days and so many people dont cook food from scratch and therefore eat unhealthy fatty sugary crap. Who has time to spend an hour stirring risotto?

However I enjoy cooking and devote lots of time to it. I have done risottos many, many times, both the 'easy' way and the correct way - the results are very different. I don't dispute you can make a perfectly nice meal by bunging stuff in and leaving it, but IMO it is miles apart from cooking it as it should be cooked (and I have never put lemon juice in a risotto either)!!!

For an easy to cook rice-based recipe (done in the oven), this Thai steamed rice with sea bass is my favourite (sorry for the Jamie Oliver content, but some of his recipes are undoubtedly good).

Dinner – the evening meal.

Middle-aged ladies that serve small portions of bad food at school? Lunch ladies?

Has there ever been lunch ladies when you were back at school? The sit com dinner ladies was it based on eating after 6pm ?

Not difficult is it?

When's teatime?

When’s teatime?

10:30 and 15:00.

In between breakfast and lunch and then again between lunch and dinner.

In fact, it's almost teatime now....

Yeah, we try and eat quite low carb (not zero carb though, and I accept I did mention spag bol in the original post), so the odd pasta dish works but we’d only really eat it once a week unless one of us was racing at the weekend.

a lot of things that work with pasta work just as well with chickpeas or white beans

However I enjoy cooking and devote lots of time to it. I have done risottos many, many times, both the ‘easy’ way and the correct way – the results are very different. I don’t dispute you can make a perfectly nice meal by bunging stuff in and leaving it, but IMO it is miles apart from cooking it as it should be cooked (and I have never put lemon juice in a risotto either)!!!

This. Although I have put limes (and fish sauce) into a rissotto when I make more of a Thai style one. And I use Paella rice often so my cooking is a bit blurred between different rice based dishes.

a lot of things that work with pasta work just as well with chickpeas or white beans

Not a macaroni pie though. That'd be disgusting with chickpeas.

I really like the Hughe's three good things, lots of simple dishes, most quick and easy to do.

Although I have put limes (and fish sauce) into a rissotto when I make more of a Thai style one.

See my above link - the Thai Sea Bass and Rice (although it clearly isn't a risotto) but it has the rice and the limes mmmmmmmmm

I like to cook big pots of curry, pasta sauce or stew and keep them in the fridge to eat over the next few days. Maybe freeze a bit too.

My preference is to reheat in a pan, rather than microwave - but I'm not judging anyone else.

the copyright on Jamie’s wang has now expired and its now in the public domain

I heard that rumour as well.

I've been on Hello Fresh for about 6 weeks now and pretty impressed so far. Yes, it can feel expensive but a lot of the meals can be bulky portions so it's possible to get 8-9 meals a week out for £30. Costs do go up if you keep picking the premium stuff like steak or fish. But IMO it's cheaper (and obvs better) than binning £15 of stuff you bought and haven't got to cooking yet. I have rapid meals as a preference so I can choose to cook at lunch or tea time 😉

So, err anyone got any hello fresh/guosto codes they want to give away?

Oh, on batch cooking,

It doesn't just have to be meals. Freeze individual servings of base curry sauce, pasta sauce etc.

For things like fajitas I've come up with my own spice mix recipe, then swapped "half a teaspoon of" for "jar of" and whipped up a huge batch in a mason jar. Then just chuck a couple of tablespoons in when cooking, takes all the faff out of it. Ditto curry powder.

Yeah on the slow cooker but Anchovy pasta.

Put pasta on to cook empty oil from tin of anchoviy into fry pan and heat. Chop anchovies and two cloves of garlic finely add to oil on low. Quarter a pack of baby tomatoes Chuck in the pan stir to break up the anchovies and toms add some ricotta to make creamy and grated parmesan, good pinch of chillies. Pasta should.bw done, drain and mix through.

However I enjoy cooking and devote lots of time to it.

Which is fine but decent nutritious, cheap, easy to cook food can be enjoyed by anyone, thats my point. Having others like yourself make it out to always take hours doesnt help many people. Having tv chefs on all the time showing all the skills and 25 different ingrediants make it look out of reach to many.

Having others like yourself make it out to always take hours

I didn't make it it takes hours - I just said it didn't really qualify as quick...

Although risotto in itself is quite slow to cook – it needs a good 30 minutes of quite close tending really.

Jamie's 15 minute meals book is awful. So many different ingredients needed - I had a fridge rammed with half empty jars of things like harissa, red pepper, pickled lemons, spiced wangs etc etc. used once and the recipes were so dull never used again.
Anybody wants the book, paypal me £3 and I'll wang it in the post it to ya!

See my above link – the Thai Sea Bass and Rice (although it clearly isn’t a risotto) but it has the rice and the limes mmmmmmmmm

Just call it paella and escape the confusion. And try paella rice as it soaks up so much stock...

spiced wangs

Do you need to marinade it before you stick it in George Formby?

This is so complicated.

Could be a handy replacement if you run out of frozen sausages.

I think you'd have to go deeper than the usual lawn depth for George.