Recipe

When you don’t know how to cook, getting into the kitchen can be overwhelming and frustrating, which is why most people tend to avoid it and order takeout instead. However, taking baby steps to learn new cooking skills will help you gain confidence in the kitchen and learn loads of new dishes. Cooking from home will help you save money and take better care of your health too.

If you want to learn basic cooking skills, reading a manual isn’t the way to go about it. What you need is real-life practice. Here are a few simple dishes you can try out that will teach you skills you can transfer to tons of different meals.

Beef and Veggie Soup

A simple, hearty soup: healthy, warming and delicious. Believe it or not, it’s easy to make too. Learning how to make a basic soup like this will teach you how to brown meat, sauté vegetables, create a good soup base and also teach you valuable knife skills – you can watch a few videos online to help you if you need it.

Honing your knife skills is crucial for a budding chef or even a simple home cook. The first step is to make sure you’re using high-quality knives, sharpened on a whetstone and thoroughly cleaned.

Freshly Baked Bread

There’s nothing quite as satisfying as slicing a warm piece of bread that you made yourself and serving it with jam and butter for breakfast. For someone who wants to learn some kitchen skills, it’s a top achievement! Baking bread will also teach you valuable baking skills that can be applied to loads of baked goods.

Start with some beginner recipes that will help you learn the basics – yeast, rising times, measuring precisely, etc. Once you’ve found a recipe you love and perfected it, you can start experimenting with different types of bread. Think sourdough loaves and crusty ciabattas to serve with soups.

Spaghetti Carbonara

Pasta is a go-to meal that you can master pretty easily. A spaghetti carbonara might be considered a little more complicated because of the egg component, but it’s an iconic dish that you’ll love to make over and over, and once you know how, it’ll be easy.

Once you’ve nailed this, the door will be open for you to experiment with other pasta dishes – from quick and simple ones to extravagant and indulgent ones to impress dinner guests. When you’re well-practiced in cooking dry pasta and sauces, try your hand at making it yourself from scratch!

Three Cheese Omelette

We all need to know how to cook eggs. An omelette is one of the tricker dishes to get right, and it might take a little practice, but you’ll be proud of yourself once you get it perfectly right.

Plus, eggs don’t have to be confined to the realm of breakfast foods. You can eat eggs for dinner, lunch, and a healthy snack, and they’re even a prominent ingredient in many desserts. Learning how to cook them will benefit you for years to come.