This is all about saving time whilst cooking and as a by-product, saving a little money and the environment at the same time. Sound too good to be true? Well it’s not, so lets get straight into this kitchen time saver.
Food waste
We’re all guilty of it, but by trying to make the most of left-over ingredients, not only are we helping to save our environment, we’re also saving a little money too.
Rather than throwing away herbs because they’ve started to wilt, why not make some herb oil you can save. Making stocks from old vegetables is another great way to use up old vegetables. Then just freeze the stock for the next time you are going to make a soup or sauce.
By doing these things, you will save money as you are not buying the same ingredients the next occasion you cook. But you will also be saving time, as you can simply pull something from the freezer rather than making it from scratch.
My favourites
I use herbs, garlic and ginger a lot when I’m cooking, so it stands to reason that I’m forever chopping these ingredients up. Here is something I do, to make things a little speedier when I’m cooking. The only specialist equipment you will need is an ice-cube tray.
Herb oils are a great way to use up any old herbs that are starting to wilt. It also saves me a load of time when I need a dressing or to inject some flavour into a dish. There are two ways you can make up a herb oil.
- Puree the herbs up with the oil in a food blender.
- Simply place the herbs in the oil and allow the flavour of the herbs to infuse with the oil.
As you can see from the image, I like to do both. This way, depending on the reason for the oil, I have options.
Another great kitchen time-saver is to puree up my garlic and ginger (not together). Place into an ice cube tray and freeze. Then when I need some garlic or ginger whilst I’m cooking, all I do is pop one cube out of the tray and throw straight into a pan. Why not bulk by some ginger or garlic, puree, place into ice cube trays and freeze. Then you are ready, every time you are cooking.
Like I mentioned, there are many other things you can do like make your own stock cubes and freeze, make some citrus oil and freeze them, the list is endless. Think of ingredients that you are always preparing, may be its dicing onions! Dice lots up and freeze into portions, then whenever you are cooking just pull out some diced onion!
I hope you give this kitchen time saver a go, as it really speeds things up for me.
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