10 Clever Ways To Save Time (And Waste) In The Kitchen

Contrary to what the effortless, drool-worthy pictures of food on social media suggest, only a cook knows the amount of mess and hard work that goes in to plating that perfect dish on the table.

This is where the kitchen hacks passed on to us from our mothers, grandmothers, to any other source available on the Internet come in handy. Being smart and making use of alternatives, helps in wrapping up kitchen work, at a faster pace. Say, for example, you are prepping to cook a Chinese dish. We all know the lavish use of garlic the dish requires. Instead of sitting and peeling the garlic with your bare hands and chopping them, just pop the garlic cloves in the oven for 30-40 seconds. And, voila, you have peeled garlic at your disposal. Bonus tip: use a fork instead of a knife to mince garlic—just press the fork against the garlic clove and the job’s done. To make life easy, we have curated a list of many such easy hacks—

1. Accelerating The Ripening Process

At times, we end up buying fruits that aren’t ripe. To ripen it up quicker, place the fruit in a brown paper bag and close it loosely. This builds up the Ethylene gas in the bag, which helps in ripening the fruit. Just make sure that the bag isn’t sealed, because ventilation is necessary for this process.

2. But First, Sauté Them!

Whenever you decide on making a soup, make sure you sauté the vegetables first and then add stock or water of your preference. This will not just enrich the flavors of your soup, but it will also reduce the amount of time in its preparation.

3. Removing Eggshells? Better Wet Your Fingers

Separating an egg from its shell is an act of patience. To make it easier, we suggest that you wet your hands and then do it. The water acts as a magnet and helps to remove the tiniest of the shell bits of the eggs.

4.Freeze Ginger, So You Don’t Have To Peel It

We might come across a lot of tips to peel ginger, but what if you don’t have to do it at all? You can freeze the ginger, then take it out from the fridge and directly grate it. Freezing the ginger makes its skin super thin, therefore peeling its skin isn’t necessary.

5. Melting The Butter Faster

You are wasting time by waiting for the butter to melt on its own when you have kept it in one corner. Instead, slice the butter or chop it into small chunks. Breaking the butter down into smaller sizes will help it soften up faster than usual. This surely will save a lot of your time.

6. Using Water From Kettle To Kill Germs

We use a lot of hot water for cooking, be it for blanching vegetables, cooking pasta, for coffee or tea etc. It’s the kettle that comes in handy to carry out these chores. Often, we end up with excess hot water left in the kettle. This hot water could be used for cleaning of porcelain dishes or even certain spaces of the kitchen. Additionally, hot water kills the germs.

7. Giving The Celery In Your Kitchen A New Life

Celery has a short shelf life. If you don’t use it soon it becomes lifeless and slack, but it still remains flavorsome. A simple hack to reuse celery is to trim the top and bottom of it and place it upright in a container of ice cold water. This will make the celery attain freshness again, making it crisp. This hack can be used on other vegetables as well.

8. Higher Temperature For Roasting In Oven

Most of us refrain from using higher temperatures while cooking in an oven, as we fear from overcooking the dish. But when it comes to roasting the vegetables, using a higher temperature is a must. It will roast the vegetables to perfection.

9. Scoop Out The Squash

Some find it difficult to deal with a butternut squash. But, we are telling you its very simple to handle it, just cut the squash into half and scoop out its fibre with the seeds. And voila! It is ready to be used.

10. Easy Deseeding Of Cherries

As much as we love cherries, deseeding it without harming the fruit pulp is next to impossible. Here is what we suggest you try: place the cherry on the mouth of a beer bottle. With the help of a chopstick push the seed down the bottle. This removes the seed and it settles at the bottom of the bottle.

These were some hacks we knew about. How do you save time in your kitchen? Comment below and let us know.

Was this article helpful?