Quick Cooking Tips - 2 Basic Recipes to Create Unlimited Amounts of Healthy Meals Fast

We all have days where we don't have much time to cook, and then it can be a challenge to still provide healthy and tasty food for our loved ones. I love using my recipe books and trying new recipes, but I figured out that cooking with a recipe takes more time. When I'm in a hurry, then I'm simply faster without using a recipe because this saves me the time of reading and memorizing the recipe, or going back at times to check what to do next.

So, I've developed a few very basic recipes that I can easily remember and adapt in any way I need. When I'm in a hurry, then all I do is open my fridge or check my pantry, grab some vegetables or cans and throw a nice healthy meal together within half an hour. No need to follow a complicated or long written recipe.

Here are 2 of my secret cook-in-a-hurry recipes. Both make four servings and are quick and easy to make, especially the pasta

Basic recipe #1: Vegetarian Stew

Use foods that only have a short cooking time and are quick to prepare, for example marrows, aubergines, mushrooms, tomatoes.

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp. oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1,5 kg mixed vegetables, cut into small pieces or thin slices
• 250-500 ml water or vegetable stock
• 300 g starchy foods (rice, pasta, potatoes, couscous) or 4 rolls

 
Steps

Cooking the vegetables:

1. Heat the oil in a large pot and fry the onions until golden.
2. Add the vegetables and half of the water.
3. Cover and allow simmering for about 15-20 minutes until the veggies are done.
4. Season with your favourite spices and serve.

 
Starchy foods:

• If you are using rice, start cooking it before cooking the vegetables.
• When cooking pasta, start after adding the water in step 2.
• Potatoes can be added with the other vegetables in step 2.
• Couscous can be prepared about 5 minutes before the vegetables are done.
• If you decided on rolls, simply serve them with the vegetables

 
Basic recipe #2: Pasta with Tomato and Mixed Vegetable Sauce

Ingredients

• 300 g pasta
• 2 tbsp. oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4 cans of various vegetables, e.g. 2 cans of peeled chopped tomatoes and 2 of mushrooms  (add peeled tomatoes and baked beans with the sauce, but drain all other vegetables)
• 50 g grated cheese

 
Steps

1. Start cooking the pasta.
2. Heat the oil in a large pan and fry the onions until golden. Add the canned veggies, mix well and warm it until everything is hot.
3. Season, sprinkle with cheese and serve with the pasta.

 
As you can see, these recipes are very basic and can be prepared with nearly everything you find at home. They allow you to create a wide variety of different meals, so you could use one of these recipes seven times without eating the same food every day. That's what makes them so great. You don't even have to think a minute about what to cook, you just decide on one of your basic recipes, grab some ingredients and go. Half an hour later, dinner is ready.