Is one of your New Year’s resolutions this year to cook more at home? Or to eat healthier, or add more vegetables to your diet?
If you find yourself already stuck in a cooking rut, not to worry—food writer Yasmin Fahr has got you covered.
In her forthcoming cookbook, “Keeping It Simple,” Fahr offers busy home cooks plenty of weeknight-friendly dinner inspiration. In chapters with names like “Faster Than Delivery” and “Look More Impressive Than They Are,” the book features over 60 recipes for one-pot and one-pan meals, most of which come together in 30 minutes or less. They’re full of fresh vegetables and bright, punchy flavors—and time-saving techniques to help make you a better, faster cook.
Here, Fahr dishes on ingredients that do the work for you, why she can’t live without her Microplane zester, and being more efficient and confident in the kitchen.
You'll also find five quick and easy recipes from her book, to set you up for a week (or more, if you’re smart with your leftovers) of simple but delicious dinners. Get cooking!
I also find that traveling and exploring different cuisines is really helpful to get me out of my cooking habits, which I think we all have—I was recently in Indonesia and came back with a ton of recipe ideas for my next book—and also reading other cookbooks, magazines, etc. For example, I'll see an ingredient that I haven’t thought about for a while, and that inspires me to create a dish around that.
Even going to friends’ houses for dinner can inspire me, as it exposes me to how other home cooks cook, and I hear their complaints about recipes or life, which is helpful as I’m creating these recipes to make their lives easier.
In the fridge, I always have Bulgarian feta, a wedge of Parmigiano-Reggiano, and lots of condiments, like sambal oelek, sriracha, soy sauce, fish sauce, Dijon mustard, Thai curry pastes, and miso. They add depth and flavor to dishes quickly, basically doing the work for you, which I am all about on weeknights.
I really love making dressings out of miso and mustard, so I go through those pretty quickly. I usually have cilantro as well, or another fresh herb, so that I can use it to finish off a dish and add something green. Outside of the fridge, I always have lemons, onions, and garlic handy.
For just me, I go with what I’m in the mood for, so I'll usually pick up ingredients that day or the day before and use them to make a few different meals, maybe by picking up one new thing [for each one]. For example, I might make the Baked Ricotta Chicken Meatballs in the book, and then use leftovers in a soup in the next day by buying some kale or chard to add to it, or putting it on top of rice mixed with spinach so that I can make it a “new-ish” meal.
Also, I find it helpful to be efficient in the kitchen. I don’t mean this in a stressful, hurrying way, but more in the “being smart with your time and actions” way. Most recipes in the book include what I call “Efficiency Moves,” and these are tips on how to approach the recipe, like what to start with and what to do during downtime, to minimize time spent in the kitchen and get dinner on the table quickly and easily on busy weeknights.
It may sound obvious, but using fresh, high-quality, and seasonal ingredients always help. I tend to find that sometimes things out of season are lacking in flavor, and then you need to add a lot of fat and salt to make it taste like something.
There’s a Baked Feta With Greens recipe that I make a lot and change up depending on my mood, sometimes adding broccoli, mushrooms, or lemon rounds. The Fancy Weeknight Mushroom Pasta and the Garlicky Charred Greens With Whole-Wheat Penne are ones I make all the time, too. These are all simple dishes full of good ingredients, and that’s what I crave on weeknights.
