16 Helpful Tips for Home Cooks of Any Level
Whether you’re brand new to cooking or already well-versed in the virtues of meal prep, chances are you’re spending a lot more time doing it than normal right now. Regardless of which scenario applies to you, there are a few things we could all remember to do to keep things in the kitchen—and in your fridge, freezer, and pantry—more manageable, and more delicious (duh!), too. From the right methods for freezing pretty much anything to the best way to keep your tender herbs fresh, here are 16 tricks of the trade to help you feel empowered while cooking at home.
Photo by Emma Fishman1/1610 Tips For Keeping Produce Fresh Until Your Next Trip to the Grocery Store
Filling the fridge for the long haul is a game of strategy, a balancing act of things to eat now and things to eat later, ideally with a range of flavors and textures for optimal versatility. This… can feel like a lot to consider, especially if you’re also trying to use everything in its prime. Here’s how we’re keeping our produce practically perfect (or, you know, good enough!)
Photo by Laura Murray, Food Styling by Pearl Jones2/16For Your Own Safety, Please Learn These 18 Basic Knife Skills
Wouldn't it be nice if all recipes came with video instructions so you wouldn't have to google "how the heck do I dice an onion without losing my mind or finger" every time you got to that line in the recipe? That's not going to happen, but we figured we'd wrangle some of the MVP clips from Basically recipes of yore and put them all in one place. That way, whether you're prepping an ingredient for a recipe from Healthyish or from your favorite cookbook, you'll know exactly how we at Basically like to slice it.
Photo by Alex Lau, Styling by Sue Li3/16How to Store Vegetables in the Fridge so They Stay Super Fresh
There's nothing worse than realizing that your crisper drawer has turned into a rotted mess. Knowing what to buy and how to store it makes all the difference when it comes to keeping your fridge stocked with greens and veggies. Here are five best tips for selecting and storing the hardiest greens, herbs, vegetables, and fruits.
Chelsie Craig4/168 Fruits and Vegetables You Shouldn't Be Refrigerating
In an ideal world, you’d never need to put produce in the fridge. You’d go to the market before each meal, pick up your locally grown vegetables, walk home, unpack, and start cooking right away. That sounds nice, but that’s definitely not the world we live in. Some produce needs to go in the fridge, but there are also some fruits and vegetables that would prefer to be left out on the counter. Or in a little ceramic pot on top of the fridge. Or in a cabinet under the drawer where all your spoons and ladles go. You shouldn't just go throwing everything in the fridge. Here are the fruits and vegetables that are best kept elsewhere.
Photo by Ted Cavanaugh5/16How to Toast Nuts at Home
We’ll get right to the point: Toasting nuts at home is worth it. In fact, it’s more than worth it, because when you take toasting into your own hands, you can bring out deep, nutty, roasted flavors you can’t get from the store-bought stuff. It will straight-up change your salad game, snack game, pilaf game, and just about any other kitchen-related game you might participate in forever. We promise.
Photo by TED+CHELSEA CAVANAUGH6/16The Right Way to Freeze Basically Everything
While the whole freezing process is, in general, quite straightforward (throw in freezer, wait, eat) the particularities can get a little tricker. There's the question of how to properly store your scallions, how to save your steak from freezer burn, how to defrost efficiently. Here are a few helpful do’s and don’ts for freezing every kind of food.
Alex Lau7/16The Definitive Guide to Reheating Every Leftover Ever
Leftovers are a necessary part of life for so many reasons. The budget. The practicality. The laziness. But more often than not, reheating leftovers makes them kind of, well, bad. And while you could certainly eat all of them cold, straight out of the Tupperware, standing in front of the fridge, there are times when hot food is what you need in order to feel like An Adult. Which raises a number of questions: Can you microwave fried chicken? Can you reheat dumplings in the oven? Should fish ever be reheated? Are French fries ever worth it the next day? Chill, chill, chill. We have the answers for you, straight from the food editors of the BA Test Kitchen. Here’s the best way to reheat just about anything.
Alex Lau8/16How to Mince Garlic Without Actually Mincing Garlic
Is there a more annoying (or necessary) task in the kitchen than mincing garlic? It's sticky. It takes forever. It makes your hands smell. Which is why we figured out how to mince garlic—or at least achieve the same garlic-flavor-in-every-bite effect—without having to actually run a knife through the stuff ten thousand times. Here are 4 ways to get the big, evenly-dispersed garlic flavor you're after as easily and painlessly as possible.
Photo by Alex Lau9/16How to Store Herbs So They Stay Fresher, Longer
Do yourself a favor: Rinse off your herbs as soon as you get home from the market or store. Don't wait until three minutes before starting dinner. Not only will they be ready to deploy whenever you need to add brightness and a finishing garnish, but giving the whole bundle a proper wash rehydrates the tender leaves so they stay fresher longer, meaning no questionably brown parsley or cilantro. Here’s how we do it in three easy steps. All right, maybe not stop, drop, and roll easy, but still, super super easy.
Photo by Laura Murray, Food Styling by Pearl Jones10/16Rinsing Rice Is the Difference Between Fluffy and Mushy Grains
We're all about making delicious recipes in the simplest way possible, but there are some steps that can’t (or shouldn't) be skipped, and rinsing rice is at the top of the list. When the goal is fluffy, separated grains as opposed to a porridge-like consistency, that starch has got to go. It’s not merely a recommendation, people: You should pretty much always be rinsing. Here’s how.
Christopher Testani11/16How to Cook Farro (and Literally Every Other Grain) Perfectly, Every Time
Grains and grain-like seeds (lookin' at you, quinoa) are the healthy, versatile, and filling backbone of many of our home-cooked meals. In fact, we make it a point to cook hearty grains like farro and barley in big batches to use throughout the week in soups, salads, and lunchtime grain bowls. But instead of trying to remember a million different water-to-grain ratios, we rely on our favorite one-size-fits-all method for big-batch grain cooking—and so should you. Memorize this formula, and you'll only ever be a pot of boiling water away from faster, healthier meals.
Marcus Nilsson12/16How to Get the Most Flavor Out of Canned Tomatoes
Here’s a fact for you: Canned tomatoes aren’t fully cooked. When tomatoes are canned, they get soaked in hot tomato juice, sealed, and then heated to kill any potentially harmful organisms—cooked enough to make them shelf stable, not to make them tasty. This is why canned tomatoes still have a raw tomato flavor to them. The sugars in the tomato aren’t developed, and they taste pretty watery. But we can fix this! Here’s how.
Photo by Gentl & Hyers13/167 Tips for Making Your Best Pot of Dried Beans, Even If It's Your First
Maybe you have dried beans in your pantry right now—and maybe it's for the first time. Whether you bought them as a just-in-case backup meal (purveyors are reporting record sales) or because you're transitioning towards more plant-based eating, it's time to learn to make your best pot of beans.
Alex Lau14/16The Weird Trick to Nailing Roasted Vegetables Every Time
It may seem like a cinch, but truthfully speaking it’s not all that easy to perfect the delicate art of roasting vegetables. You could read all the "How to Roast Vegetables" stories on the whole g-d internet and still end up with veggies that are either overcooked (and nicely browned) or crisp-tender (and pale). This is a sorry state of affairs. But fear not: Whatever kind of oven you've got, the "hard roast" is here to save you and your roasted vegetables.
Photo by Emma Fishman, Food Styling by D'mytrek Brown15/16All the Types of Onions and What They're Best For
What is the freakin' deal with all these different types of onions? Why isn't there just one onion? Wouldn't that be simpler? Well, yes, it would be simpler. But it would also be a hell of a lot more boring. We love the fact that there are different types of onions out there because each has its own special qualities—a distinct onion personality, if you will. Whether it's a white onion, yellow onion, or red onion, there's something each one can do better than the other two. So what do we like about the different types of onions? And in what situation do we prefer one over the others? These are the great questions of our time. Here's what you need to know.
16/16How to Use the Herb Stems You Definitely Shouldn't Be Throwing Away
Almost every recipe ever says to pick the leaves and tender stems from a bunch of herbs and trash the rest. You’ve been conditioned to think that the remainder of the plant is compost. But the truth is that, while those leaves may be pretty, the stems that they grow on are packed with flavor and shouldn't go to waste. In fact, if you show them the love they deserve, the payoff can be huge. Here’s how to use herb stems to boost your salads, soups, and pastas to new heights.