very new/beginner cook - come and inspire me!

[cherryblossominspring]

I've had lots of upheaval in the last year and have finally just moved into my own place. I've longed to have my own kitchen for ages and finally have one but I'm ashamed to say I've existed mainly on ready meals and takeaways for almost my whole life.

My culinary knowledge is almost non existent. I'd really like this to be a brand new beginning but I'm at a loss as to where to start.

I'd really like to use this thread to inspire and help me and keep track of how I'm going.

Please could I have your help and advice? I'd like to try and see this as a way to start trying to get 70-80% of my diet from home cooked meals and to make it healthy and balanced.

I move in later this week and I don't even really know where to begin about what I should cook for my first meal let alone what I should get in my first shop.

If you have some recommended recipes for a beginner I'd be very grateful. I'm not very good but I have lots of enthusiasm and motivation.

thank you!

What kind of meals do you like? Anything you want to learn to cook?
A cookbook I would recommend is Jamie Oliver ministry of food, it's really good
Your basics really depend on what you want to eat but things I use a lot are
Onions, garlic, tinned tomatoes, salt/pepper, oxo cubes, pasta, packets of cous cous, olive oil
Cheese, butter, cherry tomatoes/spring onions, carrots, celery... the list is endless really!
Tupperware containers too so you can store any left overs

What do you like to cook?
Get some Tupperware so you can store any leftovers. There are lots of cookbooks available in the local library, online and at bookshops too. I recommend getting a couple to start with for now. And you can improve your skills by taking a professional cookery course. Have a look at some of the threads on food and recipes on here, and also check out BBC Food, tons of lovely recipes on there to try out as well. Good luck to you! Maybe also see if there are any cookery shows you love on the television in addition.

The hairy bikers have some good healthy recipes. I’ve done their healthy sweet and sour and it was very tasty!

I know she might be, or sound, very old fashioned but Delia Smith is excellent, The Complete Cookery course. Look, she even explains how to recognise when water is boiling, and how to boil an egg. You will lean so many basic skills from her that you can build on.

Thank you!

I like all sorts of stuff really! I eat meat and don't have any allergies.

I'd love to make a really tasty salad. Does anyone have any good recipes for one? Maybe one with prawns or salmon in it? Or a warm goats cheese and fruit salad?

I love eating other people's food - I just never have the creativity or ability to do it for myself. But I'm hoping to change that really.

I was thinking about making a roast chicken this week - it's the one thing I do know how to make but I've never known what to do with the leftovers. and for one person, it should be able to stretch quite far I'd imagine! I'd be really interested to hear what you guys do with roast chicken?

Do you have a freezer?

I know that Jack Monroe is a bit “Marnite” , but her books, and website are full of well priced and easy to follow recipes. Cooking on a Bootstrap

Can you do the basics - boil dried pasta? Rice? Veg? Eggs?
Grill - chicken breasts, lamb chops, burgers, sausages, fish fillets?
Fry an egg?

If worst comes to the worst, get some toaster bags, and cook fish fingers on one side of your toaster and potato waffles in the other!

Depends on your tastes, but I would learn a basic tomato sauces and a white sauce.

From these you can add herbs or things to make spag bol, chilli, lasagna, cheese sauce/pasta bakes etc

You will never buy a jar again!

Left over roast chicken

• add veg, bacon, gravy and make a pie with ready made frozen pastry.
• with mayo in a wrap, with chips l/wedges and salad
• with pasta and sweetcorn
• stir fried with veg, noodles and ready made sauce.

For salads I usually improvise so I have a base of whatever salad leaf I want, I add chopped spring onion, cucumber, cherry tomatoes (I put salt on tomatoes, makes the taste so much better!) and any other bits you like
Dressing wise often use olive oil and balsamic or a store bought one. Then I add maybe cold shredded roast chicken or feta cheese or goats cheese and some crispy bacon
Sometimes use cous cous if I'm extra hungry. Basically do salad bits, a protein, a dressing

Here's a Jamie Oliver link for salad

Leftover chicken I use in salad or sandwiches/wraps for work

Or a prawn cocktail recipe here which you could just change into a prawn salad
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/may/16/nigel-slater-classic-recipe-prawn-cocktail

I would start with stuff like omelettes, (eggs and butter plus ham/cheese) or pancakes (flour milk and eggs), things with not too many ingredients, which you can them build on.

For lovely roast chickens you can cheat, and buy things like the Maggi cook in the bag.

I’d also recommend googling and watching YouTube videos of some of your favourites meals, and I’m sure you’ll be able to find a video of someone cooking.
Will give you a feel for what food is supposed to look like eg a caramelised onion.

And also, don’t give up, if it goes wrong you can always bin it, have a bit of beans on toast, and try again!

Good luck!

And congratulations on your new home!!

L

Which ready meals do you normally choose? Home-made versions of those could be a good place to start.

Curries and pasta are fairly foolproof! I tend to think what I fancy then google an easy recipe. Good luck, and congrats on the new place!

Oh thank you so much everyone! I’m so glad I posted - I’ve been having a bit of a gloomy week and this has really cheered me up!

There are some lovely ideas on here! I’m definitely going to give some of them a go. Slow but steady.

Can I ask, I keep seeing harissa paste mentioned on lots of different sites - does anyone have any good recipes of what to use it with?

I find cooking for one a bit depressing and that combined with a mum who hates it means I normally dread it but I’m definitely going to try and shift that mindset.

I cook just for me
What helps is - for lunch (taken to work) I make that sort of fresh every day so a quick salad or sandwich
Main meals I batch cook, so I would make a pasta bake with 6 portions and freeze 5 of them, same with beef stew etc. Then you end up with being able to open the freezer, and grab a ready made home cooked meal to eat!
The only things I don't batch cook is stuff that doesn't work well like a stir fry

Buy a student cookbook - they usually assume minimal prior knowledge which is helpful when you are just starting out.

Pinch of nom is a good book despite the name, very simple, tasty recipes

This salmon recipe uses Harissa and is fairly simple, you'll just have to quarter everything

I love cooking just for me-rare nowadays as I have to feed the kids and their dad but it’s a nice treat to be able to eat what you want every day.

If you eat meat I’d learn to cook a decent mince bolognese, that can then go with pasta and mozzarella for a pasta bake, add kidney beans and a splodge of hot pepper sauce to make chilli to have with rice/potato wedges, jacket potatoes/nachos/in wraps with mozzarella on. Loads of meals. I add some grated carrot and red lentils to it along with loads of tinned tomatoes and Passata to make the mince go further.

Roast chicken is a good one, I use the leftovers in salad, in a stir fry, in a jambalaya type dish.

Salad-wise, you can grill slices of goats cheese to top salad, even nicer if you slice some baguette and toast that as well.
Halloumi salad is nice-I chop into cubes and fry in olive oil til brown, this also goes nicely with packets of ready cooked puy lentils and some chopped cherry tomatoes.
I do a ‘Mexican chicken salad’ which is just crunchy lettuce, chopped cucumber, tomatoes, red peppers, sweet corn and crushed tortilla crisp, topped with some shredded chicken , lime squeezed over and either a dollop of sour cream or Greek yogurt.

I’ve got loads of cook books but there are loads of recipes on the internet so I wouldn’t necessarily invest in them until you get an idea of what styles of cooking you like-Asian/Middle Eastern/french etc.

The Leon Happy Salads book is great for interesting salads. Some of them have some quite unusual ingredients but others have totally normal things. The Roasting Tin books might be good for you too - many of the recipes just involve chopping some veg and putting them in a tin with your protein and some herbs/spices.

Oh I'm so jealous I would love to just have to cook for myself. DP has quite a restrictive diet due to medical stuff and we have two toddlers so we live a very plain gastronomic life.

(That's the mindset you need )

Ok so one very simple but delicious 'base' recipe I make:

1. Put halved cherry tomatoes in an oven proof dish.

1. Drizzle some olive oil and herbs (I use Schwartz 'Spicy Italian' but plain old mixed herbs and a few chilli flakes would do)

1. Put in some chopped garlic, garlic powder or use garlic flavoured oil.

1. Roast tomatoes in the oven for about 20 mins.

I use this for so many things, either as a sauce to go with spaghetti, or to top fish or chicken, or mix them into cous cous or on top of a salad with feta or a pizza.

Get some fresh herbs in pots for your new kitchen they also make a huge difference to the 'freshness' of food. For example snipping a few chives or parsley onto boiled potatoes (to go with very simply fried mackerel or seabass and a squeeze of lemon) covered with melted butter or chucking some basil leaves into a tomato and mozzarella salad or the tomato spaghetti recipe above.

Left over chicken

Fry a chopped up onion, add half teaspoon of paprika and garlic, salt pepper.
Add veg - any you like diced or sliced thinly.
Add chicken
When heated through add double cream and Mozzarella cheese.

Eat with pasta or thinly sliced roast potatoes

Or Cook pasta

Place in a dish and add passetta source, mushrooms, chunks of cheese chicken and top with cheese- bake for 20 mins till heated through

Get the tin foil containers, for freezing food so you can heat straight in the oven.

Always cook extra and freeze a portion so every now and again you get a free week off

Sorry, half not quarter. I'm used to cooking for 4 but all of the Gousto recipes are for two people.

If you decide to bake OP, get yourself a BeRo baking book. It will take you brought all you need and the recipes are reliable and delicious.