Easy and healthy meals to teach beginner cook

[nopeasplease]

Looking for some advice - my adult DS is a complete beginner cook, and has rarely cooked anything from scratch (and to be honest when he has it hasn't been very nice) - I want to teach him a couple of easy meals so wondered if anyone had any ideas for inspiration? I want it to be something that you can cram full of veg / hard to overcook - off the top of my head I was thinking spaghetti bolognese, cottage pie etc? But all ideas welcome!

What are his favourite foods / recipes? Those are the ones I taught my DC first, then they are motivated to cook them themselves!

Hmm he will pretty much eat anything he is given but tends to prefer your more traditional, comforting dishes - His absolute favourite is a roast dinner but I figure we might want to start a bit more simply....

Frittata?

Soups are easy to do and lots of varieties- he can learn how to chop properly veggies/ onions etc as a bonus.

Homemade pizza.

Pasta bake wit a few basic sauces.

You can teach him how to portion whole chicken and how to roast it.

And some salads?

To be honest a basic roast dinner is pretty easy to do

beef or veg biryani - very easy and tasty with loads of veg , I use Tom kerridge’s recipe I believe it’s available on line

learn to make basic pizza dough then almost any topping can be added

basic white sauce then he can add whatever cheese/ mushroom / herbs ) and make a pasta dish from scratch

casserole , easy , mostly veg and whatever meat you want to add

Five bean chilli is nice and easy.

Two skills to practice - (1) multi-tasking so everything is ready at the same time (and preferably hot) and (2) actual kitchen skills

For the roast you mainly need the first - easy options to get started

• roast potatoes, sausages, veg & gravy (granules)
• roast chicken pieces with mash

Omelette/frittata is a good skill - I would find a real recipe and follow it so he can learn what they mean by 'beat' or 'medium heat' or other terms that seem obvious when you're used to them. A student cookbook would be a good place to start, they often have chapters on basic skills and equipment.

Eggs every way possible including omelette and frittata

Jacket potatoes

Fried rice

BLAT- bacon lettuce avocado and tomato sandwich

Vege and lentil soup

Couple of tray bakes

Burrito/tacos - both a bean and a mince option

Pan fried fish/chicken/steak with mash and greens

Porridge

Overnight oats

Macaroni cheese

Pesto pasta

Hamburgers/chicken burgers/vege burgers

An English breakfast Including sautéed tomatoes and mushrooms

Stir fry

A simple pasta dish? DH makes a “ studenty” sausage pasta with tinned chopped tomatoes, chilli, onions & garlic. We use penne pasta. Dead easy to make & delicious

I think if he's an adult who has barely cooked anything from scratch, you need to start really small as clearly there has not previously been any incentive to learn. what is driving this now eg is he moving out and needing to be more indepedent?

So I'd probably start with very very basic things.
Scrambled/boiled eggs on toast.
A basic bolognaise and a basic tomato pasta sauce.
Jacket potato and the way to add different toppings.
pizza bread/toast
ways to improve ready or oven meals eg - steaming/boiling veg alongside a fishcake, chicken Kiev, crumbed fish fillet that goes straight in the oven.

Also, I agree that actually, a roast dinner can be relatively easy. The trickiest bit is cooking the meat the right temperature for the right amount of time so perhaps start with something he can slow cook like a lamb shoulder as it's a lot more forgiving.

This is a brilliant book

https://www.amazon.co.uk/NOSH-Students-Student-Cookbook-Recipe/dp/0993260985/ref=asc_df_0993260985/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=463286725632&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=13817027596248256582&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1006657&hvtargid=pla-964782752289&psc=1&th=1&psc=1

all the Nosh books are good actually as it gives step by step.

But I have just started teaching my 12 year old to cook and the first meal we made together were simply tacos with all the trimmings.

I'm not associated with this website, it's just got really good recipes! You can search by ingredient, and on each recipe slide the per person and you can adjust it to 1-6 people
All come out well too

https://www.dontgobaconmyheart.co.uk

Teach him how to use a vegetable peeler.

Show him how to prepare, chop and slice veg, and how to wield a bread knife so he gets even slices instead of triangular doorstep wedges.

Explain oven temperatures, and go through the meaning of food labelling so he can check for things that are high in salt, sugar, etc and how to choose healthy options.

If he knows how to make mash, cook frozen peas and roast a chicken portion, then he can cook a roast dinner. Of sorts.

Teach him how to thicken sauce, how to add flavour to the food.
What potatoes are good for mash and what for roast, those simple things, so he can be confident with cooking.

I think it's really helpful to teach elements that can be used in different recipes so if you teach him how to make mash, he can make sausage and mash, fish cakes, cottage pie etc
Teach him to make a white sauce that can then be used in a lasagne, pie, or with cheese added for macaroni cheese, cauliflower cheese, etc
It really helps to add variety and allows them to practice skills without eating the same thing all the time.

Meals my 18 yo has been taught to cook recently

Veg noodle stir fry
Chorizo and tomato sauce pasta
Chickpea & spinach curry (and may be added cauliflower/other veg)
Dal and rice

These can be eaten as leftovers the next day, or even frozen

Scrambled eggs (with various additions - Parsi version is popular) on toast

Sausage and mash sounds easy - but decent mash isn't necessarily!

All my dc found Nigel Slaters's Real Fast Food useful

Yeah.a one pot roast

My DS learned through this book.

It might be a bit young looking but there are lots of good recipes in there

Love all these ideas - so many meals I had completely forgotten about! Books and links all look great too - cookery lessons start tomorrow! 🍝🍗🍔🥧 thanks so much everyone x

If he likes a roast, then I used to do something like this as a student when I was craving one. (I did used to use Bisto rather than making my own gravy though) https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/roast_chicken_for_one_41998