10 Cooking Tips for Working Women on the Run

By Zahra Motorwala, Team iDiva

 

Peeling, cutting, mixing, blending, stirring and frying - so many processes all at once can be tiresome and time consuming. Most women shoulder dual responsibilities with their hectic schedules. With just weekends for leisure, elaborate meals become a seasonal affair. Keeping in mind your hassles, we list 10 pointers to help you gain speed in your kitchen and save hours of daily work. Get, set, going.

 

Plan – Make a list of all the dishes you wish to cook in the following week and write down all the required ingredients. On the weekends, when you are free go grocery shopping, stack up on all the ingredients according to your list. Do not buy huge quantities since they might not be needed. Also, factor in the days you plan to eat out to save wastage.

 

Storing spices – Ingredients that are common to all your recipes such as onions, chillies, ginger, garlic, lime, coriander et al can be kept handy. Onions can be chopped and kept ready to stir in an air tight container. This will make life easy for you.

 

Chop and freeze - Vegetables that will be needed in the week can be cut and stored in labeled boxes. Green peas can be peeled, while coriander and mint leaves de-stemmed in an air tight container.

 

Browned onions - Most gravies demand browning the onions before you add in other ingredients. This process doubles your cooking time by 15 minutes. So, prepare a batch of browned onions in advance, pack them in air tight boxes and refrigerate.

 

Puree & sauces - Keep purees and sauces such as ginger-garlic paste, tomato puree, soya sauce, chilly sauce, barbeque sauce, mustard sauce and more, stocked at home to help quick cooking.

 

The 101s - Essential items in the kitchen should be stocked for a month. Items like salt, peppers, spices, cornflour, baking powder, among others,  fall in this bracket.

 

Boiled to perfection – Foods such as eggs and potatoes can be boiled in advance and refrigerated for later use.

 

The curry leaves trick - To keep curry leaves fresh when stored for a longer time, keep them with fenugreek seeds in an air tight container.

 

Do the dough - For rotis the dough can be kneaded in advance and refrigerated. The kneaded dough will remain fresh for at least 3-4 days.

 

Beans - Soak beans like rajma and chole and refrigerate them for later use. You can easily whip up a quick meal or make a healthy salad.

 

 

Source: 10 Cooking Tips for WorkingWomen on the Run