How to Save Time on Cooking: Simple Tips for Busy Cooks

Cooking can feel like a time-consuming task, especially when juggling a busy schedule. Between work, family, and life’s demands, finding time to prepare a meal can be overwhelming. But what if you could make cooking quicker, easier, and just as delicious? 

In this post, we’ll share simple tips on how to save time on cooking—from using time-saving tools to easy recipes with Dorot Gardens’ frozen herb cubes—so you can enjoy fresh, flavorful meals without the stress. Let’s make your kitchen time more efficient!

Quick Meal Prep Tips: Save Time from the Start

Meal prep is one of the best ways on how to save time on cooking. By planning and preparing your ingredients in advance, you can reduce the time spent on each meal throughout the week. Here are a few quick tips to get you started:

• Chop Vegetables in Advance: Set aside time on the weekend to chop onions, carrots, and other veggies, then store them in airtight containers. This way, you’ll have pre-chopped ingredients ready to go whenever you need them.
• Batch Cooking: Cooking large portions of food at once can save you time during the week. Prepare soups, stews, or casseroles in bulk and freeze individual servings for quick reheating.
• Use Pre-Portioned Ingredients: Skip the chopping and peeling with Dorot Gardens’ herb portions. Their garlic, basil, cilantro, and other herbs are pre-portioned and ready to add directly to your dishes. This simple step can save you valuable minutes each time you cook.

By incorporating these tips into your routine, you’ll find that meal prep becomes a breeze, leaving you with more time to focus on other tasks.

Essential Time-Saving Kitchen Tools

Investing in the right kitchen gadgets can make all the difference when it comes to saving time cooking. Here are a few must-have tools that will make your kitchen work for you:

• Instant Pot or Slow Cooker: These multitasking tools allow you to cook meals quickly or set them to cook while you handle other tasks. From soups to stews and even rice, an Instant Pot can dramatically reduce cooking time.
• Food Processor: A food processor can chop, slice, and shred ingredients in seconds, saving you the hassle of manual chopping. This tool is perfect for busy cooks who need to get dinner on the table quickly.
• Pre-Portioned Frozen Ingredients: Using frozen ingredients like Dorot Gardens’ herb cubes means you don’t have to waste time washing, chopping, or storing fresh herbs. Just pop a cube into your dish and enjoy fresh, flavorful herbs in an instant.

When you equip your kitchen with these time-saving gadgets, you’ll cut down on prep time and make cooking more efficient, leaving you with more time to relax.

How Frozen Herbs Save You Time

One of the biggest challenges of cooking is dealing with fresh herbs. They spoil quickly, require washing, and take time to chop. But with frozen herb cubes from Dorot Gardens, you can skip all of those steps. Frozen herbs are just as fresh and flavorful as fresh herbs, and they’re available in perfectly portioned cubes, so there’s no waste.

• Freshness and Quality: Each cube of garlic, basil, or cilantro is flash-frozen at its peak, preserving the flavor and nutritional value. All you need to do is pop a cube out of the tray and drop it into your dish.
• Convenience: Gone are the days of forgetting to buy fresh herbs or struggling to use up a bunch before it wilts. With frozen herb portions, you can keep your kitchen stocked with the flavors you need, saving you time and frustration.
• No Chopping Required: One of the most time-consuming tasks in the kitchen is chopping herbs. With frozen cubes, you eliminate that step entirely, getting fresh herbs into your meal in seconds.

Using Dorot Gardens’ frozen herbs not only saves you time but also keeps your meals consistent in flavor and quality, without the hassle of prepping fresh herbs every time you cook.

Easy Recipes for Busy Cooks

One of the easiest ways on how to save time on cooking is to simplify your recipes. Here are a couple of quick and easy dishes that use Dorot Gardens’ frozen herb cubes, making your cooking process even faster:

Quick Garlic Basil Pasta

Ingredients:

1. 1 pack of Dorot Gardens Garlic Cubes
2. 1 pack of Dorot Gardens Basil Cubes
3. Olive oil
4. Spaghetti or your favorite pasta
5. Salt, pepper, and Parmesan cheese

Instructions:

1. Cook your pasta according to the package instructions.
2. While the pasta cooks, heat olive oil in a pan and add 1 or 2 garlic cubes from Dorot Gardens.
3. Once the garlic starts to sizzle, toss in the basil cubes and cook for another minute.
4. Drain the pasta and add it to the pan, tossing everything together.
5. Season with salt, pepper, and Parmesan cheese.

This dish can be made in under 15 minutes, and with the frozen herb portions, you don’t need to chop or mince garlic and basil.

Herb-Infused Chicken Stir Fry

Ingredients:

1. 1 pack of Dorot Gardens Cilantro Cubes
2. Chicken breasts or thighs, thinly sliced
3. Bell peppers, sliced
4. Soy sauce, ginger, and sesame oil

Instructions:

5. Cook your chicken in a pan with sesame oil until browned.
6. Add sliced bell peppers and cook until tender.
7. Toss in 2-3 cilantro cubes and a tablespoon of soy sauce.
8. Stir everything together, cooking for another 2-3 minutes.
9. Serve with rice or noodles for a complete meal.

This stir fry can be prepared in 20 minutes, and the frozen cilantro cubes add a fresh flavor in a fraction of the time it would take to chop fresh cilantro.

Batch Cooking for the Week

Another great way on how to save time on cooking is by batch cooking. Prepare large quantities of food at once, and store them in the fridge or freezer for later. Whether you’re making soups, stews, or even casseroles, batch cooking allows you to prepare several meals at once, cutting down on daily cooking time.

• Soup and Stews: Make a large pot of soup and freeze individual portions for later use. Simply heat and serve when you’re short on time.
• Casseroles: Prepare casseroles in advance and freeze them. When you need a quick meal, just pop one in the oven.

Batch cooking takes a little more time upfront but can save you hours throughout the week. You’ll always have homemade meals ready to go, making dinner a breeze.