One of the side effects of having the keto lifestyle is cooking more. While it’s pretty easy to find keto compatible food in the wild, it’s usually pretty boring. If you want to eat interesting stuff, you gotta cook.
In light of that knowledge, it’s important to learn how to cook efficiently. As someone who likes to cook a lot and also used to work in a kitchen, here’s a few of the things I’ve learned to get food on the table faster.
Mise en Place
This is a fancy French term for gathering your stuff together before you start cooking. When you begin cooking, get all of your veggies cut, spices measured, and tools all ready to go. That way, when you’re actually cooking, you don’t need to go hunt something down. Not only does this save you time, it makes cooking less stressful.
Maintain your kitchen tools
This should be obvious, but it’s not. Make sure all of your kitchen implements are well maintained and organized. Keep knives sharp and hone them regularly. It’s better to have a smaller number of well maintained tools than a huge pile of stuff.
Clean while you cook
Try to do as much of your cleaning while you are cooking. There’s usually plenty of downtime waiting for things cook, so use that time to clean up. That way, when you’re done eating, you don’t need to wash a giant pile of dishes.
Par cooking
This is a technique that’s often used in kitchens. Par cooking is where you start cooking an item, but you don’t finish it. When you’re ready to serve that item, you can quickly finish it off before service. It’s like having leftovers, but without that leftover flavor.
An example of this would be cooking a roast sous vide and then dropping it into the fridge. Before dinner, pop out your roast and do the final searing step.
Batch cooking
This is usually paired with par cooking. I like to batch cook by dropping several items into a sous vide bath. After they’re done, I’ll drop the bags into the fridge and then finish them when I’m ready to serve the meat. This makes weeknight dinners a breeze because all I have to do is open a bag and sear it up. You can also batch cook using your crock pot or oven.
Chaining recipes
When batch cooking, make a plain version of your meat and then season it differently for different dishes. That way you don’t get bored, but also save time. I usually just use salt and pepper and then season per dish.
Here’s an example:
Take a pork shoulder, salt it, and crock pot it in lard. After a few hours you end up with a huge pile of tasty pulled pork. This pulled pork is an excellent template for tasty flavor combinations.
Day one - Just eat the plain pork, it doesn’t need any help.
Day two - Add ancho chili powder, lime juice (or True Lime), and cumin. Then fry in a pan until crispy for carnitas.
Day three - Add cole slaw mix and your favorite Asian seasonings for a tasty pulled pork crack slaw.
Day four - Mix the pork with sage, pepper, and eggs and use in a crust-less quiche.
Day five - Make a low carb vinegar mop sauce or low carb BBQ sauce and do BBQ pork.
etc…
What do you like to do in the kitchen to be more efficient?