Tips to Reduce Cooking Time

1. Minced garlic and ginger can be made once in 2 weeks, stored in fridge in an air tight container. It saves lot of your cooking time. Add peeled garlic and ginger to a food processor, use this to mince garlic ginger, add them to your container, mix them well and store in refrigerator.

2. All legumes and beans such as chickpeas, kidney beans, cannellini beans, black eyed peas etc., can be boiled in advance and stored in freezer. Legumes can be thawed and used when required. Similar to how you use frozen green peas and sweet corn. Soak legumes overnight boil adding little salt till they are soft. Alternatively use pressure cooker which reduces the boiling time by 1/2 compared normal boiling time.

3. Blanching is a quick method of cooking vegetables and greens, while preserving their nutrients and colors. To blanch; boil water in a sauce pan, when water starts boiling add salt and vegetables or greens.  Once cooked drain water, shock the vegetables / greens by adding them in cold water. You can use blanched vegetables to make your preferred recipes like soups, salads, stir fry, risotto etc., Cooking time depends on hardness of vegetables. Usually greens are cooked in 1 minute, broccoli 2 minutes, cauliflower and french beans  takes little longer.