Okay, that was a lot of info in one video, so now it’s your turn! What’s your #1 tiny tip or piece advice for someone who’s looking to improve their cooking?
Here’s a tip that doesn’t get much discussion: write down notes for how you prepare your recipes, even if you made no changes and followed it exactly as written, write that down. You might be changing quantities to make a different number of servings, or substituting one ingredient for another, if you write it down then you will know what works (and what doesn’t) for the next time.
I think my #1 tip is to keep your pantry and store cupboard well-stocked. Things like dried herbs, spices, nuts, rice, beans/lentils, pasta, soy sauce, lemon/lime juice, vinegars, oils, mustards, etc. You can *always* make some kind of meal with those, and you’ll have everything on hand to make fresh ingredients taste amazing. I’m a real pantry connoisseur, lol.
yes! so much of the magic in vegan cooking happens in the pantry! now if only someone could come organize my well-stocked pantry, that would be even better lol.
That was mine!! so I found a few dishes i wanted to try.... got all the ingredients.... and now I'm good-to-go. If you are ready to make about 5 or 6 different dishes, you'll have a well-stocked pantry.
I read a great article some months ago about keeping a reverse shopping list, and it's been really helpful for pantry items! I took a good 20 minutes to create a note on my phone with an exhaustive list of everything in my pantry (canned goods, dry goods, spices, refrigerated staples, etc.) and anytime I notice I'm running low on something, I highlight it in the note. Then, when I'm at the store, I just have to check to see what's needed.
Tip #1 Choose the right salt 0:20 Tip #2 Shop seasonally and locally 2:07 Tip #3 Fresh Herbs > Dried Herbs 3:06 Tip #4 Balance flavors with acids 5:04 Tip #5 Don't forget the zest 7:30 Tip #6 Invest in precision 8:53 Tip #7 Adopt a growth mindset 10:25 Tip #8 Grind your own spices 10:40 Tip #9 Season in layers 12:06 Tip #10 Taste as you go 13:18
One of the easiest things I've learned to do in the kitchen is to preserve lemons! It's just quartered lemons and salt. Put in a jar and leave for a few weeks. The flavor is so intense and fresh and they last for over a year! I like to add a piece to my rice when I cook it.
Well, I got my instructions from the New York Times. I have a Meyer lemon tree that went crazy last year and I needed different ways to use them up. So, I basically cut the lemons into wedges and stuffed them in a Mason jar, adding 1 T of salt every lemon. You just kind of press the wedges down to get the juice/salt brine to cover. Then seal the jar and let it sit for a few weeks before using. You can rinse the wedges before you use them. It's super easy to do.
@@teacherbecca526 Thank you so much! We have a lemon tree too and my father in law also gives us lemons every year and I run into the same problem. Thank you so much!
My two favorite TH-cam cooks in the same space at once! ❤ Thank you both for all the recipes this past year of being at home, and helping me become a better and more CONFIDENT cook. 😊
I think a really important note is to never rely on recipe suggestions for heat or time at each stage. Each stove medium or even burner medium will be different, and the heating qualities of all types of pans will be different. Pasta will always cook differently than the box says. When a recipe says cook for 5 minutes or until brown, forget 5 minutes and cook until browned, even if it happens to take you 10m for some reason. If the pasta says cook for 7 minutes but you taste a piece and it's not done, then you have to cook longer than 7 minutes. Taste for texture and doneness along the way just like for flavor.
yes totally agree! every stove and oven is different and everyone is using slightly different ingredients and brands, so you have to keep an eye on it and adjust accordingly. my current stove works way differently than my last stove so I've had to adapt and adjust over time. i just made pasta yesterday and the box said 8-10 minutes but it was barely al dente at 10 minutes. that's where tasting as you go comes in handy too!
So true! I used to just cook the pasta to the time recommended on the box. It was never done all the way. Now I cook it a little longer, and it tastes great!
Such a nice nutshell program, pulling sooo many loose-ends together.... clarifying the reasons we do what we do and emphasizing the value of doing it. Spoken like an attorney giving a convincing closing argument in a trial.
My best tip is to read through the recipe the whole way through before you start cooking. Solves SO MANY POTENTIAL PROBLEMS. Do you have all the ingredients in the quantities needed? Do you have all the proper equipment, and are they clean? Are there any bottlenecks where you might need to be doing too many things at the same time? Do you need to do one thing before another? Is there any prep work that you should do before you get started (like chopping, grinding spices, marinading, preheating the oven, etc.)? I find that reading through the recipe and visualizing each step has massively increased my sense of calm in the kitchen.
And no time wasted either. I often find myself watching TH-cam videos on high speed as people talk so slowly and pause between words so much I can get to the point/end in half the time. Appreciate this lady’s get on with it approach.
My no. 1 tip is to follow Rainbow Plant Life's recipes until you feel more comfortable adapting your own! My only warning is - if you're like me and watch your calories, cut her recipe in half because her food is so good you WILL eat the entire thing if you're cooking for yourself. I learned this the hard way when I made her banana bread recipe and ate all of it in 2 days smh
Haha this tip made me laugh. So glad you enjoy my recipes and have found a way to make them suitable to your lifestyle and needs :) The banana bread is pretty much impossible to not eat so you can't be blamed lol.
Living far out in the country with no regular access to grocery-stores, I buy up a bunch of lemons and juice them. Portion out the juice into ice cube trays in one, two and three tablespoon amounts and freeze them. Once frozen, I transfer the lemon-cubes into baggies. I always have lemon juice for adding to recipes, dressings or drinks. I spread zest out on a plate and freeze it, (so it doesn’t clump) and then transfer it into small jelly jars or small snack bags and keep in the freezer. I do the same with fresh herbs.
A huge mistake I see lots of friends and family making is trying to edit a recipe before they know what the dish is supposed to taste like. Its totally okay to adjust a recipe to fit your taste, but there are a lot of ingredients that add or bring out flavors that you wouldn't expect them to, so you might end up changing your dish in ways you didn't expect. It's *good* to try new things, and part of that is going to be trying things that you may not be sure you'll like right away. Expanding your palate helps make you a better cook!
Absolutely agree, though in one other circumstance I would advocate to not be afraid to be creative with recipes, that’s if you are missing an ingredient or two for a recipe that you were excited to try ! This should not discourage you from making a dish, and I personally try to be more adaptable and not overthink it, because that’s what held me back in the beginning when I was trying to cook new dishes but sometimes didn’t have or couldn’t find some of the ingredients. The flavor was probably different but I couldn’t really tell and it kept me from not cooking at all because of my “well it’s not going to be good now” mindset. Of course that’s more of a “complete beginner, very new to cooking” advice :)
@@n1kito Yeah, but what you're talking about is a "well, i can't make it just like that, but i'm going to try to get as close as i can" and what my family was doing was "yeah, i have all the right ingredients, but i'm going to change them out for very different things, and then complain the recipe is bad when it fails" It's okay to switch out one kind of apple for another kind of apple, or to use peach preserves instead of orange marmalade if that's what you'd prefer... but don't swap out an onion for a potato.
I agree! I regularly get teased for following recipes to strictly, but i want to see how they turn out! I've learned so many different food and spice combos that i probably never would have tried on my own. I almost always adjust the level of salt and sugar because I find U.S. recipes use too much of both, but otherwise, i always cook as close to the recipe as possible the first time around. It has also helped me get better at eyeballing teaspoons and tablespoons when watching cooking videos
It drives me crazy to carefully write out a recipe for a friend and have them say they hated it. Wow, really? Nothing in it was bad. So I ask if they followed the directions and they'll say well, no, they added this or subtracted that. Adding in a completely, wildly different spice combination, omitting steps to make it faster, etc. One particular friend does this and I've stopped making even suggestions for their inquiries about what to do with that pork roast or whatever. It's frustrating.
I have two tips that made me a pretty decent home cook (if I do say so myself :) 1) Taste while cooking. There is no excuse for the food you prepare to be bad, bland, or too salty. Unless you really mess up and e.g. burn something, you should be able to make something that at least tastes good, even if it's not exactly what you saw in the recipe. Taste often, and adjust at every step. 2) Never let the food win. You are not a Michelin star chef cooking for snobby people, and neither are you a food blogger with a massive instagram following. No one cares how your food looks like, and you are the only judge of how it tastes like. Is the dish not behaving? Some step went different than the one shown in the recipe? Did your tortilla get stuck to the pan? Your sauce is too watery? The color or texture is off? No one cares. Don't be discouraged, and don't let the food defeat you. Use the 1st rule and make sure you finish that damned thing. That's my rules to improve your cooking. Never don't give up, and sample your creation as often as possible to develop your cooking instincts.
You're terrific- the best there is. Somehow, despite spending hours every day on youtube, I never came across your channel, or if I did I glossed over it. Well, my bad. When it comes to vegan cooking channels, you're the pinnacle of perfection. And your dad- when he weighs in with his opinions, deeming some dish as "not pleasant"...it brings a smile to my face.
Just to add to the salt conversation. As vegans, it's actually pretty important to use iodized salt since the most common sources of iodine are seafood and dairy. Day to day I use iodized salt but like to keep sea salt on hand for some special dishes or to crack right on top of something.
Thank you! I do have iodized sea salt that I use sometimes but didn’t include it because it felt like too much information in one video. Seaweed salads are my favorite way to get iodine, I am obsessed 😋
Very true. Iodine deficiency is becoming more common as people move away from iodized salt in the US where we don't typically eat things like seaweed daily.
@@jaminwaite3867 exactly, seaweed is great! But most people in America for example, don’t eat it often enough for it to be a consistent source of iodine.
Love this, I just think it would have been beneficial to talk about iodine intake with the salt change, because sea salt and kosher salt aren't normally iodized and iodine is pretty essential
Thank you! I had that in my video notes to include (I sometimes use iodized sea salt, but not all table salt is actually iodized, it’s confusing!) - but there was so much information in this video already I didn’t want to confuse people and overwhelm with information.
The idea that we need to get any trace minerals from a non-naturally occurring product, is laughable. Gee, how did our ancestors ever survive without iodized table salt? Pure marketing
@@TheRealHonestInquiry the reason for many illnesses in the past were lack of certain nutrients. In Germany, people had a lot of hypothyroidism, leading to an enlarged throat that was hidden by clothing. As someone with hypothyroidism, iodized salt is very important for my health.
@@TheRealHonestInquiry Because it's almost never added-iodine-or-death, and because nutrition sources of humanity have changed over the last few millenia. It's put into salt to help those
People are putting too much trust into doctors and scientists who nowadays only seek to keep the patients ill and treat only the symptoms of an illness but not the actual illness itself, because their profit would not be as high anymore. The same for farmaceutical companies who are being funded by billionaires and big corporations (doctors and scients consequently as well). Perhaps science and medicine cared once about the wellbeing of the people, but that is not the case anymore. I've been through so many doctors who stuffed me with poisonous medicine and only made my health condition worse. As soon I stopped visiting them and started taking care of my body by myself, I improved. Science is not what it used to be anymore.
keep in mind for the lemon/lime zest that sometimes a protective layer is applied to the fruit. Not in every fruit, but it can be. You really need to clean them or just by some without it :)
I appreciate you talking about the failures. I always thought I couldn’t cook, but have slowly accepted that mistakes lead to learning. It’s encouraging to hear that even very experienced cooks still try things that don’t work.
trying to cut every vegetable the same size (mainly for salads, curry's etc.) and cooking in phases; not adding every ingredient at the same time, but take notice of their cooking time. (think about what ingredients you use and why, do you want it to be cruncy; cook it, want it to be soft boil it, decide when to add the to the dish or add it seperate) Also following a recipe a few times until you kind of do your own thing with it, and its assimilated. It also helps to understand certain combinations that countries use for their regional dishes. It made it a lot easier for me to wing some dishes knowing what kinds of herbs or vegetables are used in certain countries.
I think this was very well done. As someone who has been cooking for 10 years and is always looking for something new and to improve, this video was extremely helpful. My #1 tip is to read through every recipe well and then write it down in a way you best understand. This always helps me to really absorb the recipe and its steps, but also creates a better flow when it's in my own words.
Great tips! We don't have a lot of citrus in our climate, but in addition to vinegars and wines, a traditional way to add some fruity tarty acid is using the juice of sour apples. It's not as sour and way fruitier than apple cider vinegar so I love using it in desserts like carrot cake or apple muffins, and also to finish raw dishes and salads. Love from Slovakia!
I love this video! I am a true foodie and this will help me so much in the kitchen! My best tip would be one my mami gave me. When making pasta, don't discard all the water you boiled it in. When you add your sauce it may need thinning and the starchy water makes the pasta sause so silky and just yummy! We make potato based pasta in Slovakia a lot and the water from it is simply divine even for soups and sauces, it makes a huge difference to the creaminess of the food. Lots of love from Slovakia 🇸🇰❤
If you live in Germany or somewhere where you can't find kosher salt, try searching for rock salt. It often comes in bigger pieces so you have to grind it yourself, but after some research I came to the conclusuion it's just the same! Rock salt is raw, unprocessed and without any substitutions, just like kosher salt. I found mine at Edeka, I think most bigger supermarkets have it. My tip for cooking with herbs: Try to sprout your own ones! Especially store bought basil dies after a few weeks because the pot has too much seeds in it. Homegrown basil tastes way better and also saves money 😊
What I usually do with the grocery store pot is break it into 3-4 different pots. It's super easy to do and within a few weeks you have loads of fresh herbs (I usually use, basil, but the same applies for parsley and such). I'm too impatient to grow it from seed, so I definitely recommend it!
If you use non-iodized salt you can possibly run into iodine deficiency depending on your diet. Before salt was iodized, deficiency was very common. An iodine deficiency causes lowered IQ in children as well as thyroid problems in all age groups. Since iodine is found in large quantities in fish, eggs and dairy products, it is pretty important for vegans to use iodized salt or make an effort to eat foods with iodine like seaweed, potatoes, Lima beans, etc. I found a kosher salt that is iodized, so we use that.
Building off the acid point, it's a really good way to lighten the feel of a dish if there's a lot of oil. Acid will cut through the strong oils and fats and will open up the other flavors of the meal.
What a fantastic video, thank you! 🙏🏼 My tip is to buy spices from an Indian grocer. The variety is so much greater, the quality and freshness better, and the pricing is often lower. Mx
Just some extra info to tip no. 5. That's the one about the zest. Always make sure, your lemon/lime is bio! Many people use regular ones, but you shouldn't because they are treated with pesticides.
I just incorporated seasoning in layers in my cooking and it is truly a game changer 😭😭 Thanks so much for the advice! Also started to use more fresh herbs. Best advice ever!
Great Lesson -- And I LOVE your channel. It's the best. I wouldn't question your tips about salt, but iodine is a necessary element for human health. If you don't eat out frequently or eat much processed food, you won't get enough. I recently found I had a thyroid condition, and just adding more iodized salt makes a world of difference.
Yes! Especially acidic components are so underrated. I learned how to cook fresh vegetables at home from my mom who has been cooking vegetarian whole foods ever since i was little. My friends will come over for dinner and be so surprised about how i make veggies people often don´t like taste so great when I´m really such a lazy cook. I mostly just use an oil that compliments the vegetable, salt and pepper, maybe some vegetable stock and one or two dried herbs and the thing that makes it work is the right type of acid. White wine for kale, balsamic vinegar for brussel sprouts, lemon for beetroots and so on.
So many great tips...I need to come back and review this again later. I love using smoked paprika. Whenever I add to savory dishes, people are so amazed at how good it is. My mom taught me that it is the "secret ingredient"
My number one thing was the realization that it's ok to write in my cookbooks. It might seem obvious, but there's no way I would remember that I only used 1/4 tsp of this or baked that 10 min longer. I mark up all of my recipes now, making notes of what I did & what I want to try next time.
Some herbs can be grown yourself, if you're willing to do a little work and wait. Even if you don't have a garden, there are lots that do fine in pots! Chives in particular I've had a lot of luck with, and they're almost impossible to kill. The ones in our garden don't properly die till December, and they usually regrow to a usable length by mid-February.
Hi Nisha, I just bought the Salt Fat Acid Heat book and I've been learning so much! In fact, it would be perfect if not for how prominent a role meat, dairy, and eggs plays in it. For someone who's been vegan a long time, there are hard-to-avoid parts that are gross and disturbing-the delicious result obtained by fattening animals up before we kill them etc. etc. This is not confined to meat chapters and sections, which you can skip, but randomly thrown in throughout the book, such as when explaining how fat works. And I can't use most of the practice recipes! It would be so much better value if all the space devoted to meat, dairy, and eggs were given to things vegans eat. All this to say: Is there any cooking textbook out there that does anything remotely similar for plant-based cooking? And if not, can you write it??!
Loved this!! I’ve been trying to shop more at my farmers market, been loving it so far can’t believe the difference in quantity of fresh produce/veggies
Tasting as you go was the best advice I got from my mum. Fresh ingredients are never the same. You could get really sweet tomatoes at the market, in that case, adjust with acid, sometimes they could be sour so you should add sugar etc.
When you live in the Midwest fresh stuff isn't available for many months...it's frustrating when chefs from warm climates tell you that your cooking isn't good without fresh food...i would give anything for a real tomato most months of the year
It may seem counterintuitive, but I would recommend trying canned foods. I thought I HATED tomatoes after I bought them from the grocery store and tried to use them in a dish -- they were completely inedible and ruined the food -- but now I use canned diced tomatoes, and the quality is so much better. They're packaged at peak ripeness, so the flavor is awesome. I'm in Missouri, so I feel the struggle!
Same. I live in the UK and most of our produce is imported so it gets picked before it’s ripe as it needs to transport. Our tomatoes for example are so flavourless and watery. Farmers markets aren’t that common here and they’re also not that reliable, in my experience they tend to come and go and as another commenter said they’re often just reselling wholesale stuff rather than actual local produce. Even if I splash out and buy organic farm box produce it’s really hard to find great quality great tasting fruit and vegetables here.
This reminds me of the Salt Fat Acid Heat mini-series I watched on Netflix. Highly reccomend it (also has a book for more depth) it really helped my creativity in the kitchen.
I stumbled across this video. I like veggies but also like meat but with the rising prices of meat have been looking at more filling vegetable dishes for my family. I think I could convince them with your recipes to not just look at vegetables as a side dish. They do eat veggies just not as much as I do. And by accident I learned about how different salts taste. Some one gave me kosher salt and I had always used pink h. Salt but when I used the kosher on a dish I made once a week wow did it kick it up a notch. Thank you for posting and I'm excited to try some of your dishes they all looked mouth watering.
I became plant-based for ethical reasons, and I could not be happier! I still eat meat and dairy, but in lower quantities and I have managed to stop supporting the industry completely by buying them from a farm about 15 minutes away from me that I never knew existed. Thank you for inspiring me with more vegan recipes, Nisha. God bless!
@@ajvintage9579 the farm I buy from is a family owned farm which cares more about the welfare of the animals than the profits. I am working to become more plant based, however it is difficult as I have no supermarkets near me living in a small village. If i have to eat meat, I’d rather support a local farm where I can go and see the cow that supplied my dairy than supporting a company that takes calves away from their mums to be slaughtered.
When I figured out adding acid to tomato-based sauces it was an absolute gamechanger. And totally agree on cooking tomato paste before adding the rest - I used to just plop it in to thicken sauces but now I love how it adds that sweetness.
i'm cool with table salt, since it's produced locally around where I live and honestly can't say I prefer another kind of salt. I hardly use salt, except for cooking starches. I usually do more of a mix of salt, boullion seasoning, soy sauce, miso.. you name it, I use it to add saltyness
I have a lot of dried spices and herbs on hand, most of the pre-ground. An easy tip to bring them to life is just to sear them lightly on their own in some fat before adding anything else to the pot. I often do this with baking as well, just adding whatever spices used to the melted butter before adding it all to the batter helps improve any spiced cake.
Wow, I never had any interest with eating plant based, but I stumbled into this video and found it super interesting and I loved the way you explain things, your recipes look amazing and I am dying to try them all.
A chef once recommended me to heat your oils and spices in the pan slightly until the aromas came out before you added any other ingredients - totally levelled up my stir fries, curries and fajitas!
I learned a lot of good stuff from my mom: * Homemade stock is really worth putting in a dish because you can just put so many flavor layers in just a stock. I started saving the odds and ends from chopping up vegetables, you can even save like onion and garlic peels, and I even freeze like chicken/beef/ham bones/shrimp shells from whenever I cook meat on the bone. Really brings a whole lot of life to soup especially...made a split pea and ham bone soup that was amazing. You can just stick it all in a crockpot, set it, forget it, and use it the next day for a meal. *She did mention this, but steeped oils, like herb+chili oil, really brightens up a dish. I have these steeped Italian seasoning herb oil cubes in the freezer I break out anytime I make meatballs or other Italian-American dishes. * My mom found that soaking her own beans allowed her to season them better and they just have a lot more nice texture to them.
When I cook I like to try new things! I don’t put a lot of pressure on myself and I always try to search what went wrong! For example yesterday we made homemade ravioli with fish, ricotta and lemon. They said to only put the zest of the lemon put when we tasted it we realized that It needed something more! So we added the lemon juice as well and it was delicious! My tip is to go slow, try something new when you are ready! I just started to make my own pasta, I love it and I’m getting better at it! I do simple shape but I’m going to try next time to do something a little bit more complicated !
@@RainbowPlantLife Yes and it’s really easy! I was so scared by the idea of making it before because I thought it was so much work! For Christmas I received a rolling machine and it does all the work for you really ^^ I make the dough (I’m not vegan so I use eggs but you can use water too) you knead the dough for 10 minutes until it’s smooth and after an hour of rest you put it into the rolling machine and it makes pasta shapes ! I only have spaghetti, fettuccine and lasagna shape but it helps a lot!
You should try it really easy, it just takes some time to get used to it! I love a channel on TH-cam called pasta grannies! It’s Italian women making pasta and it’s just so relaxing to watch!
I started cooking last year (couldn't keep living off frozen/processed foods forever) and the discovery of fresh herbs opened a whole new world to me. How can one small leaf pack so much flavor? I rarely use dried herbs anymore. Thanks for your video! I'll definitely consider these tips when cooking.
Freshly ground spices are superior to pre-ground spices. I was using pre-ground cinnamon in my cookie recipes and when I added freshly ground cinnamon the flavor level went up a couple notches!!!!!! Amazing.
The thing about sodium and having too much - several studies conclude that (apart from processed/fast food as mentioned) a useful strategy is to back off for a while and acclimate to less salty food (I think it only take 2 weeks or so?), then ensure you only season while cooking and keep the salt off your kitchen table. The gist of it is that heaps of people take reasonably seasoned foods then over-salt them at the table, sometimes adding up to like 1/4 of the daily allotment of sodium in a single meal to food that already contained enough sodium. Anyway, great point about processed foods, I figured I'd just add that tidbit. Get in the habit of salting once while cooking, stop salting while eating.
So glad you followed your passion and shared it online. Have been mostly plant based for couple years now but your teaching will take me to the next level. Just received your Instant Pot book! Cooking vegan meals the right way are simply incredible and those who don’t are simply missing out. Keep up the great and inspiring work. Appreciate what you do, many thanks!
1. Use kosher salt or sea salt 2. Buy seasonal food locally 3. Use fresh herbs instea of dried 4. Balance flavor with acid 5. Use citrus zest 6. Invest in balance and thermometer 7. Adopt a growth mindset 8. Grind your own spices 9. Season in layers 10. Taste as you go
This video came at the right time. I''m still on my comfort food winter/ cozy weather diet consisting of vegan pizza and oily noodles. Now my joy in cooking is stimulated again! Makes me want to go buy some kale right now and try to make an aromatic salad! Thanks
I got a timer that times four items. Been a big help. Agree on the scale and thermometer. Just found your channel this week. I will trying your ideas this weekend.
I always eat with every meal steamed spinach, Ceylon cinnamon, ginger and steamed beets. I have a lazy Susan in the middle of the kitchen table with glass jars of CAYENNE, nutritional yeast, mixed fried herbs, Hemp seeds, pumpkin seeds, walnuts, almonds, black seed, olive oil, zaater, pink Himalayan salt and DIGESTIVE ENZYMES. We sprinkle any or many of these items on our meals for extra nutritional value. Thank God for the blessings.
Yes to all! But especially flavoring as you go and adding a touch of acid if something is missing. We do this all the time for soups. If I can’t figure out what it’s missing, I’ll toss in a splash of apple cider vinegar. It usually does the trick.
Had to Google what kosher salt is as it's not really a thing here in the UK but I hear of Americans speaking of it a lot! Love a good sprinkle of Maldon or Fleur de sel as a finishing salt 🥰
I'm so glad you mentioned the growth mindset. I've read the book many times and even coach others on their mindset (in building an art business) and I tend to forget that it applies to all areas of life. Thanks for reminding me that I can actually become better at cooking 😁
My one-two punch that helped me get good at the plant based life I now lead is you and @plantifulkiki She does a marvelous job of keeping it simple because she doesn't really like to cook, and you make it more complex but sensible. Between the two of you, I am covered. So following the right examples on social media, stocking the pantry, and having basic tools.. sharp knife, good cutting boards, tongs, kitchen scissors, and good nonstick cookware.
Me after one (1) day of binging Nisha’s videos, having discovered her channel this morning: As you can see, I’ve added some lemon zest to the instant ramen noodles to add some depth to the flavor through the citrus and contrast the umami of the soy sauce.
I picked up a bunch of these just from cooking your recipes! It has made me a 10x better home cook. Looking forward to rounding out my skills by integrating the other tips, thank you Nisha!
#1 for me is mise en place. If all my ingredients arent ready to go when i start, cooking is a mess. Especially if its my first time with a new recipe. Good tip on the oven thermometer :)
If one swaps-out their (usually Iodised) table salt for sea salt, which I have done, Iodine needs to be added to their diet - and kelp is the perfect product. Iodine is needed for proper thyroid function.
Love the richness in your foods made the Sheppard pie and then made the lentil part again to freeze in portions for myself . I bake or boil a couple of small potatoes and voila I have my meal! I even add some kale or spinach to it to get some extra greens in and you can't taste them ! Ty big love♡
If you use kosher salt, how do you get iodine in your diet? I remember learning that iodized food salt is an important way of getting iodine which is important for your thyroid. Might be what makes it taste metallic as well.
If you eat a Western diet you should use table salt fortified with Iodine, or you should take a supplement. You should only feel comfortable in your Iodine intake if you eat a significant amount of salt water fish/ seaweed.
Really great tips! Never thought I needed an oven thermometer, always end up lowering the temperature when roasting veggies. New oven thermometer is life changing!👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾Thank you!
I’ve recently become obsessed with your videos and I spotted an East Fork Pottery bowl in this one and it made me so happy! We love a conscious living queen!
Thank you for saying "go to a farmer's market if you have one." So many people I see who make recipes say, "Take out your Vitamix..." "Go to Whole Foods/your local farmer's market" and stuff that I can't do. It's not a big deal, but thanks anyway😊👍
These tips are great, will definitely be coming back to this video for future reference! Just wanted to say a thank you for all your recipes; there aren't a lot of vegan options in my area so I've been cooking at home, and your spiced red lentil and sweet potato curry is a weekly regular for me now 🙏✨
love this she is so right. a lot of people don't tell you these things and since I'm from the country I tend to do a lot of these things so times people are afraid to experiment. loved her tips shes right in a lot of ways
I use the Celtic sea salt and I love it! The Celtic is from France, is very clean and pure and has other beneficial minerals in it. P.S. I think you should make a hair video or two! Your hair is so healthy & pretty 💕
I love that you did this topic. Honestly, when I think of YOU specifically, this is what sets you apart and is a special Nisha thing (well and your fun goofy side, too.) Gremolata blew my mind and truly upleveled soups and your sharing and use of all these tips are just fantastic!
Just discovered this channel and I am excited to explore more of the content. There was so much great information in this video, some I knew some I didn't but I came away inspired to challenge myself and apply the tips more often and to try some new things! Thanks :)
When I worked in a restaurant I was in charge of making soup of the day, my chef always would taste it before it was approved for the customers. If it was missing a bit of depth my chef would always tell me to add a couple tablespoons of Miso Paste(white brown or red depending on the flavors of soup) to help round out the flavors. It was always exactly what it needed.
Well, I learned how to make the gremolata from your videos and now I add it to many different soups. I add the juice of the lemons too, not just the zest. I have started using fresh herbs more often and I invented a grated carrot and beet salad made with walnut oil, lemon juice and chopped walnuts, to which I add chopped parsley and dill, sometimes cilantro if it is fresh at the store. It’s super delicious and super good for cleansing the body.
I absolutely LOVED this video! These tips are so helpful! I’ve recently gotten more into cooking and a lot of these things I never knew or considered! Please make more of these tip/info videos! 💜
I just discovered your channel by pure coincidence, and it's the first video of yours I ever watch. You combined experience, science, common sense, psychology and culture in one educational video, not to mention how serene you sound. Many thanks.
Okay, that was a lot of info in one video, so now it’s your turn! What’s your #1 tiny tip or piece advice for someone who’s looking to improve their cooking?
.
Watch Rainbow Plant Life...
Here’s a tip that doesn’t get much discussion: write down notes for how you prepare your recipes, even if you made no changes and followed it exactly as written, write that down. You might be changing quantities to make a different number of servings, or substituting one ingredient for another, if you write it down then you will know what works (and what doesn’t) for the next time.
@@jpe1 ya agreed - also maybe during/after eating the dish too - might get some inspirations !
Thanks for sharing I learned a lot 👍🏾
I think my #1 tip is to keep your pantry and store cupboard well-stocked. Things like dried herbs, spices, nuts, rice, beans/lentils, pasta, soy sauce, lemon/lime juice, vinegars, oils, mustards, etc. You can *always* make some kind of meal with those, and you’ll have everything on hand to make fresh ingredients taste amazing. I’m a real pantry connoisseur, lol.
yes! so much of the magic in vegan cooking happens in the pantry! now if only someone could come organize my well-stocked pantry, that would be even better lol.
That was mine!! so I found a few dishes i wanted to try.... got all the ingredients.... and now I'm good-to-go. If you are ready to make about 5 or 6 different dishes, you'll have a well-stocked pantry.
I read a great article some months ago about keeping a reverse shopping list, and it's been really helpful for pantry items! I took a good 20 minutes to create a note on my phone with an exhaustive list of everything in my pantry (canned goods, dry goods, spices, refrigerated staples, etc.) and anytime I notice I'm running low on something, I highlight it in the note. Then, when I'm at the store, I just have to check to see what's needed.
Yes! This for sure! My spice cabinet is steady growing, and my pantry too!
@@RainbowPlantLife - Make me lunch or dinner and let me learn and I’ll organize your pantry! 😋
I’m a geek about organization.
Tip #1 Choose the right salt 0:20
Tip #2 Shop seasonally and locally 2:07
Tip #3 Fresh Herbs > Dried Herbs 3:06
Tip #4 Balance flavors with acids 5:04
Tip #5 Don't forget the zest 7:30
Tip #6 Invest in precision 8:53
Tip #7 Adopt a growth mindset 10:25
Tip #8 Grind your own spices 10:40
Tip #9 Season in layers 12:06
Tip #10 Taste as you go 13:18
thanks :)
One of the easiest things I've learned to do in the kitchen is to preserve lemons! It's just quartered lemons and salt. Put in a jar and leave for a few weeks. The flavor is so intense and fresh and they last for over a year! I like to add a piece to my rice when I cook it.
Yes! I wanted to save that for another video. I currently have some fermenting in my fridge :) I love the intensely lemony flavor.
I'm gonna have to try this
I love lemons! Would you mind giving instructions?
Well, I got my instructions from the New York Times. I have a Meyer lemon tree that went crazy last year and I needed different ways to use them up. So, I basically cut the lemons into wedges and stuffed them in a Mason jar, adding 1 T of salt every lemon. You just kind of press the wedges down to get the juice/salt brine to cover. Then seal the jar and let it sit for a few weeks before using. You can rinse the wedges before you use them. It's super easy to do.
@@teacherbecca526 Thank you so much! We have a lemon tree too and my father in law also gives us lemons every year and I run into the same problem. Thank you so much!
Toooooootally on the oven thermometer! After I purchased one it changed my life....and my oven's life lol. Great episode Nisha!
It sounds like it helped you cook with absolute confidence! Love your channel! 😁
Lay Ho Maan!
Lay ho ma, Wil! I'm so glad to see you here :)
My two favorite TH-cam cooks in the same space at once! ❤ Thank you both for all the recipes this past year of being at home, and helping me become a better and more CONFIDENT cook. 😊
Hmmm ... gotta look into the oven thermometer 😊. Nice tip! Thanks 🙏
I think a really important note is to never rely on recipe suggestions for heat or time at each stage. Each stove medium or even burner medium will be different, and the heating qualities of all types of pans will be different. Pasta will always cook differently than the box says. When a recipe says cook for 5 minutes or until brown, forget 5 minutes and cook until browned, even if it happens to take you 10m for some reason. If the pasta says cook for 7 minutes but you taste a piece and it's not done, then you have to cook longer than 7 minutes. Taste for texture and doneness along the way just like for flavor.
yes totally agree! every stove and oven is different and everyone is using slightly different ingredients and brands, so you have to keep an eye on it and adjust accordingly. my current stove works way differently than my last stove so I've had to adapt and adjust over time. i just made pasta yesterday and the box said 8-10 minutes but it was barely al dente at 10 minutes. that's where tasting as you go comes in handy too!
Haha yes, the pasta box is a liar. I totaly agree
Totally agree, it really annoys my kids when they ask how long it will take for something to cook - my answer is always 'until is done'
@@suzannesmith7527 tell them "as soon as you help"😅
So true! I used to just cook the pasta to the time recommended on the box. It was never done all the way. Now I cook it a little longer, and it tastes great!
Such a nice nutshell program, pulling sooo many loose-ends together.... clarifying the reasons we do what we do and emphasizing the value of doing it. Spoken like an attorney giving a convincing closing argument in a trial.
Haha maybe that former lawyer career of mine came in handy 😂 so glad you found the information useful!
My best tip is to read through the recipe the whole way through before you start cooking. Solves SO MANY POTENTIAL PROBLEMS. Do you have all the ingredients in the quantities needed? Do you have all the proper equipment, and are they clean? Are there any bottlenecks where you might need to be doing too many things at the same time? Do you need to do one thing before another? Is there any prep work that you should do before you get started (like chopping, grinding spices, marinading, preheating the oven, etc.)? I find that reading through the recipe and visualizing each step has massively increased my sense of calm in the kitchen.
So full of useful information. Not distracting music or fillers... just good cooking tips. Subscribed and loving all her recipes.
And no time wasted either. I often find myself watching TH-cam videos on high speed as people talk so slowly and pause between words so much I can get to the point/end in half the time. Appreciate this lady’s get on with it approach.
My no. 1 tip is to follow Rainbow Plant Life's recipes until you feel more comfortable adapting your own! My only warning is - if you're like me and watch your calories, cut her recipe in half because her food is so good you WILL eat the entire thing if you're cooking for yourself. I learned this the hard way when I made her banana bread recipe and ate all of it in 2 days smh
Haha this tip made me laugh. So glad you enjoy my recipes and have found a way to make them suitable to your lifestyle and needs :) The banana bread is pretty much impossible to not eat so you can't be blamed lol.
SAME I ate almost everything by myself within a much shorter time frame than I should have... the banana bread's just too good
Living far out in the country with no regular access to grocery-stores, I buy up a bunch of lemons and juice them. Portion out the juice into ice cube trays in one, two and three tablespoon amounts and freeze them. Once frozen, I transfer the lemon-cubes into baggies. I always have lemon juice for adding to recipes, dressings or drinks. I spread zest out on a plate and freeze it, (so it doesn’t clump) and then transfer it into small jelly jars or small snack bags and keep in the freezer. I do the same with fresh herbs.
I freeze many things, but haven’t yet tried lemon zest….good idea.
Great ideas! I do the same for canned tomato paste...I freeze what is leftover in ice cube trays. 🍅
That is such a great idea! Thank you 😊
A huge mistake I see lots of friends and family making is trying to edit a recipe before they know what the dish is supposed to taste like.
Its totally okay to adjust a recipe to fit your taste, but there are a lot of ingredients that add or bring out flavors that you wouldn't expect them to, so you might end up changing your dish in ways you didn't expect.
It's *good* to try new things, and part of that is going to be trying things that you may not be sure you'll like right away. Expanding your palate helps make you a better cook!
Absolutely agree, though in one other circumstance I would advocate to not be afraid to be creative with recipes, that’s if you are missing an ingredient or two for a recipe that you were excited to try ! This should not discourage you from making a dish, and I personally try to be more adaptable and not overthink it, because that’s what held me back in the beginning when I was trying to cook new dishes but sometimes didn’t have or couldn’t find some of the ingredients. The flavor was probably different but I couldn’t really tell and it kept me from not cooking at all because of my “well it’s not going to be good now” mindset.
Of course that’s more of a “complete beginner, very new to cooking” advice :)
@@n1kito Yeah, but what you're talking about is a "well, i can't make it just like that, but i'm going to try to get as close as i can" and what my family was doing was "yeah, i have all the right ingredients, but i'm going to change them out for very different things, and then complain the recipe is bad when it fails"
It's okay to switch out one kind of apple for another kind of apple, or to use peach preserves instead of orange marmalade if that's what you'd prefer... but don't swap out an onion for a potato.
@@RowanBriar Hahaha, absolutely !
I agree! I regularly get teased for following recipes to strictly, but i want to see how they turn out! I've learned so many different food and spice combos that i probably never would have tried on my own. I almost always adjust the level of salt and sugar because I find U.S. recipes use too much of both, but otherwise, i always cook as close to the recipe as possible the first time around. It has also helped me get better at eyeballing teaspoons and tablespoons when watching cooking videos
It drives me crazy to carefully write out a recipe for a friend and have them say they hated it. Wow, really? Nothing in it was bad. So I ask if they followed the directions and they'll say well, no, they added this or subtracted that. Adding in a completely, wildly different spice combination, omitting steps to make it faster, etc. One particular friend does this and I've stopped making even suggestions for their inquiries about what to do with that pork roast or whatever. It's frustrating.
I have two tips that made me a pretty decent home cook (if I do say so myself :)
1) Taste while cooking. There is no excuse for the food you prepare to be bad, bland, or too salty. Unless you really mess up and e.g. burn something, you should be able to make something that at least tastes good, even if it's not exactly what you saw in the recipe. Taste often, and adjust at every step.
2) Never let the food win. You are not a Michelin star chef cooking for snobby people, and neither are you a food blogger with a massive instagram following. No one cares how your food looks like, and you are the only judge of how it tastes like. Is the dish not behaving? Some step went different than the one shown in the recipe? Did your tortilla get stuck to the pan? Your sauce is too watery? The color or texture is off? No one cares. Don't be discouraged, and don't let the food defeat you. Use the 1st rule and make sure you finish that damned thing.
That's my rules to improve your cooking. Never don't give up, and sample your creation as often as possible to develop your cooking instincts.
You're terrific- the best there is. Somehow, despite spending hours every day on youtube, I never came across your channel, or if I did I glossed over it. Well, my bad. When it comes to vegan cooking channels, you're the pinnacle of perfection. And your dad- when he weighs in with his opinions, deeming some dish as "not pleasant"...it brings a smile to my face.
You’re too kind! I am so happy you eventually found my channel :) and so sweet you enjoy my dad’s taste tests 😆
Just to add to the salt conversation. As vegans, it's actually pretty important to use iodized salt since the most common sources of iodine are seafood and dairy. Day to day I use iodized salt but like to keep sea salt on hand for some special dishes or to crack right on top of something.
Thank you! I do have iodized sea salt that I use sometimes but didn’t include it because it felt like too much information in one video. Seaweed salads are my favorite way to get iodine, I am obsessed 😋
Very true. Iodine deficiency is becoming more common as people move away from iodized salt in the US where we don't typically eat things like seaweed daily.
@@jaminwaite3867 exactly, seaweed is great! But most people in America for example, don’t eat it often enough for it to be a consistent source of iodine.
Love this, I just think it would have been beneficial to talk about iodine intake with the salt change, because sea salt and kosher salt aren't normally iodized and iodine is pretty essential
Thank you! I had that in my video notes to include (I sometimes use iodized sea salt, but not all table salt is actually iodized, it’s confusing!) - but there was so much information in this video already I didn’t want to confuse people and overwhelm with information.
The idea that we need to get any trace minerals from a non-naturally occurring product, is laughable. Gee, how did our ancestors ever survive without iodized table salt? Pure marketing
@@TheRealHonestInquiry the reason for many illnesses in the past were lack of certain nutrients. In Germany, people had a lot of hypothyroidism, leading to an enlarged throat that was hidden by clothing. As someone with hypothyroidism, iodized salt is very important for my health.
@@TheRealHonestInquiry Because it's almost never added-iodine-or-death, and because nutrition sources of humanity have changed over the last few millenia. It's put into salt to help those
People are putting too much trust into doctors and scientists who nowadays only seek to keep the patients ill and treat only the symptoms of an illness but not the actual illness itself, because their profit would not be as high anymore. The same for farmaceutical companies who are being funded by billionaires and big corporations (doctors and scients consequently as well). Perhaps science and medicine cared once about the wellbeing of the people, but that is not the case anymore. I've been through so many doctors who stuffed me with poisonous medicine and only made my health condition worse. As soon I stopped visiting them and started taking care of my body by myself, I improved. Science is not what it used to be anymore.
keep in mind for the lemon/lime zest that sometimes a protective layer is applied to the fruit. Not in every fruit, but it can be. You really need to clean them or just by some without it :)
I appreciate you talking about the failures. I always thought I couldn’t cook, but have slowly accepted that mistakes lead to learning. It’s encouraging to hear that even very experienced cooks still try things that don’t work.
trying to cut every vegetable the same size (mainly for salads, curry's etc.) and cooking in phases; not adding every ingredient at the same time, but take notice of their cooking time. (think about what ingredients you use and why, do you want it to be cruncy; cook it, want it to be soft boil it, decide when to add the to the dish or add it seperate)
Also following a recipe a few times until you kind of do your own thing with it, and its assimilated. It also helps to understand certain combinations that countries use for their regional dishes. It made it a lot easier for me to wing some dishes knowing what kinds of herbs or vegetables are used in certain countries.
I think this was very well done. As someone who has been cooking for 10 years and is always looking for something new and to improve, this video was extremely helpful.
My #1 tip is to read through every recipe well and then write it down in a way you best understand. This always helps me to really absorb the recipe and its steps, but also creates a better flow when it's in my own words.
Great tips! We don't have a lot of citrus in our climate, but in addition to vinegars and wines, a traditional way to add some fruity tarty acid is using the juice of sour apples. It's not as sour and way fruitier than apple cider vinegar so I love using it in desserts like carrot cake or apple muffins, and also to finish raw dishes and salads. Love from Slovakia!
How interesting! I’m not sure I’ve ever had a sour apple, I’ll have to look into whether they’re available here. Thanks for sharing!
That sound very interesting . I'll have to keep my eye open for that .
I love this video! I am a true foodie and this will help me so much in the kitchen!
My best tip would be one my mami gave me. When making pasta, don't discard all the water you boiled it in. When you add your sauce it may need thinning and the starchy water makes the pasta sause so silky and just yummy! We make potato based pasta in Slovakia a lot and the water from it is simply divine even for soups and sauces, it makes a huge difference to the creaminess of the food. Lots of love from Slovakia 🇸🇰❤
I'm Italian and I confirm this is a good tip indeed 😊 we often sautée pasta in the sauce with a small amount of cooking water, it helps them bonding
Started eating vegan with making your vegan red lentil curry ! I even shared some with my family and my girlfriends family and they loved it!
I’m so flattered to hear that this recipe started you on a path towards eating a vegan diet!
NISHA I AM DYING AT THE ACID PART LMAO
haha glad you appreciated it!
@@RainbowPlantLife I choked on the coffee i was drinking.
Totally caught me off-guard!
I am taking sooo many notes here. One of the BEST cooking channels on TH-cam. Period.
If you live in Germany or somewhere where you can't find kosher salt, try searching for rock salt. It often comes in bigger pieces so you have to grind it yourself, but after some research I came to the conclusuion it's just the same! Rock salt is raw, unprocessed and without any substitutions, just like kosher salt. I found mine at Edeka, I think most bigger supermarkets have it.
My tip for cooking with herbs: Try to sprout your own ones! Especially store bought basil dies after a few weeks because the pot has too much seeds in it. Homegrown basil tastes way better and also saves money 😊
What I usually do with the grocery store pot is break it into 3-4 different pots. It's super easy to do and within a few weeks you have loads of fresh herbs (I usually use, basil, but the same applies for parsley and such). I'm too impatient to grow it from seed, so I definitely recommend it!
Danke!
If you use non-iodized salt you can possibly run into iodine deficiency depending on your diet. Before salt was iodized, deficiency was very common. An iodine deficiency causes lowered IQ in children as well as thyroid problems in all age groups. Since iodine is found in large quantities in fish, eggs and dairy products, it is pretty important for vegans to use iodized salt or make an effort to eat foods with iodine like seaweed, potatoes, Lima beans, etc. I found a kosher salt that is iodized, so we use that.
@@mygirldarby Thanks for the addition! I actually have both at home, stone salt and iodized salt 😊
Thanks for clarifying. German me has always been so confused by the term kosher salt. I mean what's not kosher about normal salt? 😂
Building off the acid point, it's a really good way to lighten the feel of a dish if there's a lot of oil. Acid will cut through the strong oils and fats and will open up the other flavors of the meal.
Definitely agree! Great for tomato-based dishes like pasta sauces or curries.
What a fantastic video, thank you! 🙏🏼 My tip is to buy spices from an Indian grocer. The variety is so much greater, the quality and freshness better, and the pricing is often lower. Mx
Yes, i love this tip! There are countless options and the prices are so reasonable!
When I learned about balancing a dish with acid, that completely changed my cooking game. Great video!
Just some extra info to tip no. 5. That's the one about the zest. Always make sure, your lemon/lime is bio! Many people use regular ones, but you shouldn't because they are treated with pesticides.
I just incorporated seasoning in layers in my cooking and it is truly a game changer 😭😭 Thanks so much for the advice! Also started to use more fresh herbs. Best advice ever!
Great Lesson -- And I LOVE your channel. It's the best. I wouldn't question your tips about salt, but iodine is a necessary element for human health. If you don't eat out frequently or eat much processed food, you won't get enough. I recently found I had a thyroid condition, and just adding more iodized salt makes a world of difference.
agreed! and not just a weekly amount of seaweed but daily consumption in sufficient amounts, iodized salt, or supplementation.
Yes! Especially acidic components are so underrated. I learned how to cook fresh vegetables at home from my mom who has been cooking vegetarian whole foods ever since i was little. My friends will come over for dinner and be so surprised about how i make veggies people often don´t like taste so great when I´m really such a lazy cook. I mostly just use an oil that compliments the vegetable, salt and pepper, maybe some vegetable stock and one or two dried herbs and the thing that makes it work is the right type of acid. White wine for kale, balsamic vinegar for brussel sprouts, lemon for beetroots and so on.
You know you’ve made it when you fancy salts for special occasions... hehe. Love the tips!
Haha and there are so many fancy salts I didn’t even get to in this video. Thanks Nicole!
I use hymalaian pink salt and really enjoy !
Flaked sea salt is life 🥰
Geez, you explain everything so logically. Your flowing sincerity is like your dishes, really grounded.
So many great tips...I need to come back and review this again later. I love using smoked paprika. Whenever I add to savory dishes, people are so amazed at how good it is. My mom taught me that it is the "secret ingredient"
My number one thing was the realization that it's ok to write in my cookbooks. It might seem obvious, but there's no way I would remember that I only used 1/4 tsp of this or baked that 10 min longer. I mark up all of my recipes now, making notes of what I did & what I want to try next time.
Some herbs can be grown yourself, if you're willing to do a little work and wait. Even if you don't have a garden, there are lots that do fine in pots! Chives in particular I've had a lot of luck with, and they're almost impossible to kill. The ones in our garden don't properly die till December, and they usually regrow to a usable length by mid-February.
Hi Nisha, I just bought the Salt Fat Acid Heat book and I've been learning so much! In fact, it would be perfect if not for how prominent a role meat, dairy, and eggs plays in it. For someone who's been vegan a long time, there are hard-to-avoid parts that are gross and disturbing-the delicious result obtained by fattening animals up before we kill them etc. etc. This is not confined to meat chapters and sections, which you can skip, but randomly thrown in throughout the book, such as when explaining how fat works. And I can't use most of the practice recipes! It would be so much better value if all the space devoted to meat, dairy, and eggs were given to things vegans eat. All this to say: Is there any cooking textbook out there that does anything remotely similar for plant-based cooking? And if not, can you write it??!
Loved this!! I’ve been trying to shop more at my farmers market, been loving it so far can’t believe the difference in quantity of fresh produce/veggies
Yay, that’s awesome! It really makes a big difference and better for the environment and local economy :)
Tasting as you go was the best advice I got from my mum. Fresh ingredients are never the same. You could get really sweet tomatoes at the market, in that case, adjust with acid, sometimes they could be sour so you should add sugar etc.
When you live in the Midwest fresh stuff isn't available for many months...it's frustrating when chefs from warm climates tell you that your cooking isn't good without fresh food...i would give anything for a real tomato most months of the year
It may seem counterintuitive, but I would recommend trying canned foods. I thought I HATED tomatoes after I bought them from the grocery store and tried to use them in a dish -- they were completely inedible and ruined the food -- but now I use canned diced tomatoes, and the quality is so much better. They're packaged at peak ripeness, so the flavor is awesome. I'm in Missouri, so I feel the struggle!
Same. I live in the UK and most of our produce is imported so it gets picked before it’s ripe as it needs to transport. Our tomatoes for example are so flavourless and watery. Farmers markets aren’t that common here and they’re also not that reliable, in my experience they tend to come and go and as another commenter said they’re often just reselling wholesale stuff rather than actual local produce. Even if I splash out and buy organic farm box produce it’s really hard to find great quality great tasting fruit and vegetables here.
Great idea: freezing herbs in cubes with oil! I've got some dill in the kitchen...ready to go! Thanks, love all of these!
This reminds me of the Salt Fat Acid Heat mini-series I watched on Netflix. Highly reccomend it (also has a book for more depth) it really helped my creativity in the kitchen.
I'm flattered! Yes, I mentioned her book in the tip about balancing flavors with acids - I've learned SO much from that book!
@@RainbowPlantLife so refreshing to read a cookbook teach you how to cook, not what to cook.
I stumbled across this video. I like veggies but also like meat but with the rising prices of meat have been looking at more filling vegetable dishes for my family. I think I could convince them with your recipes to not just look at vegetables as a side dish. They do eat veggies just not as much as I do. And by accident I learned about how different salts taste. Some one gave me kosher salt and I had always used pink h. Salt but when I used the kosher on a dish I made once a week wow did it kick it up a notch. Thank you for posting and I'm excited to try some of your dishes they all looked mouth watering.
You’re the most inspiring and accessible person I’ve seen to give motivation to cook (well) more ❤️ thank you for all you do!
☺️ I am flattered! So happy my videos are giving you motivation to cook more!
Even when drinking coffee you can add a pinch of salt to mellow out the bitterness.
....do you?
@@claretravels783 yes most of the time but it's really easy to overdo
salted honey coffee>>>>> the touch of sweetness n salt add so much!!
I became plant-based for ethical reasons, and I could not be happier! I still eat meat and dairy, but in lower quantities and I have managed to stop supporting the industry completely by buying them from a farm about 15 minutes away from me that I never knew existed. Thank you for inspiring me with more vegan recipes, Nisha. God bless!
Thank you for sharing Ava! So happy that my recipes have helped you to move to a more ethical plant based lifestyle ❤️❤️
Why not go fully plant-based? Those small farm animals come from the same industry you are trying to avoid.
@@ajvintage9579 the farm I buy from is a family owned farm which cares more about the welfare of the animals than the profits. I am working to become more plant based, however it is difficult as I have no supermarkets near me living in a small village. If i have to eat meat, I’d rather support a local farm where I can go and see the cow that supplied my dairy than supporting a company that takes calves away from their mums to be slaughtered.
When I figured out adding acid to tomato-based sauces it was an absolute gamechanger. And totally agree on cooking tomato paste before adding the rest - I used to just plop it in to thicken sauces but now I love how it adds that sweetness.
This is so sophisticated yet simple yet I still have to watch it like three times and take notes 😅 thank you. You also have such an angelic voice
I'm 6 minutes into the video and am STUNNED at how comprehensive this is. Subscribed today. Thank you for such thoughtful and high quality content!!!!
i'm cool with table salt, since it's produced locally around where I live and honestly can't say I prefer another kind of salt. I hardly use salt, except for cooking starches. I usually do more of a mix of salt, boullion seasoning, soy sauce, miso.. you name it, I use it to add saltyness
I have a lot of dried spices and herbs on hand, most of the pre-ground. An easy tip to bring them to life is just to sear them lightly on their own in some fat before adding anything else to the pot. I often do this with baking as well, just adding whatever spices used to the melted butter before adding it all to the batter helps improve any spiced cake.
Wow, I never had any interest with eating plant based, but I stumbled into this video and found it super interesting and I loved the way you explain things, your recipes look amazing and I am dying to try them all.
A chef once recommended me to heat your oils and spices in the pan slightly until the aromas came out before you added any other ingredients - totally levelled up my stir fries, curries and fajitas!
Wow - I feel upgraded - and also more conscience why I'm doing certain things in the kitchen
so nice to hear that. thanks for sharing, James!
I learned a lot of good stuff from my mom:
* Homemade stock is really worth putting in a dish because you can just put so many flavor layers in just a stock. I started saving the odds and ends from chopping up vegetables, you can even save like onion and garlic peels, and I even freeze like chicken/beef/ham bones/shrimp shells from whenever I cook meat on the bone. Really brings a whole lot of life to soup especially...made a split pea and ham bone soup that was amazing. You can just stick it all in a crockpot, set it, forget it, and use it the next day for a meal.
*She did mention this, but steeped oils, like herb+chili oil, really brightens up a dish. I have these steeped Italian seasoning herb oil cubes in the freezer I break out anytime I make meatballs or other Italian-American dishes.
* My mom found that soaking her own beans allowed her to season them better and they just have a lot more nice texture to them.
When I cook I like to try new things! I don’t put a lot of pressure on myself and I always try to search what went wrong! For example yesterday we made homemade ravioli with fish, ricotta and lemon. They said to only put the zest of the lemon put when we tasted it we realized that It needed something more! So we added the lemon juice as well and it was delicious! My tip is to go slow, try something new when you are ready! I just started to make my own pasta, I love it and I’m getting better at it! I do simple shape but I’m going to try next time to do something a little bit more complicated !
not putting pressure on yourself is so important to making cooking enjoyable! And making your own pasta sounds like so much fun :)
@@RainbowPlantLife Yes and it’s really easy! I was so scared by the idea of making it before because I thought it was so much work! For Christmas I received a rolling machine and it does all the work for you really ^^ I make the dough (I’m not vegan so I use eggs but you can use water too) you knead the dough for 10 minutes until it’s smooth and after an hour of rest you put it into the rolling machine and it makes pasta shapes ! I only have spaghetti, fettuccine and lasagna shape but it helps a lot!
You should try it really easy, it just takes some time to get used to it! I love a channel on TH-cam called pasta grannies! It’s Italian women making pasta and it’s just so relaxing to watch!
@@didierangelique8288 thanks for the tip! Need to make space for a pasta maker in my kitchen first 😂
I started cooking last year (couldn't keep living off frozen/processed foods forever) and the discovery of fresh herbs opened a whole new world to me. How can one small leaf pack so much flavor? I rarely use dried herbs anymore. Thanks for your video! I'll definitely consider these tips when cooking.
that clip of him saying " there's something else in here" got 'em! lol. I love stumping people with flavor like this.
NIsha is such a Queen! I didn't know she used to be a lawyer and I think her journey to doing what she loves now is so amazing!
Honestly, this video is why I always recommend you, your content, and your book when people say they want to go more plant-based!
Freshly ground spices are superior to pre-ground spices. I was using pre-ground cinnamon in my cookie recipes and when I added freshly ground cinnamon the flavor level went up a couple notches!!!!!! Amazing.
anything that gets an approving "there's something else in here" from a father has to be good!
hahaha yes! he takes his food very seriously. that's from my last video on hummus if you're interested :)
The thing about sodium and having too much - several studies conclude that (apart from processed/fast food as mentioned) a useful strategy is to back off for a while and acclimate to less salty food (I think it only take 2 weeks or so?), then ensure you only season while cooking and keep the salt off your kitchen table. The gist of it is that heaps of people take reasonably seasoned foods then over-salt them at the table, sometimes adding up to like 1/4 of the daily allotment of sodium in a single meal to food that already contained enough sodium.
Anyway, great point about processed foods, I figured I'd just add that tidbit. Get in the habit of salting once while cooking, stop salting while eating.
So glad you followed your passion and shared it online. Have been mostly plant based for couple years now but your teaching will take me to the next level. Just received your Instant Pot book! Cooking vegan meals the right way are simply incredible and those who don’t are simply missing out. Keep up the great and inspiring work. Appreciate what you do, many thanks!
Thank you thank you! I’m so happy you have my cookbook now! Can’t wait to see what you make!
1. Use kosher salt or sea salt
2. Buy seasonal food locally
3. Use fresh herbs instea of dried
4. Balance flavor with acid
5. Use citrus zest
6. Invest in balance and thermometer
7. Adopt a growth mindset
8. Grind your own spices
9. Season in layers
10. Taste as you go
This video came at the right time. I''m still on my comfort food winter/ cozy weather diet consisting of vegan pizza and oily noodles. Now my joy in cooking is stimulated again! Makes me want to go buy some kale right now and try to make an aromatic salad! Thanks
I’ve had my fair share of vegan pizza this past winter too! Glad this video reinvigorated your joy for cooking!!
I got a timer that times four items. Been a big help. Agree on the scale and thermometer. Just found your channel this week. I will trying your ideas this weekend.
I always eat with every meal steamed spinach, Ceylon cinnamon, ginger and steamed beets.
I have a lazy Susan in the middle of the kitchen table with glass jars of CAYENNE, nutritional yeast, mixed fried herbs, Hemp seeds, pumpkin seeds, walnuts, almonds, black seed, olive oil, zaater, pink Himalayan salt and DIGESTIVE ENZYMES. We sprinkle any or many of these items on our meals for extra nutritional value. Thank God for the blessings.
Yes to all! But especially flavoring as you go and adding a touch of acid if something is missing. We do this all the time for soups. If I can’t figure out what it’s missing, I’ll toss in a splash of apple cider vinegar. It usually does the trick.
Yes, exactly! I did that just yesterday with a pot of black beans. Added a few squeezes of lime and it was the perfect touch.
Had to Google what kosher salt is as it's not really a thing here in the UK but I hear of Americans speaking of it a lot! Love a good sprinkle of Maldon or Fleur de sel as a finishing salt 🥰
maldon is salt is the best!
I love videos like these, straight info, no fluff, lots of clips to show examples. Thank you!
I'm so glad you mentioned the growth mindset. I've read the book many times and even coach others on their mindset (in building an art business) and I tend to forget that it applies to all areas of life. Thanks for reminding me that I can actually become better at cooking 😁
My one-two punch that helped me get good at the plant based life I now lead is you and @plantifulkiki She does a marvelous job of keeping it simple because she doesn't really like to cook, and you make it more complex but sensible. Between the two of you, I am covered. So following the right examples on social media, stocking the pantry, and having basic tools.. sharp knife, good cutting boards, tongs, kitchen scissors, and good nonstick cookware.
Love your channel so much! Thanks for inspiring me to become more plant based! Hope you and everyone else has a lovely day ❤️
You’re too kind! So nice to hear that you’re inspired to eat more plants!
Me after one (1) day of binging Nisha’s videos, having discovered her channel this morning: As you can see, I’ve added some lemon zest to the instant ramen noodles to add some depth to the flavor through the citrus and contrast the umami of the soy sauce.
I picked up a bunch of these just from cooking your recipes! It has made me a 10x better home cook. Looking forward to rounding out my skills by integrating the other tips, thank you Nisha!
i'm so glad to hear that! that is my goal so i'm always pleased to see/hear that it's working!
#1 for me is mise en place. If all my ingredients arent ready to go when i start, cooking is a mess. Especially if its my first time with a new recipe.
Good tip on the oven thermometer :)
If one swaps-out their (usually Iodised) table salt for sea salt, which I have done, Iodine needs to be added to their diet - and kelp is the perfect product. Iodine is needed for proper thyroid function.
Love the richness in your foods made the Sheppard pie and then made the lentil part again to freeze in portions for myself . I bake or boil a couple of small potatoes and voila I have my meal! I even add some kale or spinach to it to get some extra greens in and you can't taste them ! Ty big love♡
That’s such a great idea. The lentil filling freezes so well and adding greens is always a win!
If you use kosher salt, how do you get iodine in your diet? I remember learning that iodized food salt is an important way of getting iodine which is important for your thyroid. Might be what makes it taste metallic as well.
Seafood. Also I keep table salt by the table because I sometimes want more
I take a iodine supplement.
If you eat a Western diet you should use table salt fortified with Iodine, or you should take a supplement. You should only feel comfortable in your Iodine intake if you eat a significant amount of salt water fish/ seaweed.
Really great tips! Never thought I needed an oven thermometer, always end up lowering the temperature when roasting veggies. New oven thermometer is life changing!👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾Thank you!
I’ve recently become obsessed with your videos and I spotted an East Fork Pottery bowl in this one and it made me so happy! We love a conscious living queen!
So happy you're enjoying my videos! Love east fork - both their pottery and their values!
Thank you for saying "go to a farmer's market if you have one." So many people I see who make recipes say, "Take out your Vitamix..." "Go to Whole Foods/your local farmer's market" and stuff that I can't do. It's not a big deal, but thanks anyway😊👍
These tips are great, will definitely be coming back to this video for future reference!
Just wanted to say a thank you for all your recipes; there aren't a lot of vegan options in my area so I've been cooking at home, and your spiced red lentil and sweet potato curry is a weekly regular for me now 🙏✨
That’s wonderful to hear! So happy my recipes are coming in handy for you!
love this she is so right. a lot of people don't tell you these things and since I'm from the country I tend to do a lot of these things so times people are afraid to experiment. loved her tips shes right in a lot of ways
I think this might be your best video yet. Not only are you a joy to watch, this was an exceptionally helpful video.
Hey Nisha, this was a fun video. Could you make a video about your favourite cooking utensils/equipment?
Hi Tara, love that idea. I hope to make that video in the future!
I use the Celtic sea salt and I love it! The Celtic is from France, is very clean and pure and has other beneficial minerals in it. P.S. I think you should make a hair video or two! Your hair is so healthy & pretty 💕
I use it too, I love it. However it does not have iodine in it so important to get from other sources.
@@hb4196 true! Himalayan does!
I love that you did this topic. Honestly, when I think of YOU specifically, this is what sets you apart and is a special Nisha thing (well and your fun goofy side, too.) Gremolata blew my mind and truly upleveled soups and your sharing and use of all these tips are just fantastic!
i watched one video of yours where you talked about layering flavours and instantly levelled up. i can’t wait to implement these!
Just discovered this channel and I am excited to explore more of the content. There was so much great information in this video, some I knew some I didn't but I came away inspired to challenge myself and apply the tips more often and to try some new things! Thanks :)
That's awesome to hear you found it informative and I hope it will inspire you to try new things in the kitchen!
When I worked in a restaurant I was in charge of making soup of the day, my chef always would taste it before it was approved for the customers. If it was missing a bit of depth my chef would always tell me to add a couple tablespoons of Miso Paste(white brown or red depending on the flavors of soup) to help round out the flavors. It was always exactly what it needed.
"no, not that acid" lollll your humor.
hehe thank you!
Well, I learned how to make the gremolata from your videos and now I add it to many different soups. I add the juice of the lemons too, not just the zest. I have started using fresh herbs more often and I invented a grated carrot and beet salad made with walnut oil, lemon juice and chopped walnuts, to which I add chopped parsley and dill, sometimes cilantro if it is fresh at the store. It’s super delicious and super good for cleansing the body.
I absolutely LOVED this video! These tips are so helpful! I’ve recently gotten more into cooking and a lot of these things I never knew or considered! Please make more of these tip/info videos! 💜
I'm so glad you loved this video, Abby! Thanks for your feedback!
I've never in my life wanted to eat lentils, watching @3:17 and I must have this recipe! That looks AMAZING 🤩
Hi Sarah, check out my "3 delicious lentil recipes" video from last year - it's the first recipe in that video!
I got here by accident i dont know who this woman is but just know that i am now in love with her
Same!
@Jeetali Prasad it is!
@Jeetali Prasad i know!! she's amazing
I just discovered your channel by pure coincidence, and it's the first video of yours I ever watch. You combined experience, science, common sense, psychology and culture in one educational video, not to mention how serene you sound. Many thanks.