\u201cI don\u2019t like to cook, I wish I did.\u201d I can\u2019t tell you how many times I\u2019ve heard this phrase uttered from the mouth of someone who has just found out I\u2019ve dedicated my professional life to food and cooking. I\u2019ve learned to pry into the cooking habits\/attempts of these individuals to suss out the reason for their dislike of time in the kitchen. It\u2019s almost always the same reason…they don\u2019t consider themselves good at the task.<\/p>\n

Here, in a few easy steps, is how you can put away the excuse and become a brilliant home cook.<\/p>\n

\n
1. Choose quality equipment. I cringe when I see a home cook using a dull knife on a cutting board that is slipping all over the place. Of course you hate cooking if you have to battle with your equipment! Investing in a few essentials will make your kitchen a happier place. Prioritize a sharp chef\u2019s knife, a sturdy cutting board, one heavy-bottomed pot with a fitted lid, and one heavy-bottomed wide-mouthed pan.<\/li>\n
2. Define what you like to eat. I love roasted vegetables, particularly sweet potatoes and beets. They\u2019re easy to make, yet any meal they appear in seems special to me.<\/li>\n
3. Make it a point to have leftovers. Those roasted vegetables I like so much will taste great in the green or grain salads, soups and stir-frys I make throughout the week.<\/li>\n
4. Learn a few basic recipes by heart. Start with roasted chicken, basil pesto, salad vinaigrette, saut\u00e9ed mushrooms and an egg dish such as omelette or Italian frittata. You\u2019ll be amazed how much your cooking improves with these techniques under your belt. And, you\u2019ll find yourself falling in love with cooking in no time.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

   \nMarci Cornett is a (mostly) plant-based chef who promotes health-supportive cuisine and the development of sustainable food systems. After graduating from the Natural Gourmet Institute in New York, she worked in several professional kitchens including the renowned vegetarian restaurant, Cafe Paradiso, in Cork City, Ireland. She develops and publishes nourishing recipes and writes about the latest thinking concerning nutrition and food issues on her blog, marcicornett.com<\/a>. Connect with her on Facebook<\/a> and Twitter<\/a><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

   \u201cI don\u2019t like to cook, I wish I did.\u201d I can\u2019t tell you how many times I\u2019ve heard this phrase uttered from the mouth…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":2918,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[405],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.cakenwhiskey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/home-cook.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cakenwhiskey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2917"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cakenwhiskey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cakenwhiskey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cakenwhiskey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cakenwhiskey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2917"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.cakenwhiskey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2917\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2919,"href":"http:\/\/www.cakenwhiskey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2917\/revisions\/2919"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cakenwhiskey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cakenwhiskey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cakenwhiskey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cakenwhiskey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}