Ever since I have started gaining some loyal readers of the blog, I get asked these questions a lot – How does simple food taste so good? How do you make such tasty food at home so easily?

My friends and family members who know my cooking style have also asked me this question several times. So I thought about it and understood how cooking is a misunderstood concept. A lot of people I speak to are intimidated by the idea of cooking a meal at home. This is either because it seems like a time-consuming task or because they think it is way too much effort.

My cooking style is mostly quick and simple meals, but one thing that I cannot compromise on is flavor. I mean that’s the whole point of this exercise right? Food needs to taste good. It’s great if the food looks stunning on a plate, but until and unless the flavors are right, everything is more or less a waste.

So here are my two cents on how you can make tasty food at home every single time. These are very basic but mostly forgotten tips. You might already be knowing all of them but may have somehow not thought of it too much.

Whatever be the case, what I can assure is that you do not need too much oil, spice or cheese to make your food taste good. Just keep the following points in mind. And start slow, one step at a time.

1. Use fresh spices

This is a major secret for making tasty food at home. Well not really a secret but a lot of flavors that emanate from simple food come from the spices that are freshly ground or prepared at home.

For instance, almost 95 percent of all the spices I have in my kitchen pantry has been powdered at home. Be it cumin, black pepper, coriander or garam masala, I get the whole spices from the market and then powder them at home. A slight dry roasting on a pan before grinding it brings out the maximum flavor. Too lazy? So am I. Which is why I make large batches at one time which lasts me for at least two months, and I keep refilling them with time.

The flavor of fresh spices or masalas is just divine. You do not even need to work too hard because the freshness and aroma of powdered spices at home will do the work of adding extra punch and flavor. So stop buying packaged spices and start grinding masalas at home!

2. Limit (or totally abandon) preservatives

You know what I hate the most? Frozen vegetables, processed foods, and packaged pastes and sauces. They just feel so artificial in my mouth. And processed foods are known to have carcinogenic elements in them. Not to mention how awful they taste.

So if I decide to make a peas pulao, I will buy fresh peas from the market, peel them and then use them for the recipe instead of buying a large packet of frozen peas. And that makes a huge difference, not just in terms of taste, but also to my health. I believe in using fresh ingredients to the maximum of my ability.

So next time you have to put ginger and garlic paste in your chicken curry, do not buy a readymade version from the market. I know it sounds way to easy to do that, but it will never give you the taste that freshly made ginger and garlic paste would give. Once you start using everything fresh in your cooking, you will get used to it and never go back to buying stuff full of preservatives. And that would be a good habit!

3. Use seasonal produce

I know we live in a world where Instagram gives us major food goals. Avocado toast, blueberry cheesecakes, passion fruit smoothies – ah the list is endless. And indulging in these foods once in a while is also a great idea. But in India, since most of these things will be imported (and outrageously expensive), it does not make sense to eat them on a regular basis. Instead, eat what is in season and what grows around where you live. The same rule applies to whichever part of the world you live in.

There are four advantages to eating seasonally. First, you eat the healthiest of produce because it is according to the crop cycle. Second, you save money because seasonal and local food is available in abundance so it is highly affordable. Third, you help local farmers by buying their products and supporting their livelihood. And lastly, seasonal produce simply tastes the best! Just think about mangoes in Indian summer, pumpkins during Halloween and spinach in winter. Such bliss!

Anything that does not fall in the seasonal produce category will not give you the best taste. So try to be sensitive to your local surroundings and eat accordingly. And you will get great tasting every time.

4. Keep an eye on the temperature

Different kinds of recipes require different techniques. I will state the most common ones here. First up is oil. If you are frying something in oil, wait for the oil to get hot. This is mostly the case with really pungent oils like mustard oil or ghee used in Indian cooking. The temperature of the stove will also range between high to medium in cases like an Indian chicken korma recipe.

However, if you are using butter to make a pasta, you will have to use medium heat. I do not fry the garlic when the butter is too hot. Instead, I let the garlic infuse into the fat so that the butter gets a beautiful and non-burnt garlic flavor, that eventually spreads to the entire pasta recipe.

Cooking is an art and it requires constant monitoring. Keep a check on the temperature you use. If you are a novice, follow the recipe to the T. Techniques will vary and the way you apply that knowledge will determine how good or bad your recipe turns out to be.

5. Invest in good cookware

I know this might sound weird but trust me, it’s important. The market is flooded with so many different varieties of cookware. Shiny metallic surfaces, bright colors and so many advertisements make it very appealing.

But cooking in the wrong vessel can not only deplete taste but also make you fall sick.

I personally like to cook in traditional cookware, made of iron or good quality stainless steel. I never use plastic to store my food, and I also refrain from using non-stick pans and pots. They might look pretty but the Teflon layer on them is not the healthiest layer to cook food on. And most of them do not last.

So invest in good quality cookware. It might cost you slightly more, but it will last you forever. And you will not have to compromise on the health of taste.

As an example, I never cook Indian curries in a non-iron kadhai. A traditional vessel is needed to bring out the authentic flavors of a dish. So go ahead and buy the right cookware for your kitchen.

6. Garnish at the right time

I share a lot of Indian food on my blog and Instagram handle, where I always add garam masala in the end. I get asked this question a lot – why in the end? That’s because the ingredients in a garam masala, primarily cardamom, clove, and cinnamon (along with a few others) are powerful in terms of flavor, but have a tendency to evaporate if added too early into the process. And because I really enjoy the zing that a fresh garam masala adds to a dish, I add it right at the end.

The truth is a garnish can make or break a dish. Depending upon what you are adding to your dish, you need to know the timing of the garnish.

The same goes for herbs. If you are using hardy herbs such as thyme or kaffir lime in your dish, you can add it early and let it cook with the rest of your ingredients. This will let it infuse its flavor into the recipe as it cooks with time. However, for something such as coriander leaves or basil, you need to add it right in the end because they are very delicate and their flavor and color will get lost if added too early in the recipe.

6. Cook with love, and share!

This might sound too cliche but it is so true! Cooking is therapy to me and a lot of other people. It lets me be creative, enjoy wonderful flavors, keep learning and most importantly, share the joy with people I love.

You will notice the difference. Just imagine a time when you cooked with a lot of enthusiasm versus one time when you just cooked to stop your stomach from grumbling. When you cook for others or yourself in a good and happy mood, the energy passes on to the food as well. And it gives it those extra brownie points because when you cook with love, you are more aware of the cooking process and you give it your best.

Share your food and call your friends over for a feast. Because food is best enjoyed when shared with loved ones. And the compliments will make your day!

I hope this post inspires you to cook your own food and limit the use of preservatives. Do let me know what you think of this and you can always ask me any questions that you might have. I am also open to discussions in the comments section.

Connect with me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.

You can find all my recipe videos on YouTube.

Happy cooking!

Related – 4 Hard to Ignore Benefits of Cooking at Home

Let’s face it. We are a generation that is super distracted (thank you internet and social media), always busy, supremely ambitious, and of course, hard pressed for time. We are also blessed with a plethora of food options, with zillions of apps wooing us into trying their services every single hour. We are definitely spoilt for choice when it comes to choosing what to eat.

If you think about it, our parents never ate out as much as we do. Because eating out before the internet came into our lives meant actually stepping out of the house, or at least making a call to a nearby restaurant. Also, homecooked meals are always valued more among that generation than the millennials or the baby boomers. These options along with a crazy lifestyle are hampering our health because we mostly opt for ordering in or eating out.

I get it. It is not easy to plan meals or cook every single day with the kind of lives that we have. But I would like to tell you that cooking is also not impossible. I know so many people who are just tired of eating out every single day, tired of compromising on their health and spending shit loads of money on food they probably do not even enjoy so much anymore. The joy of a homecooked meal is something that cannot be compared to a quick snack. You all know what I am saying, right?

Most importantly – cooking is a survival skill. It is not about interest here. I know people would argue, that if I cannot dance, you cannot force me to become a dancer. If I do not like cooking, you cannot force me to learn it. But, you do not need to dance to survive. But you do need to eat. And the sooner you realize this, the easier and better it becomes.

Not just this, there are so many benefits of cooking your own food! It does require proper planning, but like every good habit, it requires some practice and inspiration.

Cooking equates to happiness for me. It is, in fact, my meditative therapy. Home cooking has always been a good thing, the only sustainable practice which not only fills our bellies with food but also fills our heart and soul with contentment and joy.

So here are the top benefits of homecooking.

    1. It will help you save tons of money

I cannot even begin to tell you how much money you are going to save if you eat in. I am sure you already know how much eating out on a regular basis makes your pockets empty. When we go out to eat, we do not only pay a heavy price for the food, we also end up paying so many different kinds of taxes. For someone like me who cooks on a daily basis, I actually feel the huge amount of profits that lie in every single plate of food that restaurants sell. You can make the same meal at home for less than half the cost most of the times.

Let me explain with a personal example. I love pasta. While there are a very few places that actually serve good pasta, I do have one favorite place which I visit from time to time. As delicious as their kinds of pasta are, they are also outrageously expensive. A simple plate of Aglio Olio costs me about 600 INR (about $8.10).

Now if I break this down, the amount of spaghetti served in the restaurant for one person would be about 80g. Along with this, the ingredients are olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, and some fresh herbs. Now if I cook the same thing at home, firstly, I can get an entire packet of 500g spaghetti for as less as 120 INR. Which means 80g spaghetti would cost me about 20 INR. Also, 500 g would easily serve seven happy and hungry bellies. The amount of olive oil needed in the quantity served in a restaurant is about two to three tablespoons. If I buy a 250ml olive oil bottle, it will give me about 17 tablespoons for just INR 300. So basically one tablespoon will be about INR 35, so the cost of the olive oil in making one plate of Aglio Olio is about 70 INR. Let’s add another 50 INR for the garlic, salt, pepper, and herbs. So the actual cost of the plate is made at home is 20+70+50 = 140 INR! And I paid 600 INR! The difference is huge!

So think again before you eat out if you are on a financial crunch. You can make so many more plates of Aglio Olio at home at the same price. While I do agree that it’s chef made and the ambient experience also matters, but now at least you know the difference.

    2. It will keep you healthy

There is an explosion of food categories that we are constantly exposed to, ranging from healthy bars to cereals that promise to make us slim, fibre-rich biscuits. But the truth is – any kind of processed or packaged food remains questionable on the health quotient. Some of the things you are likely to find in the food that you don’t cook are partially hydrogenated oils, titanium dioxide, artificial colours, adulterated spices, sodium nitrate, and nitrite, to name a few.

I personally have a problem trusting packaged food that claims to be healthy. The health market has exploded with so many options, that claim to transform our bodies in a span of days or weeks. But more often than not, these products end up wrecking what we already have. There is just so much sugar in fizzy drinks, or so much salt and trans fat in chips or packaged snacks.

We are also aware of the consequences of junk food, and we know deep down that we should not consume too much of it. Do you even feel happy after eating those cookies or gulping down that soda? Even if you do, I’m sure you do realise its long-term health effects and you probably also plan to cut down on it sometime in the future.

Cooking your own food will enable you to make most of the things that you buy, feel much happier and content. And most important, happy. Cooking your own food would also mean using oils and spices in moderation, and always eating fresh. As opposed to eating something full of preservatives. It will also help you keep your weight in check. Become more mindful of what you eat and reduce the quantity of junk in your diet. You will see the mental transformation yourself in just a few weeks.

3. You will be in charge of portions

There are times when you want to eat just a slice of a cake, while there are days when indulging is all you think of. When you cook your own food, you can decide how much you want to eat, so that there is no wastage or more need to eat. It also helps you buy perishable food like vegetables or meat in restricted quantities, so that there is absolutely no wastage. And because you buy everything yourself, you are much more mindful of the quantities.

So on days that I crave for a slight hint of sweetness after my meals, I bake just a small cupcake for myself. And on days when I know a couple of friends are coming over, I bake an entire cake, and indulge! If you are cooking just for yourself, you know how hungry you are. So you cook only that much that you would want to eat. And nobody can define that for you.

So control your portions the way you want to and be in total charge! Trust me, it feels amazing.

4. Gatherings become much more meaningful

I simply love entertaining and I end up having my friends over on weekends for hearty homemade snacks and meals. To me, food is all about sharing and eating together. And there is no higher gratification then feeding people food made by you and enjoying the compliments along the way!

When you start cooking, you also start realising the value of a shared meal. The joy of cooking for people you love and sharing little moments with them on the dining table is a beautiful feeling. And the compliments just keep pouring in! Cooking is a selfless effort and I always value people who cook for me. It is very emotional, as it requires a lot of patience, skill, and love. And cooking for others gives me immense happiness.

Just imagine if you make a meal for the first time for your parents, or your partner. It is bound to touch them because they know you made an effort. When we make an effort in cooking ourselves, we realise how much effort some amazing people like our mothers have put all our lives. Cooking makes us realise that effort, value the selfless labor much more and be more grateful.

All these points in no way mean that you cannot indulge! Do go out once in a while with your loved ones to have a meal at your favourite restaurant. Or order it from your favourite Chinese take away on that lazy weekend while you binge watch a series. But all I am saying is do not make that a lifestyle.

I hope this post inspires you to cook your own food. Do let me know what you think of this and you can always ask me any questions that you might have. I am also open to discussions in the comment section.

Connect with me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.

You can find all my recipe videos on YouTube.

Happy cooking!