9 Cooking Hacks You Need to Know Before 30

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I never thought one of our biggest stressors as adults would be what to eat. But If you’re like me and hate stress, here are nine kitchen tricks to make life faster and easier — And obviously a banging meal.

Invest in a pressure cooker

I know they’re expensive, but pressure cookers cut your cooking time in half. And I promise it’ll make your kpomo as soft as Iya Sukirat’s own.

Garri thickens soup

If you’re out there making watery banga or white soup, add small garri and it’ll thicken up. Nobody needs to know you made River Nile soup dear.

Fry your eggs on the lowest heat

You know when you fry four eggs and it ends up looking like one gorgeous merger? Yeah, cooking eggs on low heat makes them fuller and fluffier. You sha need patience to wait for the eggs to cook properly. But it’s worth it.

Get rid of excess oil with tissue paper

Put kitchen rolls at the bottom of a sieve to take out the excess oil from your fried plantains, yam or potatoes. It doesn’t change that you’re still eating oily and unhealthy food but you can enjoy it, guilt-free.

Rice cookers can actually cook anything

If you can’t stand the idea of buying so many pots and pans, just get a rice cooker. The really bougie ones come with settings to also grill and make sauces.

Stop adding more water to your rice

If the water in your dries up, reduce the heat on the gas cooker and cover the pot with foil paper. Stop adding gallons of water as if it’s you’re making.

Don’t throw your pasta water away

Instead of tossing your pasta water away, leave a little inside to make it easier for the tomato sauce to thicken when it’s added in. Also, because the water is salted, it helps the pasta retain its flavour.

Don’t waste time breaking spaghetti

If you’re still breaking spaghetti in 2022, I don’t even know what to say. First of all, that’s not how the Italians do it and they’re the OGs of pasta. They will actually fight you. Also, trying to break spaghetti always leaves bits of pasta flying around. Just put the spaghetti in the water like that. It’ll soften into place on its own.

Keep your potato skins

Irish potato is one meal that just takes an unnecessary amount of effort to prep. A hack is to leave the skins on and season with black pepper, salt and dried red pepper. It makes it tasty when you fry or grill your potatoes

Blend your tomatoes with yellow, red and green pepper

Jollof rice is one food that can disgrace you, especially when you’re cooking for friends. But a hack I’ve gotten into is blending my tomato and habanero peppers with yellow, red and green peppers. They’re not spicy peppers, but they have a ton of flavour and it’s taken my jollof game from zero to one-hundred.

Add potatoes to salty food

Some of you add salt based on the instructions from your ancestors. And it’s left you eating salty food. Next time, just add some peeled potatoes to the sauce or stew. The starch in them makes it easy to absorb the excess salt.