How to make brilliant food in minutes

More than a third of Brits resolved to improve their diet at the start of the year, according to a YouGov survey. But come February and March, many of us struggle to keep our New Year’s Resolutions. So BBC cooks, including Dr Rupy Aujla, Rukmini Iyer and Nadiya Hussain, are sharing advice and recipes for easy quick-cook meals on a budget.

Fast breakfasts

Almost half of us say we rarely have time to eat a proper breakfast, but many ready-made alternatives aren’t healthy. With a little forward planning, you can eat a delicious, nutritious breakfast and hit the snooze button.

Porridge takes minutes to cook – top with nuts, seeds and frozen fruit, which mingles with the oats as it defrosts. Overnight oats can be prepped the day before, and you can even make a batch. BBC Food’s favourite overnight oats include cherry bakewell, Tom Kerridge's peach melba and blackberry crumble.

Dr Rupy uses cheap frozen fruit to make a compôte to top his healthy granola. Batch-cook the recipe to save time.

Breakfast can be revolutionised by poaching eggs in advance. After poaching, plunge into iced water and refrigerate for up to two days, then reheat in boiling water for 30 seconds before eating.

Weekend breakfasts can be made ahead too – Nadiya Hussain makes the batter for her popular peanut butter and jelly pancake traybake in advance and stores it in the fridge or freezer.

DIY pot noodles

There are two types of ‘jar lunches’, one cooked in the heatproof jar, the other cooked out of it (warning some jars get very hot!). With both, lunch is ready in minutes.

To make a healthy DIY pot noodle, add quick-cook ingredients, such as dried rice or thin noodles, fresh sliced or frozen veg, drained tinned beans and seasonings, to your jar or other heatproof container. Then just add boiling water from the kettle when you’re ready to eat. It’s great for students and anyone with an office kitchen.

If you have access to a hob Dr Rupy, who is always “short on time”, assembles jars of homemade dal mix, consisting of lentils, spices and a stock cube. When he’s ready to eat, he simply tips it into a pan, adds a couple of scoops of water using the jar, and brings it to the boil. Watch the video below to see how he does it.

Prep veg ahead of cooking

While you might not have an hour to spend cooking every evening, 30 minutes twice a day could be more manageable. Slice and dice your veg ahead of time and refrigerate (or freeze) in containers until needed. It’s much cheaper than buying pre-chopped veg! Use prepped produce in stir-fries to make a speedy meal even quicker.

Batch-roast veg

Dr Rupy, Nigella Lawson, the Hairy Bikers and Mary Berry know roasting vegetables makes the most of flavours from frugal produce. Batch-roasting saves time, and with copious recipes to use it in, you won’t struggle to eat it all. “A tray of 5-spice honey-roast veg is waiting in my fridge to quickly dress up a bowl of noodles or sandwich”, says BBC Food editor Emily Angle.

Let the oven do the work

Most of us want to cook dinner in less than half an hour, but you can “chop for 5 minutes, shove it in a pan, [put it in the oven] and then go and do so many more things with your time”, says Rukmini Iyer, who is best known for her roasting tin recipes. “Letting the oven do the work is my mantra”, she says, but don’t forget to set a timer! BBC Food has easy and delicious all-in-one traybake recipes, including Rukmini’s crispy and creamy gnocchi, Nadiya Hussain’s peanut chicken and Rachel Phipps’ sweet potato fajita filling, to rival any dinner.

Similarly, one-pot hob or oven dinners and slow-cooker recipes can be left to their own devices until you’re ready to eat.

Eat one, freeze one

Double the quantities of a recipe when cooking, store the leftovers in the fridge or freezer, and have a ‘ready meal’ waiting for you.

Some dishes, including many soups, stews and curries, are more freezer-friendly than others. There are lots of batch-cook recipes and advice on how to use your freezer wisely on BBC Food.

The next time you make a pasta sauce, curry sauce, curry paste or salad dressing, whip up double the amount to store. Freezing sauces in ice-cube trays allows you to use exactly the amount you want without defrosting a big bag of it.

Originally published February 2021