Simple Cooking Tips To Make Meal Prep Easier (And Tastier) + A Giveaway!

When my friend Merri first told me about Blue Apron during a visit to see her in New York City several years ago, she raved about it not only for the restaurant-quality recipes but for the fact that the meal delivery service was teaching her how to cook. With every Blue Apron delivery, she said she learned something new, whether it be something simple like making an easy salad dressing from scratch, or something more complex. Here are some simple cooking tips to make meal prep easier.

As you know, Ryan and I have been regularly ordering Blue Apron meals for a couple of years now and I’ve picked up a few helpful cooking tips and tricks along the way that I thought might interest you guys, too!

Below you will find a rundown of some of the tips that I find myself using most frequently!

Simple Cooking Tips To Make Meal Prep Easier

• Use a spoon to peel fresh ginger

Ginger is one of my favorite ways to enhance the flavor of everything from chicken and fish to vegetables and salad dressings. I used to gravitate toward ginger paste or ground ginger in recipes because I hated peeling fresh ginger, even though there’s no denying that fresh ginger is better. Thanks to Blue Apron, I started peeling fresh ginger with a spoon instead of a knife and was instantly amazed at how quickly the peel separates from the ginger and how much less ginger I am wasting now that I’m not failing at peeling it with a knife.

• To quickly dice an onion, cut the onion in half, lay the halves on their flat sides and make horizontal cuts almost the whole way through before making vertical cuts to finely dice the onion

This is a tip that’s probably easier to understand if you watch the video demo, but it completely changed the way I dice an onion. I feel like I dice up onions all the time (I love them in my frittatas and egg muffins!) and this tip comes in handy for me on a daily basis. It definitely saves time but I’m still waiting for the tip that takes away my tears every time I dice an onion… I can’t seem to stop the waterworks!

• To take the bite out of a raw onion, thinly slice it and soak it in water for 10 minutes

As a big-time onion lover (Ryan says onions are my “go-to” ingredient in almost all my savory recipes), I love this tip! Though I love the flavor of raw onions in salads or on sandwiches, I do not always love the strong bite that comes along with them. By soaking the onion slices in water for 10 minutes (or longer), a lot of the strong bite is magically gone but the delicious onion flavor remains.

• On a similar note, take the bite out of shallots by soaking them in vinegar or water

Raw shallots add a delicious flavor and crunch to salad dressings and sandwiches but the bitter flavor can be off-putting. By soaking chopped shallots in vinegar (or water), the sharp flavor is softened but the crunch and tang remain.

• To get the flavor from a jalapeño without all of the spice, remove the seeds and the membrane before slicing or dicing

I am such a baby when it comes to spicy food, but in the same breath, I really like the flavor of hot peppers. It’s almost like I love the first bite of a spicy dish before the spice really hits me and then I can’t take it anymore. A tip I learned from Blue Apron has saved me when it comes to jalapeños! When you slice a jalapeño, if you remove all the seeds and the inner fleshy-membrane, you remove a lot of the spice! You’re essentially left with the smooth peel which still has a lot of flavor without a ton of heat. (You may see a video tutorial of this tip here.)

• When slicing into a beet, avoid dying your cutting board by placing a paper towel on top to protect the wood from the intense color

• Toast the bread of a grilled cheese sandwich before cooking

I’m not sure why I never thought about this before but it’s a tip that really does make a difference when it comes to achieving a perfectly crispy grilled cheese sandwich! By lightly toasting your bread before grilling, your sandwich is also less likely to become soggy from all the fillings you pile inside.

Our Most Recent Blue Apron Delivery

Though picking up new helpful cooking tips and tricks is an added benefit to receiving regular Blue Apron meal deliveries, the food is obviously what keeps us coming back again and again.

Ryan and I typically select the two-person plan, though there is a four-person family plan available as well, and receive all of the ingredients we need to make fresh, chef-designed recipes at home. One of the meals in our most recent box claimed a spot on my “Favorite Blue Apron Meals Of All Time” list.

The Seared Cod and Udon Noodles with Cabbage Shiitake Mushroom Broth was so unbelievably flavorful that Ryan and I both said it could easily be served in a high-end restaurant and we’d happily order it over and over again.

It was the perfect comfort food to enjoy on a chilly night in Charlotte and we both could not stop raving about it.

Up next was Chicken Schnitzel with Fingerling Potato Salad, which I initially wasn’t overly excited to make since I am not a fan of potato salad.

I was pleasantly surprised to find myself actually enjoying this potato salad and I’m thinking the lack of mayonnaise in this potato salad and mustard and shallot-based marinade had me singing a different tune. (The potato salad was also served warm which I think probably made a big difference as well. Something about cold potatoes doesn’t appeal to me.)

The third dish we made was another hit in our house and I had a feeling it would be since I absolutely LOVE beets.

The Center Cut Pork Chops with a Warm Beet, Carrot and Walnut Salad made the perfect early Sunday evening dinner. The buttery thyme flavor of the seasoned pork added so much to the earthy warm carrot and beet salad and there definitely were not any leftovers in our house after we made this one!

Blue Apron Giveaway + Discount Offer

Blue Apron is offering the first 100 PBF readers two free meals on their first Blue Apron order. Simply click here to redeem!

Additionally, one PBF reader will win a week of FREE Blue Apron meals for two! Woop!

To enter this giveaway, simply click over to the Blue Apron cookbook, browse around and select your favorite recipe before leaving a comment on this blog post telling me which recipe appeals most to you.

I will randomly select a winner next Friday.

Good luck!

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Disclaimer: This blog post is sponsored by Blue Apron. Thank you very much for your continued support!