Perfect strawberry slices the easy way, plus 10 smart cooking hacks from Twitter!
What’s better than cooking a delicious, healthy meal for the people you love?
Cooking that meal fast—and getting great results every time.
(Can I get an amen?)
So when I saw my friend Maria’s ingenious guacamole hack on Twitter (see #4), I wondered how many other handy cooking hacks I’d been missing—and how much time and food I was wasting as a result!
Inspired, I set out on a Twitter scavenger hunt for more cooking hacks, looking for tricks that would be especially useful for healthy plant-based cooks. Not only did I find some hilarious tweets (like this one, which makes you think eating eggs might be bad for brain health), but I rounded up 10 hacks that will save you time and make you look like a pro in the kitchen.
10 Easy cooking hacks from Twitter
1. Sharpen knives…without a knife sharpener
This is great! An Easy Hack to Keep Your Knives Sharp | FWx https://t.co/X0pdPWeuXL. #hack #SharpKnives #cooking
— Yte (@StudioYte) January 9, 2016
Want to get fancy and use an actual sharpener? This compact gem is under $10 and is what I use at home.
2. Cut an entire container of cherry tomatoes in seconds
Cut cherry tomatoes like a pro! Dinner anyone? #YES #Cooking #Hack #Winning pic.twitter.com/RzwgLpFYts
— Optus (@Optus) January 30, 2015
Because no one likes having a cherry tomato explode in their mouth. (Ick.)
3. Peel an orange in the coolest possible way
Win at cooking with this clever #hack https://t.co/1haCePGogy pic.twitter.com/asns5oXqv5
— Dawn Lopez ♡ Cutefetti (@dawnchats) January 6, 2016
Plus 24 more fruit hacks!
4. Keep guacamole from turning brown
Store #avocado or #guacamole w/ thin layer of water so it won't brown in fridge. Just pour it off when ready to use pic.twitter.com/e57qXHpaIR
— Maria Pittarelli, RD (@beyondlettuce) April 30, 2016
You’ll never waste the top layer of guacamole again.
5. Chop a mango in a snap
Win at cooking with this clever #hack https://t.co/M7EhimxNZW pic.twitter.com/7VCzI5d4AT
— Cutefetti (@cutefetti) May 2, 2016
Perfect for making kale and mango salad with sweet ginger-cashew dressing.
6. Get the most bang for your lemon buck
Here's a tip for getting more juice from your lemons.
It's easy peasy lemon squeezy…#Cooking #Hack #Baking #Yum pic.twitter.com/Mo02VUj1kO
— Ora (@Ora_Home) April 21, 2016
Works for limes, too.
7. Prevent neck strain
https://twitter.com/Andrea_Buckett/status/716705633349869568
You’ll love this hack if you print out recipes so you can mark them up. (I’m talking to you, Ms. Food Blogger. 🙂 )
8. Get more out of corn cobs
Summer #cooking #hack: turn leftover corn cobs into corn broth for soup, chowder or risotto. http://t.co/1qQgzxBt0e
— Emily (@westoftheloop) August 4, 2015
Waste not, want not.
9. Make the easiest spaghetti ever
Try this #hack for cooking #Pasta and #Veggies in one pot!! Great for @MeatlessMonday! Recipe: http://t.co/PBj1hWT9AC pic.twitter.com/bcFNVydgBh
— vegetarian gourmet (@Veg_Gourmet) February 16, 2015
Who knew: Spaghetti can be a one-pot wonder!
10. Rock the meta-hack
https://twitter.com/girlygirlsguide/status/689112611867242496
Hack addict? You’ll love this list of 17 cooking hacks—perfect for plant-based foodies.
Your turn:
- Do you have a favorite cooking hack to share? Leave a comment and tell us about it!
Pin for later!
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I'm Lee, an RD thriving on a healthy plant based diet.
These are great hacks! The tomato and orange ones will be especially helpful!
Hi Mary Ellen, I haven’t tried the tomato one yet (will report back), but the orange one works fine so long as the peel isn’t too stiff. (Otherwise, fuggetaboutit.) 😉 Some of the other hacks at the orange link are great, so I highly recommend visiting!
HI Lee–great hacks! I’m always a little skeptical of these though. I’ve never been able to do that mango hack. And I can just see what would happen with the cherry tomato hack, at least if I tried it. The underside of the plate rim as a knife sharpener is interesting, though, I don’t know, ceramic dust???. . .and rolling the lemon. . .no knives involved. 🙂 Guess I’ll mostly stick with my slow miracle ways. 🙂 xo
Hi Maria, I know, I’m a little skeptical of the cherry tomato one too, but I’ve seen it multiple places, so I feel like there has to be something to it! I do the lemon/lime rolling thing myself, though, and I feel like I do get more juice when I do it that way. (Placebo effect?) 😉 I will say, though, that using an egg slicer to make perfect strawberry slices is genius. Now I’m glad that I kept the slicer around, since I’d considered giving it away.
You might want to check this out – substitute for whipped egg white:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/11/dining/aquafaba-vegan-egg-substitute.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fhealth&action=click&contentCollection=health®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=7&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0
Gwen, thanks so much for sending the link! I don’t know how that works with the aquafaba, but I have to try it. So cool!
Ah these are great!!! The cherry tomato one just seems like one I should have thought of on my own haha
The guacamole one is awesome! It isn’t often that I need to store leftover guac though… 😉
And I have seen those cute little mango squares and was wondering how to do that!
I’ve been scared to try the one pot pasta thing, but I should just give it a try already.
These are great Lee!
Thanks Kimmy! I know, leftover guacamole, that’s like a unicorn, right? And I’m a little hesitant to try the one-pot pasta trick too, but it looks so darned easy, I feel like I have to. I can vouch for the mango thing, though: it works pretty well as long as you have a nice, sharp knife.
I really want to try the tomato trick, but I’m a little worried that I’ll slip and tomatoes will end up all over my kitchen. Only one way to find out! 😉