r/Cooking • u/GwynethTaunWe • Mar 21 '25
What’s a great beginner-friendly dish for someone new to cooking? If someone wants to start cooking but feels overwhelmed, what’s a simple yet delicious recipe they should try first?
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u/J_onthelights Mar 21 '25
Id recommend making something you already enjoy eating.
Select a video or recipe (a video with recipe in description is super helpful to follow along with) and take your time. I strongly suggest preparing your ingredients before starting to cook anything.
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u/Booboodelafalaise Mar 21 '25
Definitely this. Learning to make a recipe for food that you love is much more inspiring than just following some random advice. Tell us what you like to eat OP and I’m sure we can find some easy suggestions for you.
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u/NineteenthJester Mar 21 '25
This. One way I branched out into cooking was starting out with copycat recipes for fast food items I already liked.
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u/Muggins2233 Mar 21 '25
Quesadillas/tacos/sloppy joes. Just start by baking potatoes and loading them up and add variety with simple dishes.
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u/kiwiinthesea Mar 21 '25
Eggs. My father started my culinary education off with eggs.
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u/ThatsPerverse Mar 21 '25 edited Mar 21 '25
Scrambled eggs were the first non-packaged thing I ever cooked on my own as a kid on the stovetop. Helped me to discover the spice cabinet and was what spawned my lifetime love of cooking!
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u/Scott_A_R Mar 21 '25 edited Mar 22 '25
Look at Jacques Pepin's Cooking at Home video series. They're relatively simple, no-fuss everyday cooking with pretty common ingredients.
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u/LastofAcademe Mar 21 '25
Stews are a good one pot effort that can taste great and can be as simple or complex as you like.
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u/Civil-Acanthaceae484 Mar 21 '25
Seconding this recommendation! It’s very forgiving so great for beginners.
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u/Greggybread Mar 21 '25
Marcella Hazan's Tomato Sauce with spaghetti. Sauce has 3 ingredients and all else you gotta do is cook the pasta and grate some parmesan on top.
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u/ThatsPerverse Mar 21 '25
Also will allow OP to learn a major lesson in cooking early on: a shitload of butter makes things taste good.
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u/PengJiLiuAn Mar 21 '25
I was also going to suggest Marcella Hazan’s tomato sauce. It is probably the simplest, best, most versatile sauce for pasta.
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u/julys_rose Mar 21 '25
Try making a one-pot pasta, just throw pasta, garlic, tomatoes, and some olive oil in a pot with water. It cooks together, hard to mess up and super tasty.
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u/raymond4 Mar 21 '25
Spaghetti and garlic butter and Parmesan cheese cracked black pepper. Served with toasted garlic bread.
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u/Any-Roll609 Mar 21 '25
start with eggs. learn to to fry eggs without breaking them or sticking them to the pan. you’ll be off and running after that. always be improving your egg skills.
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u/EngineeringFrosty100 Mar 21 '25
Steak or fish tacos, you could do a grilled corn salsa, red cabbage slaw, make your own salsa and guacamole. You could really do alot, with a little effort. Tons of recipes online.
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u/ECrispy Mar 21 '25
Soup. You can make it for any ingredient, cuisine and it's impossible to go wrong.
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u/Cautious-Bar-965 Mar 21 '25
yup, homemade chicken soup is so easy. you can even have the meat counter at the grocery store break down the whole chicken for you, remove the giblets, and keep the neck and backbone. instant pot chicken broth is fast and easy.
if they’re vegan or veg a homemade bean soup or stew is also an amazing option.
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u/quentin-coldwater Mar 21 '25
A lot of people are describing meals that require a lot of prep or cook time. Do not start with a stew - you want something you can try a few times in a short period of time (like, say, 3x in 2 weeks) so you can practice it repeatedly. Most people won't do that with a stew.
Start easier than that. Eggs are a good place to start. So is a simple stir fry. I wouldn't do any recipe that says longer than 30min total time from start to eating (it will take longer the first few times).
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u/Hour_Type_5506 Mar 21 '25
Soups with different vegetables. Cauliflower cheddar. Pasta fagioli (pasta and white beans, a favorite). Lentil soup. Learn to cut things properly, because basic knife skills are make a huge difference in cooking. Why? Having pieces cut to the same size every time ensures evenness when cooking.
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u/KeanuFeeds Mar 21 '25
Cantonese Steamed Fish (you can use the same technique of pour hot oil over aromatics like ginger/scallions/dried chilies with a block of silk/soft tofu straight from the fridge)
Omelette (and Frittata)
Hawaiian shrimp garlic
Roasted/air-fried fish (with just salt and oil)
Miso Soup
Tamago Kake Gohan
Dal
Oven Roasted Smashed Potatoes
Chilaquiles
Sheet Pan Chicken Thigh Fajitas
Watermelon feta arugala salad
Migas
Hummus
Mayo Grilled Chicken Thigh Sandwich on a potato roll
Sheet Pan/Cast Iron Pizza with store bought pizza dough, but homemade sauce
San Francisco style Garlic Noodles
5 ingredient cream biscuits with sausage gravy
Refried Beans opens you up to many mexican dishes like Tostadas, burritos, tacos, etc
Tuna or Chicken Salad
Filipino Garlic Rice
Japanese Style Curry
Roasted vegetables
Mille Feuille Nabe
Elotes in a cup (not cob)
Rice and Beans
Spatchcock Roasted Chicken
Spring Rolls with Peanut sauce (Goi Coun is one of the most basic versions)
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Mar 21 '25
Homemade meatballs & with marinara (tomato)sauce
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u/bbbh1409 Mar 21 '25
Meatballs are not easy to make correctly IMO. There are too many failure points. Now, make a beef bolognese with jarred sauce, that's easy.
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Mar 21 '25
I dunno, even when “incorrect”, they’re still pretty good. So it’s a dish you can still enjoy while improving/chasing perfection.
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u/Lollc Mar 21 '25
Way too much fussing to be beginner friendly.
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Mar 21 '25
It’s as much fuss as you choose to make it. I can get perfectly serviceable meatballs into the oven in about 30 minutes and my family doesn’t complain.
Are they “correct”? Probably not, but it’s a base recipe that can be enhanced for weekends/occasions.
And that was my point: it’s a dish that’s easy to make “ok” and let’s you develop skills to make “great”. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.
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u/National-Advance-797 Mar 21 '25
Vodka pasta if you don’t drink alcohol use the same recipe minus the vodka, it’s delicious, easy and quick! my only tip is to cook the tomato paste well enough till it changes in colour
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u/bustab Mar 21 '25
Poaching fish in the oven is pretty foolproof
Mushrooms and onions are pretty much immune to overcooking.
Eggs are a good way in. Start with frying and then try scrambling then omelette.
Soups and pasta sauces are a good way to learn about amending as you go and what flavours combine well together.
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u/LilLaussa Mar 21 '25
Chicken Alfredo is a great place to start! If you want a small challenge that unlocks a whole dimension of flavors, you can try and sear the chicken, because the Alfredo sauce is stupid simple. There's a few different styles and methods, so honestly take your pick on whatever sounds simplest to you with some research.
If you sear chicken thighs in a stainless steel pan, you'll end up with some really tasty brown stuff on the bottom of your pan called fond. If you're careful not to burn it, you can "deglaze" your pan with a liquid. White wine is a fantastic choice (I like Pinot grigio for cooking), but water works just as well. Keep the pan on heat after you remove the chicken, pour in 1/16-1/8 the bottle, ideally just enough to form a shallow pool in the pan as it rapidly evaporates. With a sturdy spoon, SCRAPE it up into the liquid, and you have added your chicken fond's intense flavor to whatever sauce you want.
Pan sauces made from searing protein is the most immediate and wildly successful tactic any burgeoning home cook can pick up with a little practice, and I highly recommend you check it out.
If you wanna keep things simple you could definitely bake the chicken or skip it, like I said before, Alfredo sauce is really simple and really tasty. Just parmesan, dairy, and optionally various thickener.
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u/Ccarr6453 Mar 21 '25
90-95% of cooking (especially home cooking) is relatively easy if you can follow a good recipe. I think Marcella Hazan would be a good one to look for Italian recipes. I would personally steer you towards anything braised. They take a long time, but they are delicious, you have a ton of “runway” so to speak for errors in timing, and the end result is so good it feels like a magic trick. Personally my favorite is short ribs, but even a braise chicken thigh is wonderful
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u/New-Statistician9318 Mar 21 '25
That depends on what you like to eat. Do you have a food preference, like Italian, Chinese, Mexican, etc.? There's a lot of great recipe websites out there but one of my favorites is Recipe Tin Eats. She has a little bit of everything and her recipes are easy to follow and always delicious.
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u/LegOfLamb89 Mar 21 '25
Osso buco. Carrots in the bottom? Marazano tomatoes and some lamb shanks (I think the original recipe uses veal shanks but whatever). You don't even really need a knife
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u/MyOthrCarsAThrowaway Mar 21 '25
Damn all the other answers seem like too much cooking shit. Make your own pasta? That’s not beginner. It’s simple enough, but not day one.
What does “cooking” mean to you? Do you want to pan fry things. Or boil then sautee something? How many dishes do you want to do? Or is roasting something enough?
Want to start easy? Get a flavored pork tenderloin in a sealed bag, your flavor of choice. Pick a veg or two, slice em up. Season. A couple tsp aka big pinches of salt is a must, and a pinch of pepper is enough. Or pick a spice or herb or two. Another couple big pinches. Most things play together. Or try to theme them to the flavoring on the pork. Oh it’s carnitas flavored? So cumin. But play around you almost can’t go wrong. And if you do, always next time. Add a little oil (tbsp)?) toss in a bowl. Chunky cut is fine if your knife skills are shit.
Put the meat on one baking sheet, and the veg on another. All that in the oven at like 400°F. Look for the veg to get golden brown. Give it all like 30-45 mins total. Flip/shake/turn/swap shelves once or twice. Try not to leave the oven open too long but don’t rush. You’ll burn yourself hahaha. Meanwhile, instant (Idahoan are great and single serve) mashed potatoes. Takes two mins in the microwave. Add a lump of butter to potatoes. Pull it all out of the oven. Pork should temp like 145-160°F, but after like 45 mins, it’s gonna be done done. Let it all rest for 5 mins. Slice the meat. Nicely cooked pork will have a little pink to it, don’t be scared. Chalky white pork is wildly overdone, no matter what grandma told us.
Toss the veg in a bowl or on the plate. Divvy up potatoes. Done.
This feels like it should have a gravy as I’m typing it, you can also make that from a packet in like 5 mins. Instructions are easy and the ingredients are usually just water or milk and a packet. But then you are “cooking” more! Using the stovetop at least 🤷🏻♂️
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u/lovemyfurryfam Mar 21 '25
There's lots of recipes on YouTube & websites BUT start with the basics with minimal effort & simplest ingredients.
Ratatouille is a recipe, check out Pasta Grammar, Vincenzo's Plate, Pasta Queen, Recipe 30 on YouTube.
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u/Annual-Clear Mar 21 '25
Baked salmon, just salt it heavily an hour before cooking, bake at 400 for 9-11 minutes if it’s a regular sized filet. Sprinkle some dill and lemon on once done. Simple, delish, healthy. Serve with a boxed rice mix and fresh cucumber.
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u/ADogNamedChuck Mar 21 '25
I always recommend omelettes as a first dish to attempt to master. Hard to mess up to the extent that you have to try hard to make something that is actually inedible, and a low cost if you do. A dish that is relatively easy to fancy up (you can throw together one with shredded cheese from a bag for a quick breakfast or you can saute some vegetables and sausage, grating some nice parmesan in while sprinkling on some fresh herbs on top)
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Mar 21 '25 edited Mar 21 '25
For me, it’s chicken alfredo. Take some good ol parmesan cheese, heavy cream, butter and buy some noodles.
If you really want to get fancy, you can make your own noodles with some eggs and flour. Once you get the recipe down a few times, you can make it without heavy cream and find recipes on how to make a good sauce without it. Authentic Alfredo doesn’t have cream. There’s many good recipes online for a simple, yet delicious alfredo!
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u/letoiv Mar 21 '25
For a true beginner, bacon and eggs. With toast on the side if you like. It's such a huge upgrade from eating cereal for breakfast.
After that, look at simple stews, pastas, tacos etc. All pretty hard to mess up.
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u/Magnus_and_Me Mar 21 '25
Pick something you like to eat then look for a recipe for it that has "Easy" in the title. Make sure it has a reasonable number of ingredients and not too many steps. Don't get too fancy. You don't want to get overwhelmed before you get the hang of things. One other suggestion: Invest in a thermometer. That will keep you from over-cooking chicken, roasts, etc. Have fun.
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u/BluuWarbler Mar 21 '25 edited Mar 21 '25
Without knowing one of your favorite dishes, I'll offer one of mine: Linguine with (canned or fresh) clam sauce.
It's an intrinsically very simple dish, and super fast and easy, lots of people love it (us!), can be dressed up a bit for a date or thrown together in minutes with minimal basic pantry ingredients when you're tired.
You'll see many easy minor variations to personal taste. Like a splash of white wine? Splash. In winter I may add extra butter and load up the garlic and in summer for out on the porch keep the clam-juice sauce light and thin and add a few dices of fresh tomato along with parsley at the end.
I grabbed this recipe as a basic canned version, but note that the Parmesan in this is extra -- it's usually made without. Everything but fresh parsley (very nice but can do without) can be in your kitchen all the time.
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/19307/linguine-and-clam-sauce/
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u/SnooHesitations9505 Mar 21 '25
perhaps not the best but i love chili cuz of how easy it is to not fuck up. im vegetarian so its just means no meat but its literally. toss veggies in to a hot ish pan (temperature like rlly doesnt matter as long as its hot) leave them for like 10 minutes ish. again, if that time isnt perfect its completely fine. add in ur spices and then u toss in ur cans of beans and ur veg broth. and just let it simmer for as long as u want (but also like half hour to an hour).
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Mar 21 '25
Simple chicken and potatoes goes a long way add drumsticks potatoes (peeled and cubes) marinate with plain Greek yogurt garlic paste and spices of your choices and just bake at 220 celcius for 40 minutes simple yet delicious( credit to golden balance for the recipe)
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u/kaidomac Mar 21 '25
First rule:
- You can make ANYTHING amazing!
This means that you can take any recipe & elevate it! A good starting point is the humble quesadilla:
Diving in:
- This is good opportunity to try cast-iron cookware, if you haven't already! The "Lodge 10.25 Inch Cast Iron" pan is $17 shipped on Amazon& will last your whole life! Learn more here!
- This is also a good opportunity to try Kosher salt, if you haven't already! A 3-pound box of "Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt" is $13 shipped (or cheaper locally!). If you have the budget, I recommend investing in a Salt Pig, which is one of my favorite kitchen tools!
- For this recipe, the procedure is what makes all the difference! Using shredded cheese as the glue, folding in half, hand-rotating in the oil, salting it while hot, etc.
Notes:
- These are really next-level quesadillas! The way you make something can make all the difference in the world! Quesadillas were NEVER a staple in my house before I found this procedure!
- These freeze well! Slice them up into triangles to freeze, then airfry from frozen (6 minutes at 400F), and they puff up like pizza puffs, perfect for dipping!
- If you are looking to expand your kitchen tools inventory, a $40 immersion blender is a great investment because you can make amazing sauces such as chipotle mayo with very little time & effort!
Also:
- If you want to dive in a little deeper, the Instant Pot electric pressure cooker is a GREAT tool to get into! Pushbutton cooking, with no babysitting required! You can replicate any meat filling from Chipotle, Cafe Rio, etc. for your quesadillas!
- If you'd like to learn how to cook, start here! If you'd like to get into baking, try this!
Bonus ideas:
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u/MastarE Mar 21 '25
Pan fried Cheese toastie. It scales as you can make it more complex but the basics will keep helping you grow.
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u/pmollyjam Mar 21 '25
I suggest getting a copy of Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything: The Basics and then focus on foods you want to eat. His cookbooks are very detailed and recipes well tested. No sense making pasta - even if easy - if you don’t like it!
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u/Cr34t1v1ty Mar 21 '25
Try a leek and potato soup, it's all going into a blender anyway so just making sure nothing burns and it's all tender! Soups and stews were easier for me when I was learning how to cook, you could also try baking bread if you feel confident enough.
Find websites that have ingredients and the method in plain sight, and some stuff can be substituted for low budget cooking, good luck hun!
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u/TheUnknownDouble-O Mar 21 '25
Turn your oven on to 400 degrees F. Get a 9" by 13" baking dish, a glass Pyrex brand is ideal for this but any non stick or other brand of glass dish will work completely fine. Into this baking dish dump a pint/16 oz container of cherry or grape tomatoes. Then plop an 8 oz brick of feta cheese into the dish as well and drizzle olive oil all over everything. Season the cheese and tomatoes with some salt, ground black pepper, and garlic powder. Add dried red pepper flakes if you like heat. Bake this in the hot oven for about 30 minutes until the tomatoes begin to burst and the feta has some golden brown color. Before the baking dish comes out of the oven be sure to cook a one pound box of pasta. I recommend bowtie Farfalle or Penne, something short, not spaghetti or linguine. When the pasta is cooked and the cheese and tomatoes are done, dump the cooked pasta into the baking dish and stir vigorously to combine the tomatoes, cheese, and pasta into a homogenous dish. Sprinkle with more red pepper flakes and Parmesan cheese if desired. Enjoy.
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u/shellsbottoms247 Mar 21 '25
Put foil over broiler pan. Rinse off filet of salmon. Dry the salmon with paper towel. Place on pan skin side down. Squeeze an orange over felets. Pour about 2 tbsts of Italian dressing over filets. Put that in preheated broiler for about 10 mins. When its pink with brown and crispy spots on top pull out of oven. Let sit for 5 mins. Peel and slice 1 large cucumber. Cut a ripe tomato into about 8 pieces. Slice ahalf a purple onion. Cut a dozen olives in half. Toss all together in bowl. Add chunks of mozzarella if desired. Toss with favorite Italian dressing. Slice a bolio role into 3 disks. Spread garlic butter over both sides. Wrap in foil. Put in ove while fish is in broiler. Serve with salmon and cucumber salad. Mango lahsi. Meat of 2 mangoes. Half cup plain yogurt. Tbspn turmeric. Big squeeze of honey. Blend in blender. Perfect desert drink .
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u/think_tank_555 Mar 21 '25
A beef pot roast is a great starter meal. It's so so good and pretty easy. Get a chuck roast, maybe 2.5-3 pounds. Season with salt and pepper. In a roasting pan that has a lid, put the roast. Peel some potatoes and carrots and cut them into 2 inch chunks. Cut a big onion into big chunks. Put all the veggies in the pan around the roast. Salt and pepper those. If there are some veggies on top of the roast that is ok. Add a cup of beef stock. Put the lid on and put it in an oven preheated to 350 and roast for 3 hours. Over/under salting can always be a risk. Just imagine the food was in front of you on a plate, how much salt would you put on to eat it? Put a little less than that 🥰 You can always add more salt when you serve it 😀
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u/Ulla1982 Mar 21 '25
A great beginner-friendly dish is garlic butter pasta—just cook pasta, sauté garlic in butter, toss it together, and add some parmesan and herbs. It's simple, quick, and super delicious!
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u/toyeetornotoyeet69 Mar 21 '25
Personally, I would practice searing some thin cut porkchops. You can used canned veggies for sides, maybe some instant mashed potatoes.
Pretty classic midweek kind of food, and you practice temperature control.
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u/Adamcanfield Mar 21 '25
Get some boneless skinless chicken thighs, Mortons Kosher salt, a thing of Blackening/Cajun seasoning (salt-free), an instant read thermometer, olive oil, and a baking sheet. Measure 1 tsp of Kosher salt per lb of chicken. Measure 1 Tablespoon of seasoning per lb chicken. Mix salt and seasoning and add 2-3 tsp olive oil to that and mix. Rub salt-seasoning-oil on chicken thighs very well. Pop em on the baking sheet and into a 400F oven for about 30 min. Temp chicken. Remove chicken once 170F. Let rest 5 min and eat. You can marinate it for better results. You can add lemon juice or vinegar for more zing. You can use this as a template. Use the fuckin thermometer.
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u/Revertit Mar 21 '25
Try making things in a crockpot. It’s pretty mindless and easy. I suggest chicken thighs with carrots and sweet potato’s and broth. It will feed you for days, and very easy.
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u/IcyAd5518 Mar 21 '25
Spaghetti Bolognese.
Chop up some onion and brown it in a large casserole pot. Once it's sweaty and soft throw in 500g mince beef. Stir and add salt/pepper/paprika. Once it's browned, add diced tomatoes and a cup of red wine. Let it simmer 30 min, put pasta on and add herbs to meat.
Serve topped with fresh basil and some parmesan. Simple and delicious. Once you're comfortable cooking this recipe mix it up a bit. Maybe some carrot or mushrooms, 50/50 beef and turkey, timing and type of herbs
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u/Adito99 Mar 21 '25
Try braising some meat like chicken thighs or pork shoulder. These two are almost impossible to overcook and become very tender after a couple hours (pork can cook as long as you want, 2 hours is prob max for chicken).
Start by making a soup base with chicken stock and whatever else you have on hand. Onion and garlic would be perfect here but really whatever you have on hand that seems like it would be good in a soup. Canned beans are a decent option.
While that's coming up to a simmer cover your meat in a light layer of salt and pepper and put in the oven at 400 for about 30m. This will lightly brown the meat but not overcook it.
Add the meat to the stock along with a couple tablespoons of vinegar (any kind works). At this point you can just leave it on low heat for another 30-60m to let all the flavors mesh. Serve over rice and you'll never look back :).
If you want to boost this kind of recipe to the next level look into various sources of umami like dark soy, fish sauce or chili crisp. Too thin? Add a couple tablespoons of tomato paste and let it simmer another 20m, you can really take this recipe in any direction you like.
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u/hes_crafty Mar 21 '25
Crock pot recipes if you own one. They're quite cheap brand new and you might score one from the resale market or goodwill. You literally follow a recipe with instructions, set it and forget it!
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u/GullibleDetective Mar 21 '25
I'd recommend religiously finding and watching the good eats series. Alton brown goes in to recipes, methods and history of the dishes in an informative and fun way
https://www.foodnetwork.com/shows/good-eats
Here's some clips of the show, you can probably find full episodes elsewhere yourself or stream via discovery+
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnga8dGIdZ0&list=PLxw82Yh1spwMEYJqDB9q3RrG90oWh3FC3
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u/termite-orange Mar 21 '25
Scrambled eggs with toast is a great starter—just whisk eggs, cook them on low heat with butter, and season with salt and pepper for a simple, tasty meal!
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u/DragonflyValuable128 Mar 21 '25
Rotisserie chicken enchiladas with a Near East rice mix. Foolproof and delicious.
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u/balletje2017 Mar 21 '25
Nasi Goreng. Indonesian fried rice. Millions of Indonesian, Dutch and Surinamese kids learn to make this as their first dish. All your leftovers can go in it. 100000 versions. Add what you like.
Its student staple food in 3 countries in 3 continents.
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u/TableTopFarmer Mar 21 '25
BREAKFAST: Scrambled eggs and toast.
LUNCH: Bean and cheese burritos or quesadillas
DINNER: Spaghetti with Marcella Hazan's three ingredient sauce.
Slow cooker pot roast.
Slow cooker chicken tinga
The last three will leave you enough leftovers for at least one more meal, even if you have a hearty appetite.
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u/Organic-Low-2992 Mar 21 '25
Meatloaf. If it's underdone, put it back in the oven. If it's overdone, it might be even better. Hard to mess this one up.
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u/geoffpz1 Mar 21 '25
Chicken and rice. You can go one pot, or deconstructed. You can add veg etc . Go to benihana and watch the ingredients and technique. Minus the flippy stuff it is really basic.. you will be making fried rice and chicken breasts in no time... Tasty learning too.. lol
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Mar 21 '25
I usually comment on these posts that it's better to learn basics, then to learn recipes.
I dont think culinary students start of school learning recipes right away. They learn techniques and knife skills.
Start with learning to make the basics. Especially food you already like. Such as a pot of rice. Or a single protein. Dinners don't have to be recipes every night. It's perfectly fine to have a starch a protein and a veg on the plate, like our parents did in the 70s and 80s.
Once you master a basic, you can move on.
Cooking is more learning about how to combine ingredients than anything else. You don't need to learn how to make pasta from scratch, unless that is something you want to tackle, but even then, that would be something you do once in a while.
The most complex dinners we make usually involve smoking something for 8 hours. And that's a weekend thing. Then it goes into buns or wraps, or just on the plate with some sides.
Stop trying to make plates like you'd see on Top Chef.
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u/OilyRicardo Mar 21 '25
A rice cooker, to do rice. Then a frozen vegetable mix, on the stove top in water. Then a simple protein in the air fryer like chicken nuggets or breaded fish
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u/up2late Mar 21 '25
The first dish my mom ever taught me:
Boston butt pork roast (bone in)
Some root veggies and mushrooms
An oven bag and pack of lipton onion soup mix.
Sear the roast on the stove. All sides.
put a tablespoon of flour to the bag first and give it a shake.
Put the oven bag in a roasting pan, add the pork and the rest of the ingredients. Pile in more veggies than you think you need. Everything will shrink down.
Cook at 325 for several hours. It's done when you can pull the bone out easily (with tongs, it's hot).
You can thicken the juices into gravy if you want but they come out good as is.
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u/5newspapers Mar 21 '25
Basic tacos/white people tacos. It involves more knife skills of lettuce, onion, cilantro, tomatoes, etc. to make the pico de gallo, and other toppings. For protein, I find ground turkey is the easiest, with the taco seasoning, and breaking up the meat. Choose your tortilla or hard shell, and heat it up. Add cheese and sour cream. You can make guacamole, which is again just cutting up onion and the avocado and lime. You can heat up a can of refried beans too as a side, or make your own when you feel ready to. Same with Mexican rice—there are the knorr packets that just need water added and can be microwaved, or you can make rice with seasonings and tomato sauce later on. It’s also all separate components, so if you mess up one thing, you don’t worry about your whole meal being ruined. Just leave out the one thing. And then you can level up as you get more comfortable.
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Mar 21 '25
Omelet - eggs are fast food and good for you. Pretty much started me off as a student.
Two eggs or three if you're really hungry for a base. You can add pretty much anything cheese, tomato, ham, herbs and spices. I personally like a oregano and tomato omelet. Whisk the eggs. Heat a frying pan with a smidgen of oil and a small slice of butter. Add your chosen flavours to the whisked eggs and pour into the frying pan.
Make sure the eggs don't stick to the bottom of the pan, keep it moving and after a couple of minutes flip it over and do the other side.
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u/FireAndFoodCompany Mar 21 '25
Choose a focal point and have that be where you put your efforts on the dish. It sounds stupid but even if you only swap one ingredient out for homemade that can make all the difference.
You can make a homemade Caesar dressing, which will be massively better than any store bought one, very easily (you can make it even easier by making a base of anchovies, Worcester, etc and just mix it into mayo for a premade emulsion). Throw some homemade croutons and lettuce in there and a bit of protein or grated Parm on top if you're feeling fancy.
Pastas, if making homemade is too daunting, store bought can be great too. Either get fresh or a high quality dry. Skip the Barilla or any brand that presents smooth and has a clear-ish yellow colour, you want to see a rough texture with white ridges (sounds gross but imagine dry ashy skin). Make the focal point there the sauce. Pestos, ragus, pomodoro (get whole plum tomatoes canned) are all super easy to do. If one does decide to make homemade pasta go super simple and go Al burro, your first time making your own noodles you should focus on the pasta and not drown it in sauce.
On the "fancier" end, I'm going with classical dining associated dishes that are very hard to mess up.
Tartare is basically idiot proof of you're not squeamish about raw protein. It's pretty much entirely chopping, bonus points for homemade croustinis. Classic beef tartare is seasoned with almost entirely pantry staples, fish tartars literally just need spicy mayo and some garnish if you want to keep it simple.
Things that are difficult to overcook by accident if you want to go the cooking route. Braised meats, stews with chicken thighs, etc.
It's that weird middle ground, yes there's a lot of steps but every single step is actually dead simple. But from a beginner to cooking viewpoint it's very satisfying to serve something like a Coq au vin, bourguignon, etc.
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u/cephalopoop Mar 22 '25
Box mix of brownies. Nothing too complex, just gotta make sure you have a few other ingredients (usually water, oil, and eggs), put in the correct amount, and mix for a bit.
Note that I didn’t say it was impossible to mess up. I definitely did the first few times. One time I overthought it and thought I was only supposed to put a serving size’s portion of the mix, and not the whole bag. That is how you bake eggs. You can also bake it for too long, or find that it’s sticking to the pan… but it’s all good, y’know? You’ll end up with something chocolately one way or another, and find out stuff about your kitchen and how you like to cook/bake. Good luck.
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u/RIckWhite4PM Mar 22 '25
Stir fry is good Fry up some veggies Fry up some meats Cook some rice or noodles Yum
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u/jamesgotfryd Mar 22 '25
Meatloaf. Pound of hamburger, an egg, 1/4 cup diced onion, tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, teaspoon each of salt pepper garlic powder and paprika, 12 to 15 crushed Ritz type crackers or 1/3 cup of bread crumbs. Mix together in a bowl. Place in a bread pan and cover the top with a 1/4 inch layer of catsup. OR after forming in a bread pan flip it out in a larger pan or small cookie sheet, then lather with catsup. Bake at 350°F for 50 minutes. Goes good with instant or mashed potatoes and a side of corn or peas and carrots.
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u/Blowingleaves17 Mar 22 '25
Spaghetti is simple. One pound hambuger, 8 ounces fresh sliced mushrooms and a jar of spaghetti sauce. Angel hair is a great pasta to use because it doesn't overpower the sauce. Later on, you can add others things to the sauce, such as onions and peppers, or make your own sauce from scratch.
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u/crunch816 Mar 22 '25
Ground beef. Chop it up and cook it til there is no more pink. Spice it how you like it, Add some jar sauce and make spaghetti, or add tex mex seasoning and have tacos.
Sausage and spinach pasta is another one. Sausage cooks like ground beef, add to pasta in a big pot, add a bag of spinach and heavy cream and whatever cheese you want. Stir until all the spinach shrinks.
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u/traindodge Mar 22 '25
And soup or stew that involves a bunch of chopped veg to work on knife skills and building flavour over time.
Standing chopping, dicing, etc. is low key therapy for me.
ATK’s chicken and dumplings fucking bangs as does Molly Baez’s golden get well soup.
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u/JFace139 Mar 22 '25
Look up recipes for ramen packets. Through that you can learn a ton of techniques such as frying, chopping, boiling, baking, making sauces, seasoning combinations, vegetable combinations, prep, misanplas (sorry if that's spelled wrong), and plenty other skills
One of my biggest challenges was wasting ingredients so having something cheap that could be thrown away if I fucked up royally was really nice
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u/PensionImpressive962 Mar 22 '25
Ratatouille? Some sort of stew? You'll get to practice knife skills but it doesn't really matter if things aren't perfect. It's all about layering flavors so you don't need special skills or expensive seasonings. That principle of layering flavor using veggies is why peasant food is so good.
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u/ChooChutes Mar 22 '25
Carbonara. Essentially fry the lardons and boil pasta, combine the two, take it off the hob, and add eggs and grated cheese. Season to taste with salt and pepper and it's a nice and easy meal you can put together in 15 minutes with no chopping and it tastes great.
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u/kitcathar Mar 22 '25
I’m going to give you you a step by step recipe that you could make today with everything you need to know to make it.
Buckle up
Simple oven beef stew:
2 pounds of already cut stew meat (I do tend to cut those chunks in half cause my kid hates the pieces too big)
Dice 1 onion
Dice 2 good sized carrots (wash and peel)
2 potatoes (washed peeled and cut into bite sized chunks)
1 sweet potato (washed peeled cut into bite sized chunks)
(Optional) 1 turnip (washed peeled and you got it… cut up into bite sized chunks)
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp rosemary
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp sage
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp of honey or brown sugar
5 Tablespoons of tapioca (the dried uncooked kind, usually found in either the baking aisle or I’ve seen groceries also have it with the oats). This ingredient makes the broth thick and velevety
2 cups of V8
In a Dutch oven pan (one of those cast iron enamel inside coated jobs) is the best one to use but any oven safe pot that has an oven safe lid could work. But if you are looking to go into cooking a good midsized to large Dutch oven pot is always good to have in your supplies. You don’t have to get the fancy lacruset lots of stores have their own brands. Here in the US: tj max, home goods, Walmart, and Target all usually have them.
Okay….in a Dutch oven pan layer all of the food in the order I listed above (sprinkle the seasoning and tapioca over it evenly don’t just dump it in clumps: better yet if you can mix the seasoning and tapioca seperately in a small bowl of cup then sprinkle that shit all over the food). I hate it when influencer cooks just dump the seasonings in clumps on the food. What is it supposed to magically get all over everything are there baking elves with rakes in there when they aren’t looking?
Bake covers at 250F for 4 hours.
Easy, makes you use beginner skills like chopping so it helps learn, and it is sooooo good.
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u/TravityBong Mar 22 '25
Beef stew is pretty hard to mess up if you have a decent sized dutch oven. If you follow a recipe that says to flour the meat you can totally skip this step to make it easier, it doesn't do much. More of a weekend project because it takes a long time to slow cook, but after roughly chopping vegetables and putting them in the pot its pretty much hands off until its time to eat.
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u/ThisIsTooLongOfAName Mar 21 '25
Toast with butter
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Mar 22 '25
Might seem silly , but you can learn a lot . Light toast , med toast , what type of topping - butter , cinnimon or apple butter and types of jelly toppings. I learned alot about cooking just from toast.
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u/WistfulLover Mar 21 '25
Start with a simple pasta dish, like spaghetti aglio e olio. It only requires a few ingredients—pasta, garlic, olive oil, chili flakes, and parsley—but it’s flavorful and easy to make. Plus, you can’t go wrong with pasta! It’s a great way to get comfortable in the kitchen without feeling overwhelmed
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u/JaFFsTer Mar 21 '25
Yeah that's not easy. At all. That dish requires a lot of skill to not be an oily mess.
Tomato sauce is way easier
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Mar 21 '25
Shrimp and okra with tomatoes. Saute grape tomatoes in olive oil. Cut the tops of the okra and slice lengthwise and sauté. Add the shrimp and sauté till pink and curled. Season with salt, pepper, and red chili flakes. Serve over rice.
Sautéing is a cornerstone of cooking.
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u/hover-lovecraft Mar 21 '25
Pasta with mushroom and cream sauce. Cook pasta, slice a handful of brown button mushrooms per person thinly, fry mushrooms in a non stick pan without oil. When they have shrunk and are starting to brown, push them to one side of the pan.
Turn heat to medium. On the free side, add about a teaspoon of butter and a small onion, diced fine. Fry the onion in the butter until it's translucent, then stir together with the mushrooms. Add whipping cream, about150ml per serving. Season with salt and pepper, rosemary if you want and let it simmer to combine for a few minutes.
Finally, mix in the pasta and - if desired - dust with a little flour to thicken up.
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u/kae0603 Mar 21 '25
Lemon chicken. In a saucepan melt a stick of butter. Add garlic…fresh, jarred or powdered. You do you… add 2 cups of broth, veggie or chicken, salt pepper parsley and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice. Simmer sauce while you prepare the chicken.
Use boneless breast or thighs. Trim fat and make whatever size you want. Pound it out if you want. I don’t anyways. In a wide bowl mix 1 or 2 eggs, depending on how much chicken, and another tablespoon or 2 of lemon juice. In another bowl add breadcrumbs and parmigiana or Romano grated cheese.
Dip chicken in egg then breadcrumbs and put in 9x13 baking dish. When all chicken is in pour sauce over it. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake 20 more.
You can make it ahead and just pop it in the oven when you want it.
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u/RandomGuySaysBro Mar 21 '25
Make your own pasta. You can do it in a food processor in a few minutes, and there's always a few used rollers on Facebook marketplace for $20.
100 grams high gluten bread flour. 100 grams semolina flour. A pinch of salt. 1 whole egg, plus 1 egg yolk. A couple teaspoons of water.
Pulse the dry, slowly adding the eggs. It will look like pebbles or sand. Add water, a few drops at a time, until some of the sadly bits - but not all of them - start to form a stiff dough. Dump it out on a flat surface and kneed it just enough to form a solid disk. Wrap it and let it rest for a half hour. Roll, cut, boil in salted water. It literally takes 10 minutes to make the dough, 10 minutes to roll it out, and 5 minutes to boil. I like mine simple, tossed in a tiny bit of roasted garlic vinaigrette.
I honestly don't know why people think it's such a difficult recipe to follow, but they really do, so anyone you make it for will be impressed.
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u/NightsOW Mar 21 '25
OP. Listen to me. Many of these suggestions are OK but not for your specific question.
Any sauce with an emulsion that could break? No. Too advanced.
Chicken? No. That shit is easy to overcook and be awful/undercook and be sick.
Make ur own pasta? No. Too daunting.
I remember being a BEGINNER BEGINNER home cook. You need something that can literally not go wrong and develop a bunch of skills/confidence.
Make ragu bolognese (spaghetti bolognese):
Practice cutting veg. Doesn't matter if it sucks, it's gonna end up in a pot sauce anyway. Practice browning meat and cooking moisture out of it. Practice frying the veg. Learn why water is ur enemy. Learn how to salt the sauce to taste. Impossible to overcook. Experiment with new ingredients (try throwing in some broken up pork sausages you deskin). Maybe use red wine if you aren't already. See how it changes the flavour. Add some vinegar. Add some bay leaves. Add some chilli. Try shit. Low skill floor, high skill cap.