15 Minute Meals

How to Stick to Fifteen Minutes Let me just get this out of the way: I love caramelized onions. My sister-in-law once joked that I should write a cookbook called First Start by Sautéing Some Onions. So I am not delusional when it comes to the flavors that can develop from cooking something a long time. Slow roasted meats, simmering stocks, and, yes, deeply caramelized onions are all very dear to me. But some days just do not have enough time for that—and that is A-okay. Quick meals do not mean you have to inevitably compromise on flavor; they just mean you can’t get some flavors. And since we don’t need every flavor every day, there’s no downside to having many of your meals take only fifteen minutes. Yes, caramelized onions are delightful, but does it beat fresh summer corn cooked for two minutes on a grill? Of course not. It’s different. But there’s no shame in handling different ingredients differently. Because the truth of the matter is that sometimes a fifteen-minute recipe is the only thing stopping us from eating ice cream for dinner again. Or serving a hodgepodge of leftovers and stray items on a plate as dinner. The thought of spending thirty minutes to get a cohesive meal on the table can feel daunting. Thirty minutes can be a long time. Ten minutes of prep, but then thirty minutes in the oven, can feel like an impossible hurdle to leap. And there has to be an alternative that doesn’t come from a package. So, instead of another dinner for my kids of grapes, carrot sticks, and salami (yes, I’ve done that), I’ve started trying to find where I can trim away the fat of time. What ingredients can add enough flavor to compensate for speedier cooking? What produce chars quickly? What state can my proteins be in so that they are ready without a long cook time? And once you get into that mindset, the possibilities are endless. The mainstays I relied on have changed. No-prep vegetables like asparagus and snow peas have overshadowed others. Ground meats and thinner cuts of fish have become the default proteins. High-impact ingredients that used to require special sourcing are now readily available to add flavor when time is short. And shortcut products like minute rice, frozen vegetables, and canned ingredients have skyrocketed in quality, making them essentials in our arsenals. Quick recipes can thrive without tasting like a compromise. You just have to know where you can get flavor quickly. And 15-Minute Meals will be your guide.