During the week I find myself throwing meals together quite quickly. I like to cook as much as I can from scratch, but this can be time-consuming. In a push it can be tempting to pick up a ready meal or a takeaway, but if you’re savvy you can cook food faster. Over the years I’ve picked up a few habits to get meals to the table a bit quicker.

Today I’m sharing some of the ways I cook food faster.

1. Most frozen vegetables can be steamed in 3-4 minutes in the microwave, just throw it in a microwave proof dish, add a splash of water and put the lid loosely on top.

2. Likewise, fresh vegetables can be quickly cooked in the microwave. My son loves baby sweetcorn, so I add a splash of water and microwave them (and all kinds of other veg) until they’re cooked.

3. If you’re making a sausage sandwich, slice them length-ways first, flatten them out and they’ll cook in half the time.

4. If you’re using the oven, as soon as you start to prep your meal, put your oven on high, you can adjust the temperature later, you just need to get it preheated asap.

5. While I’m waiting for the oven to heat up, depending on what I’m cooking, I might defrost things in the microwave first. So things like oven chips I might defrost for 5 minutes to speed up the cooking process.

6. Same with pans. Boil the kettle and/or get a pan on asap. Don’t overdo the amount of water – it will boil faster and be less likely to boil over.

7. Prick potatoes with a fork, the heat will them penetrate better so they cook quicker.

8. Jacket potatoes are an easy, fairly healthy meal. They’re best done in the oven, but you can shave at least half an hour off the oven cooking time by cooking them in the microwave until they’re just cooked through, then put them in the oven so the skin crisps up and the potato goes fluffy on the inside.

9. Portion control – you’ll cook faster if you only cook just enough instead of too much. Learn to take things off the heat when they’re just done, especially if you’re holding them before serving, the internal heat will keep them cooking a little bit longer.

10. Slow cooking seems like the opposite of fast cooking, but if you’re organised you can throw a meal together in the morning, have it cook all day and it’s ready and waiting when you get home.

What are your super speedy cooking tips? I’d love you to share them in the comments.

If you found this helpful, you can find my 7 Time Saving Cheats for Busy Cooks here.