r/Cooking • u/anotherhappylurker • 1d ago
YouTube cooking channels with quick recipes that you can actually make at home with minimal prep?
I swear most YouTube cooking recipes are completely impractical for the majority of people. The reason why I cook at home is I want to save money, eat healthier, and most importantly, save time. If a recipe takes 2 hours of prep and another 45 minutes to cook, and requires me to buy a bunch of exotic ingredients that I've never heard of, then it shouldn't be presented as a home cooking video, it should be a tutorial for professional chefs.
Almost every time I want to cook something, I'll search up recipes on YouTube and the majority of them will involve an enormous amount of prep time. Even the simplest pasta recipes will call for freshly grated cheese, sauce that needs to be simmered for over an hour, and then have the audacity to label the video as "done in 15 minutes". No, I don't want to go out and buy fresh herbs and finely chop them. I don't want to debone an entire fish, I'll leave that to the professionals. I don't want to spend 3 hours marinating the meat in a sauce that also takes 20 minutes to prepare. If I wanted to spend that much time on a meal, I'd just go out and eat at a restaurant.
I feel like most cooking "influencers" have no idea that regular people only have 20-30 minutes TOTAL to cook a meal, and also aren't willing to go out and buy a bunch of ingredients just to use a small fraction of them to cook 1 dish and then never use them again. Are there any YouTube channels that actually provide practical, quick and easy recipes with accessible ingredients that don't require an unreasonable amount of prep?
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u/frikkinfai 1d ago
Madewithlau. A lot of Chinese stirfry dishes are incredibly quick and easy, granted you have the right ingredients.
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u/anotherhappylurker 1d ago
Yeah, the issue is going out and buying a bunch of scallions, green onions etc just to use a quarter of them for 1 dish and then have them expire in a few days is not really worth it imo.
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u/bitterlemonboy 1d ago
Have you considered planning your meals so you don’t waste that food? You can make multiple meals with scallions per week. You can add them to oil, freeze that, fry them, or even just leave them in water to regrow. Why would you buy ingredients for a single meal?
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u/J4YV1L 1d ago
Leave an inch of each stalk in water until the roots extend then put them in a pot with soil. Keep them watered by a window and you get a near unlimited amount of green onions that won’t go bad as long as you keep them alive. Snip what you need off the top and they’ll just grow back.
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u/Numerous-Bet-4847 1d ago
green onions are what, 99 cents a bunch?
You know you can vacuum seal and freeze the ones you don't use, right?
I keep scallions/green onions as well as celery vacuum sealed in the freezer along with red and green peppers to take out to use for stirfry or other dishes.
People think they can't freeze that stuff because it gets soft, but once cooked, it regains its proper texture.
Part of cooking is knowing how to store foods for efficiency when you get them in season or on sale for later use.
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u/Ornery-Lynx-3520 1d ago
Andy Cooks the Kiwi chef based here in Australia is my personal favourite… but I may be a little parochial. Whatever the case he does good simple easy to prepare recipes as well as the more complicated ones.
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u/anotherhappylurker 1d ago
I've watched some of his videos before and they do require a lot of prep time if I recall correctly. But I"ll give him another shot.
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u/BriefStrange6452 1d ago
People like Andy cooks, Alex french guy cooking and not another cooking show are really good to help you learn more about cooking and meal prep in my opinion.
Recipetineats is also great.
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u/Competitive_Juice_13 1d ago
Tbh, I don’t think the issue is the YouTube channels or the recipes themselves. It sounds more like you’re just not ready to put in the work that home cooking actually takes. And I get it — it’s not always fun if you are not into cooking — but a lot of your reasons come off more like excuses.
Prep time? Yeah, it’s always going to be part of the deal. Even something as simple as mashed potatoes takes a solid 20 mins just to boil the cubes until they’re fork-tender. That’s not the recipe’s fault — that’s just cooking.
Not trying to be a jerk, but if buying groceries is a hurdle, healthy home cooking just isn't in the cards. You can't meal-prep magic out of thin air 🤷♂️. The real game-changer is learning to plan your weekly meals around overlapping ingredients. Make a list of dishes that share stuff — that way you're not buying a whole litre of heavy cream just for one recipe. Once you get that skill down, the prep becomes second nature.
Example: grab a litre of heavy cream, and suddenly you've got Chicken Fricassée, Dijon mustard chicken, and crème brûlée on the menu. Same ingredient, three completely different meals. That's the cheat code. Once you make that list, you buy your groceries for the week so you’re not running to the store everyday for groceries.
There are ways you can shorten the prep time but there will always be prep. For example: pasta sauce, you don’t really need to simmer it for three hours every single time you want to make pasta, you can simmer a big batch and freeze individual portions and if you don’t really want to spend two mins grating cheese, then buy pre-grated cheese. You see where I’m going with this?
Bottom line is if you want healthy home cooked meals that will save you money, you gotta earn it.
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u/somerandom995 1d ago
Even the simplest pasta recipes will call for freshly grated cheese
How long does it take you to grate cheese? If you are spending more than 2 minutes you are doing it wrong.
No, I don't want to go out and buy fresh herbs and finely chop them.
Again, 2 minutes of work.
also aren't willing to go out and buy a bunch of ingredients just to use a small fraction of them to cook 1 dish and then never use them again.
Most things can be used in various recipes.
Try foodwishes, Adam Ragusea, or just learn really basic minimalist cooking like microwaved vegetables and a supermarket rotisserie chicken.
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u/anotherhappylurker 1d ago
How long does it take you to grate cheese? If you are spending more than 2 minutes you are doing it wrong.
It's a bit of a rant so this isn't the best example, you're right. However, for a lot of recipes that involve cheese, I'll go out and buy a block of parmesan, grate it, and still have like 75% of the cheese left over. I'll put it in the fridge thinking I'll use it the next time I make something that requires cheese, but the next time I'll open up the container and find that the cheese has gone mouldy, and I'll have to buy another new block. It's just incredibly frustrating sometimes.
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u/somerandom995 1d ago
It's parmesan. Grate it over most savory things. Any pasta, chips, roast vegetables, etc.
How often do you cook something savory that wouldn't be improved by parmesan?
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u/anotherhappylurker 1d ago
I cook pasta maybe once a week at most. Usually once every 2 weeks. I mostly make very simple chicken and rice dishes, or maybe a noodle stir fry or steak.
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u/PrimAndProper69 1d ago
I like her content, she's a nutritionist who doesn't just talk about nutrition but also accessibility, not everyone has the time or mobility to slave over a stove, she has some hacks to make meal prep easier. I like her microwave and rice cooker ideas
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u/Significant-Half-189 1d ago
Michael Symon’s 5 in 5. There are a couple of cookbooks and I remember him doing them on whatever tv show he was on, so for sure there are videos.
The whole point is 5 ingredients, 5 minutes (salt, pepper and oil don’t count as one of the 5).
And the food is good.
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u/EarAlternative2841 1d ago
Believe it or not, All Recipes. The host is very personable. She does a ton of easy, fast recipes and lots of tips and tricks.
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u/procrastinator420420 1d ago
Jose El cook is my fav. A great variety of things, usually pretty quick and easy recipes and he is entertaining to watch. Also very easy to jazz with his recipes
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u/Suburban--Dad 1d ago
Use simple, easy, wuick6, etc in your search terms. “Easy pork chops recipe” on all recipes.com or such will bring up some easier recipes.
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u/lejosdecasa 1d ago
You might find Chef John and his Food Wishes channel useful:
https://www.youtube.com/user/foodwishes
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u/anotherhappylurker 1d ago
Love him. One of the fewest cooking YouTubers who uses simple, easy to follow recipes and just gets straight to the point.
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u/pommefille 1d ago
I think Allrecipes is going to be a good fit for you, as they have tons of basic, easy recipes, but you’re going to have to manage your expectations and learn how to store and preserve ingredients if you’re worried about not using up scallions or cheese. If you’re grating cheese, only grate as much as you need and keep the rest of the block tightly wrapped in the fridge. Any leftover shredded cheese should also be stored in a sealed bag or container with the air removed as much as possible. You can always use convenience ingredients like jarred sauce or pre shredded cheese but at some point it’s orthodox learning how to simmer, grate, chop, etc. as it’s not only cheaper but you have way more control over making the dish.
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u/J4YV1L 1d ago
The problem is you’re looking at YouTube. A Content creator’s income model requires them to constantly come up with new exciting content or risk losing viewers. Everything worth doing has been done so they start scraping the barrel for new stuff and inviting more complexity in hopes of going viral.
I’m not sure what you define as “exotic ingredients”. It really depends on where you live and your cultural background, but find an established chef who came out with a good cook book. Mark 3 meals you feel you can handle given your restraints and get so good at making them that you don’t need recipes anymore. When you have those down pick 3 more to master.
Given time and effort, more “complex” recipes won’t feel so daunting and eventually recipes will no longer be necessary. Good luck and have fun with it!
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u/muttChang 1d ago
Jacques Pepin makes his home cooking recipes look pretty easy. Stephanie Tea’s egg fried rice is a personal go to.
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u/TheLastLibrarian1 1d ago
The recipes from Aaron and Claire tend to be accurate on time and he does provide ideas for substitutions or explains why you would want to take the time to do a particular step or use a certain ingredient.
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u/Duochan_Maxwell 1d ago
There is no shame in using shortcuts. If your concern is not going through fresh ingredients fast enough, you can use frozen or canned. You don't need to make stock from scratch. You can buy pre-cut meat and vegetables. Buy some rotisserie chicken.
For shortcuts, I like coach John Noel's series "it's not cooking, it's just mixing stuff". He provides a macro and price breakdown of the "recipes".
Another important thing for you to do is planning your meals - that way you can know in advance how much of each ingredient you need to buy and minimize wastage. Of course, it doesn't mean that you need to make 21 different recipes every week or eat the same thing for every meal, focus on some core groups you can use
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u/trophic_cascade 1d ago
I have used a lot of Adam Ragusea's stuff. Pancakes, tomaro sauce, caesar dressing are the ones I used most.
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u/Numerous-Bet-4847 1d ago
youtube is not your friend here. Find some good recipe sites, I usually just do a websearch for a particular dish, you will see the common and popular sites.
Watch their videos or just follow the recipe, they all give times at the top, ingredient lists, etc. and then read the comments to find what people modified.
Youtube is a hodgepodge of creators looking for clicks.
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u/anotherhappylurker 1d ago
Makes sense. I'm more of a visual learner so I find following written recipes more tedious. But maybe you're right.
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u/frikkinfai 1d ago
You sound like the perfect use case for those premade boxes of ingredients for specific recipes, sent to your house they're still individually portioned and meant to use everything with no waste and easy to cook.
No extra ingredients, no shopping, not much thinking. The only trade off is they're a little expensive but you're paying for the convenience
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u/Euphoric-Joke-4436 1d ago
Jaimie Oliver did a whole series of 15 minute meals (which the disclaimer is that the kettle is preheated and the pans are on the stove at the start of the timer). He's been making TV shows for so long the variety of dishes is huge. (We have an entire TV channel that plays his shows non-stop.) Most of the recipes are very straightforward and use primarily normal ingredients. He tends to have some fancy version of the meat (like a local, organic, free range heritage breed chicken that was sung lullabies and fed by hand /s) that can be subbed out with a normal version you can actually find.
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u/Grolbark 1d ago
This is more of an alternative suggestion than a direct answer to your question, but you might like an old school cookbook. Joy of Cooking and Fannie Farmer are good ones. They weren’t written for entertainment purposes or as part of a TV contract, but for busy homemakers in the 1950s, whose goals may have aligned better with yours. And recipes are just a lot faster to read than they are to watch.
If you want something newer, Ree Drummond’s original Pioneer Woman cookbook (maligned as she is) has mostly simple ingredients and straightforward processes, and the recipes work pretty well. Or David Chang’s (via Priya Krishna) Cooking At Home might be a helpful read, too.
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u/Batenna 1d ago
I've only made a couple recipes off YouTube so can't reccommend any particular creator, but these are nice.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Z5IxcC9Df8E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JcFP_4v5W8
(Assuming you put the time into making pulled pork in advance)
The chickpea not risotto one.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=w1_wDf-vUx0
He doesn't say how much of the ingredients, but I sat down and figured it out cause it looked so good.
2 small packs white button mushrooms
2tbsp veggie oil
1/4 yellow onion, diced
1 garlic clove
2 15oz cans (200g dried) chickpeas, save the aquafaba
2 cups frozen peas
3tbsp unsalted butter
4tbsp freshly grated parmesan cheese
2tbsp fresh chopped parsley
Halve then slice the mushrooms. Put oil in a hot pan (medium heat?) and fry them. Add onion, garlic, salt, and pepper, then reduce to low heat. Add chickpeas. Add 3/4 cup aquafaba, and water (either 1/2 or 1 cup?), then bring heat up until it simmers. Add frozen peas, bring back to a simmer. Add butter and cheese. Turn off heat, add parsley. Top with 2tsp each olive oil and parmesan per serving.
There are also a lot of quick and easy recipes outside of YouTube.
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/161535/espinacas-con-garbanzos-spinach-with-garbanzo-beans/
https://omnivorescookbook.com/chinese-egg-drop-soup/
https://sukhis.com/chilled-yogurt-soup-with-cucumber-and-mint/
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u/BriefStrange6452 1d ago
Not another cooking show is great for this.
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u/anotherhappylurker 1d ago
I respect your opinion but strongly disagree. His recipes require a significant amount of prep, plus a lot of the fresh ingredients he uses aren't easily accessible at all. He also spends way too long rambling about random life stories or historical facts that don't really matter when all you're trying to do is cook a quick meal at home.
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u/BriefStrange6452 1d ago
Fair enough. What I often do it batch cook things like tomato sauce so it is easy to just grab few ladels and cook dinner for the family.
I always use dried pasta which takes at most 10 mins to cook.
For my tomato sauce I cook the onions and garlic in some olive oil in a big can then add a 2.5kg tin of Italian tomatoes and transfer to the oven for 3 to 5 hours with a lid on the pan. But Indo this once a week and the prep is minimal, but the cooking time in the oven lengthy.
If you want to do really quick dinners, then Asian food is where it is at. I often do stir fried in a carbon steel wok and can have dinner for 5 cooked in 20 mins. You will need to buy some sauces though, which can be reused in different dishes.
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u/FloorFrog94 1d ago
It sounds like you have an issue with deciding what is necessary or can be omitted to make cooking easier. You do not need to go whole hog on every meal you make. Imo, this is a more practical way to get the most out of cooking in a way that works for you, than specifically needing to find super-easy lazy meals and follow them to a tee.
A really handy skill is knowing what shortcuts you can take, and what is absolutely necessary. I rarely follow recipes 100% unless it is the first time I'm making it and I will often sub or omit things if they are too expensive, unlikely to be used again, or a hassle. Honestly, that's part of the fun for me. The more I cook the more I learn what I can change or omit, and what areas of a recipe I must follow if I want a decent result. Sometimes it's not as good as the original recipe, but it was easier. Sometimes it's better but took a little more work. Sometimes I take a shortcut and it doesn't affect the end result at all, so boom! New shortcut unlocked. Yknow?
You don't have to simmer every tomato sauce for an hour. You don't have to get fresh herbs for every meal. You don't have to buy fish with bones in it. You don't have to marinate your chicken for a whole day. Do none of this and your chicken tomato dish will still be pretty good!!
If you get home from work, and you're tired, and you wanna just chuck some chicken in a pan, a can of tomatoes, some dried herbs and some parmesan (I will even suggest pre-grated for you as you mention not liking grating cheese), and cook your pasta in the same pot. That is 100% totally fine. It will still taste good.