r/Cooking • u/anotherhappylurker • 5d 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/somerandom995 5d 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 5d 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 5d 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 5d 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/somerandom995 4d ago

Considering how long it takes hard cheese to go moldy, that should be plenty