Skip to content
Meghan Telpner
  • Home
  • About
  • Services
  • Shop
  • View All PostsExpand
    • All RecipesExpand
      • Baked Goods
      • Breakfast
      • Chocolate
      • Condiments
      • Desserts
      • Entrees
      • Herbal Remedies
      • Quick + Easy
      • Salad
      • Sides + Snacks
      • Smoothies + Beverages
      • Soups + Stews
    • Beauty
    • Best Of
    • Business
    • Culinary Nutrition
    • Ecological Care
    • Family Health
    • Health
    • Healthwashing
    • Healthy Home
    • Heart and Mind
    • Meghan’s Picks
    • Podcast
  • Course Login
Meghan Telpner

Culinary Nutrition

Home » All Posts » Probiotic

Essential Healthy Cooking Techniques and Recipes Everyone Should Master

ByAcademy of Culinary Nutrition Last updated onJanuary 30, 2024 Reading Time: 7 minutes

You can’t explore culinary nutrition without getting your hands a little dirty in the kitchen. With the explosion of cooking shows and celebrity chefs, home cooking has become intimidating for some of us. However, you don’t need to agonize over time-consuming cooking techniques and recipes – all you need are some culinary nutrition basics to get started, which allow you to eat well and support your health at the same time. These healthy cooking techniques and recipes are part of the foundation of the Culinary Nutrition Expert Program and they are very simple to master!

ESSENTIAL Cooking Techniques and Basic Cooking SKILLS

  1. Basic Knife Skills
  2. Meal Prep
  3. Batch Cooking
  4. Sautéing
  5. Cast Iron Cooking
  6. Slow Cooking
  7. Fermenting
  8. Sprouting
  9. Steaming Vegetables
  10. Using Veggies Root to Stem

Basic Knife Skills

basic knife skills

You don’t need to be lightning fast, but if you want to cook you should get comfortable with using a knife, one of the most handy and inexpensive cooking tools. Take your time practicing small, medium-sized and large cuts, which don’t need to be perfect. The more you practice, the easier mincing, dicing and chopping will be.

Get Started

  • Basic Knife Skills: Knife Cuts, Choosing a Knife and Knife Safety

Meal Prep

Meal prep is one of the first skills we teach our students in the Culinary Nutrition Expert Program. Preparing ingredients, snacks, condiments and entire meals ahead of time makes it so much easier to stick to your healthy eating goals. With a few hours of prep, you don’t need to worry about what you’ll be eating all week long, saving you time as well as money in the process.

Get Started

  • 5 Essential Meal Prepping Tips

Batch Cooking

Guide to Healthy Batch Cooking Healthy cooking Technique

Meal prepping and cooking is an investment in time, money and effort. Why not cook once, and then enjoy the spoils multiple times? Batch cooking, whether in large amounts to eat throughout the week or to freeze for later (or a mix of both of these things) is a lifesaver for busy days and tiresome days, when unexpected guests arrive, the holiday season, or when recovering from surgery, illness or childbirth.

Get Started

  • Healthy Batch Cooking 101

Get your FREE Batch Cooking Guide plus 35 more free resources!

Fill out the form below for instant access.

Free Resource Library

Enjoy more than 40 downloadable guides, recipes, and resources.

Sautéing

This basic cooking technique involves frying ingredients over medium to high heat (preferably in a healthy cooking oil) to cook them quickly and achieve browning and flavour. Sautéing is the foundation for many meals, including soups, stews, one-pot meals and Instant Pot recipes.

Cast Iron Cooking

cast iron cooking technique

Cast iron is one of our favourite pans for cooking because it’s durable, retains heat well, is free of non-stick coatings, and is affordable. There is, however, an adjustment period to cooking with cast iron if you’re not used to it.

Get Started Cooking With Cast Iron

  • Cast Iron Care + Cooking Tips

Slow Cooking

What could be easier than letting an appliance do all the work? Stick ingredients into a slow cooker and come home later to a warm, hearty meal. Slow cooking is almost a foolproof cooking technique and is totally delicious, especially on a blustery fall or winter day.

Slow Cooker Inspiration

  • 20 best Slow Cooker Recipes

Fermenting

fermenting cooking technique

Fermentation is a traditional preserving technique that is great for digestive health, immunity and nutrient absorption. We teach a few fermentation basics in the Culinary Nutrition Expert Program, and for a more in-depth practice, check out our self-paced Fundamentals of Fermentation Course.

Some of our favourite fermented foods that you can easily make at home at a fraction of the cost of store-bought options:

  • Shrubs (drinking vinegar)
  • Pickles
  • Dairy-free yogurt
  • Kombucha
  • Sauerkraut

Sprouting

Rich in vitamins, minerals, enzymes and antioxidants, sprouts are an inexpensive food you can grow indoors. And they are so easy!

Start Sprouting

How to Sprout: Complete Guide to Sprouting

Steaming Vegetables

Oversteaming or overboiling vegetables saps them of nutrients, colour and flavour. Learn to create the perfect tender-crisp steamed veggies by:

  1. using a stainless steel or bamboo steamer
  2. cutting vegetables into equal sizes so they’ll cook evenly
  3. steaming over medium heat until the veggies are just fork tender and bright in colour

It’s better to go by texture rather than time, as thicker vegetables like carrots or sweet potatoes will take much longer to steam than chard. Better to slightly under-steam them, as the residual heat of the steamer will help to finish things off if needed.

Using Veggies Root to Stem

We have a habit in North America of throwing out parts of vegetables that we could use for another purpose. Explore the root to stem approach to using vegetables, which includes leaving the skins on for certain veggies, saving scraps for broth, using the stems of dark leafy greens, like kale, for juicing or stir-fries, using a whole pumpkin, or freezing herbs in olive oil. Check out more zero waste cooking tips that will help you explore root to stem cooking here.


baSic recipes to master

Veggie Stock or Bone Broth

broth cooking techque

Vegetable stocks and bone broths are reliable, full of flavour, and can be used in many different recipes. We like making huge batches of stock and then freezing it so we always have some on hand. Once you master a basic broth, power up the culinary nutrition power of your broth with culinary adaptogens, herbs, spices and immune-supportive foods.

  • Recipe: How to Make Stocks and Broths

Homemade Nut or Seed Milk

This staple liquid is perfect for smoothies, gluten-free baking, dairy-free elixirs, homemade chocolate desserts, soups and more. Homemade nut milk skips the refined sugars, stabilizers and preservatives, and is so customizable (chocolate milk anyone?).

  • Recipe: How to Make Nut and Seed Milk
  • Recipe: How to Make Oat Milk

Cooking Gluten-Free Grains

There’s more to gluten-free grains than just rice (though it’s good to know how to cook that well, too!). Explore using quinoa, buckwheat, millet, oats, sorghum, wild rice, amaranth and teff to add depth, flavour, nutrition and texture to your dishes.

While most grains use a 2:1 ratio (2 cups water, 1 cup rice), some grains such as sorghum and wild rice usually require a 3:1 ratio. You’ll also need to use more water if you want a porridge-y, soupy texture.

  • Learn: Guide to Cooking Grains and Beans

Blending a Smoothie

Take your health to the next level with a dairy-free smoothie. You can pack way more nutrition into a blended beverage than you could likely eat in one serving if you ate everything whole. Check out our Best Smoothie Formula for smoothie building and blending tips, and try one of these 20 Best Dairy-Free Smoothie Recipes. Once you’re a skilled blenderist, try moving on to smoothie bowls for extra creativity and pizzazz.

Mastering Salad Dressing

A good salad dressing takes your salad – or roasted veggies – from meh to wowza. Oils, acidity and herbs are the basis of a solid dressing, but there are also many flourishes you can use to add creaminess, texture or sweetness.

  • Learn: How to Make Salad Dressing

Crafting Dairy-Free Elixirs

Smoothies and juices aren’t the only healthful beverages – hot drinks like dairy-free elixirs can serve as a light meal or snack, while also supporting our health in a targeted way by incorporating healing herbs.

  • Learn: DIY Guide to Dairy-Free Elixirs
  • Recipe: 20 Best Dairy-Free Elixir Recipes
  • Recipe: Dairy-Free Gingerbread Latte
  • Recipe: Our Favourite Hot Chocolate Combinations

Baking a Good Loaf of Bread

A solid loaf of gluten-free bread is fantastic for avocado toast, plunging into dips and spreads, sandwiches, or tearing into salad croutons. Baking bread with gluten-free or grain-free flours can be tricky at first. We love this power-packed almond bread recipe (it’s a student fave too!). If baking bread seems intimidating, try an easy flatbread recipe instead.

  • Recipe: 20 Best Gluten-Free Bread Recipes

Once you get the hang of some of these healthy cooking techniques, basic cooking skills and recipes, you’ll be cooking from scratch on the regular with confidence and pleasure.

essential cooking techniques

Header Image: iStock/Magone

Free Resource Library

Enjoy more than 40 downloadable guides, recipes, and resources.

Recommended Posts

  • From-Scratch-Cooking-1-e1580843149618
    Most Misconceptions About Healthy Cooking
  • Kitchen-Hacks-that-help-with-dinner
    20 Healthy Kitchen Hacks To Get Dinner on The Table Fast
  • IMG_1379
    How To Get Started With Healthy Cooking
  • basic-knife-skills
    Basic Knife Skills: Knife Cuts, Choosing a Knife and…
  • How to reduce food waste
    How to Reduce Food Waste + Best Zero-Waste Recipes
  • Health-Benefits-Of-Eggs-Deciphering-Egg-Labels-and-Egg-Recipes
    Health Benefits Of Eggs, Deciphering Egg Labels and…
  • What-does-a-Culinary-Expert-do
    What Can a Culinary Nutrition Expert Do?
  • 12-Energizing-Breakfasts
    12 Energizing Breakfasts: Recipes and Breakfast Tips
  • Broths and Stocks
    Broths and Stocks: A Culinary Nutrition Guide

The Nitty Gritty

  • Course Login
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions

Copyright © 2008–2025 Meghan Telpner, Inc. All rights reserved.

Facebook Instagram

⭐️ FREE ⭐️
INSTANT ACCESS

Enjoy 45+ downloadable guides to ignite that healthy living spark.
Free Resouces
Scroll to top
  • Home
  • About
  • Services
  • Shop
  • View All Posts
    • All Recipes
      • Baked Goods
      • Breakfast
      • Chocolate
      • Condiments
      • Desserts
      • Entrees
      • Herbal Remedies
      • Quick + Easy
      • Salad
      • Sides + Snacks
      • Smoothies + Beverages
      • Soups + Stews
    • Beauty
    • Best Of
    • Business
    • Culinary Nutrition
    • Ecological Care
    • Family Health
    • Health
    • Healthwashing
    • Healthy Home
    • Heart and Mind
    • Meghan’s Picks
    • Podcast
  • Course Login
Search