3 kitchen staples you can prepare from scratch in under 10 minutes, by a chef who never eats ultra-processed foods

You’ve probably heard that eating lots of ultra-processed foods isn’t great for your health. They’ve been linked to a host of chronic diseases, but with a busy schedule, it can be hard to find the time to make a home-cooked meal to replace convenient foods like protein bars or a store-bought burrito.

Rory O’Connell, a chef and cofounder of the prestigious Ballymaloe Cookery School in Ireland, has a remedy: dietary staples you can make from scratch in around 10 minutes, which can help you eat fewer UPFs overall.

O’Connell spends most of his time at the cooking school, which sits on a 100-acre organic farm complete with a dairy, chicken coop, bakery, and fermentation shed. He and his colleagues are in a unique position, being in such proximity to fresh ingredients and working a job dedicated to making delicious food. The salad they serve is made of leaves freshly picked from their fields, and the yogurt they eat for breakfast, made from their own cows’ milk, is fermented on-site.

Most people who live and work in cities don’t have the opportunity or time to eat this way, but there are some simple recipes O’Connell shared that could help.

Irish soda bread

“Knowing how to make a simple bread is a phenomenally useful skill,” O’Connell told Business Insider. And soda bread, an Irish staple, is quick to make and doesn’t require any yeast.

Ingredients:

• 8 oz/ 2 cups plain white flour
• 8 oz/ 2 cups brown wholemeal flour
• 2 oz kibbled wheat
• 2 to 3 tablespoons sesame seeds
• 1 rounded teaspoon dark soft brown sugar
• 1 rounded teaspoon salt
• 1 level teaspoon bicarbonate of soda, finely sieved
• ½ oz butter
• 1 small egg
• 16 fl oz/ 2 cups buttermilk

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F

2. Grease one 5 in x 8 in loaf tin

3. In a large, wide bowl, mix the flours, kibbled wheat, sesame seeds, brown sugar, salt, and bicarbonate of soda together, then rub in the butter. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients.

4. Break the egg into the bottom of your measuring jug and add the buttermilk to the 17 fl oz line, with the egg forming part of your total liquid measurement. Whisk to combine, then pour most of this mixture into the dry ingredients.

5. Using one hand, with the fingers open and stiff, mix in a full circle, drawing in the flour from the sides of the bowl, adding more milk and egg mixture if necessary. Avoid over-mixing to keep the dough light and airy — the mixture should be soft and almost pourable. Transfer to a well-oiled bread tin, then sprinkle the top with the extra kibbled wheat and sesame seeds.

6. Bake in the fully preheated oven for 50 to 60 minutes. Remove the tin 10 to 15 minutes before the end of cooking time and return to the oven to continue baking. Tap the base of the bread to check it’s cooked — it should sound hollow. Cool on a wire rack.

Pesto

You can make pesto in minutes, and it keeps for weeks covered with a layer of olive oil in a jar in the fridge, O’Connell said. It also freezes well, but for best results, don’t add the Parmesan cheese until it has defrosted.

“If you can make pesto, you have a sauce for chicken, fish, lamb, beans. You can have it just on toast with a poached egg,” he said.

Typically, pesto is made with basil and pine nuts, but you can substitute these for lots of different things. “There’s always going to be something in season at any time of the year that you can use in that recipe,” he said.

Variations he likes include parsley, wild garlic, watercress, or kale pesto. Cashews and almonds are both great alternatives to pine nuts, he said.

Makes about 2 x 7 fl oz jars

Ingredients:

• 4 oz fresh basil or watercress
• ¾ cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 oz cashews or fresh pine nuts, chopped
• 2 large garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 oz finely grated Parmesan cheese
• Sea salt, to taste

Method:

1. Whizz the basil (or watercress) with the olive oil, chopped cashews or pine nuts, and garlic in a food processor or pound in a pestle and mortar.

2. Remove to a bowl and fold in the Parmesan cheese. Season to taste.

Mayonnaise

Mayonnaise is another versatile sauce that takes under five minutes to make at home. “So useful. And it keeps in your fridge for up to three weeks,” O’Connell said.

“If you can make a bit of bread, hard boiled eggs, and a blob of mayonnaise, it’s delicious and nutritious,” he said.

You only need a handful of ingredients that you’ve probably already got in your kitchen.

Ingredients:

• 2 egg yolks, preferably free range
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• A pinch of English mustard or 1/4 teaspoon French mustard
• 1 dessertspoon white wine vinegar
• 225ml oil (sunflower or olive oil or a mixture) – we use 175ml sunflower oil and 50ml oil

Method:

1. Put the egg yolks into a bowl with the salt, mustard, and the white wine vinegar.

2. Put the oil into a measuring jug. Take a whisk in one hand and the oil in the other and drip the oil onto the egg yolks, drop by drop, whisking at the same time to create an emulsion.

3. Within a minute, you will notice that the mixture is beginning to thicken. When this happens, you can add the oil a little faster, but don’t get too complacent or it will suddenly curdle (split) because the egg yolks can only absorb the oil at a certain pace.
4. Taste and add a little more seasoning and vinegar if necessary.

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