12 Fun and Healthy-ish Quarantine Projects to Upgrade Your Cooking Skills
It’s been over two months since quarantine started and, here in NYC, there’s still no realistic end in sight. How are you feeling? Have you hit Zoom happy hour exhaustion? Is the thought of starting a fourth puzzle less appealing than when you took on your first three? Or maybe you used to look forward to watching a show every single night but it has now become so routinized it’s driving you crazy. (Guilty even outside of quarantine!) When’s the last time you took on a new project? What about the last time you tried cooking something you’ve never made before?
If you’re feeling bored or uninspired, learning to cook a brand new dish can seem daunting. But it can also be exactly what you need to help get you in a better headspace! Plus trying something new is always a great idea.
Take a break from your usual cooking and challenge yourself to make a dish you’ve never made before! You know those dishes you usually only get when dining out? Those dishes you’ve never made before because they seem too involved or time-consuming? Now is the time to make those. You might be surprised with how easy (although time consuming) it is to make some of these! And the learning (and eating 😉) process is really fun!
So pour yourself a glass of wine or make a cocktail (totally optional, although highly recommended) and dive into your new cooking project!
1. Spring Rolls
It’s warming up in NYC and I’m starting to crave more raw veggies! Spring rolls are a delicious way to pack some in, especially when paired with a peanut or almond butter dipping sauce. 🤤 So why not get a taste of spring/summer while you’re stuck inside?
It takes practice to roll up the hydrated rice paper - chances are that your first few will come out ugly. But they’ll still taste delicious and you’ll get the hang of it as you make more rolls! Try these Vietnamese Spring Rolls with Crispy Tofu or these All Veggie Spring Rolls.
2. Gnocchi
Love pasta but don’t have equipment to make your own? Same. Make gnocchi, pasta’s little dumpling relatives! They’re the perfect date night project as they take some time to make (but aren’t an all-day project) and allow for chatting and sipping as you’re rolling the dough and cutting your pieces.
This recipe is a practically foolproof guide that will teach you how easy it is to make gnocchi! Pair the gnocchi with your choice of sauce - I love it with this Arrabbiata sauce or with pesto and extra sauteed/roasted veg and fresh greens.
3. Lasagna
So maybe you’re still itching for some fresh pasta but you don’t have the equipment required to make noodles. Make lasagna! Just buy oven-ready lasagna sheets and assemble the rest . I promise making the individual components and assembling it will still be super time-consuming and fill your pasta void.
You can follow a recipe like this one or this one. Or try your hand at crafting your own recipe!
I made simple lasagna with these components that turned out delicious:
Lentil lasagna sheets (or use any vegan oven-ready lasagna sheets you like!)
This marinara sauce with some added red lentils and extra water (definitely optional but I just wanted to bulk up the nutrition a bit!)
The tofu “ricotta” found in this lasagna recipe
Raw baby spinach (or you could sautée it)
Topped with walnut herb “parmesan” found in this recipe
4. Sushi
The thought of making my own sushi used to scare me. But homemade sushi isn’t as daunting as it might seem! It’s just a matter of cooking and dressing some sushi rice, cutting up some veggies/tofu for your rolls, and assembling everything. (Yes, it’s really that easy!)
Start with Meera Sodha’s recipe and guide from The Guardian (pictured above!). It takes you through the sushi-making process step-by-step and your rolls will come out delicious! You can also follow this technique for prepping the sushi rice and get creative with your fillings - avocado, fresh/cooked veggies, greens, vegan cream cheese, tofu, sauces, etc. - the combos are endless!
5. Falafel
Put those pantry chickpeas to use and make falafel! You can pan fry the patties or if you’re trying to keep it on the healthier side, bake them. Serve them in pitas or as part of a bowl with your favorite mix of fresh veggies, herbs, hummus, and sauces.
Try this pan-fried option or this baked one!
6. Dishoom’s Black Dal
It’s definitely possible to whip up a delicious dal in under an hour. But I recommend trying a dal with longer cooking times to really let those flavors simmer in! London’s Indian restaurant Dishoom has a dal dish that cooks for over 24 hours. 😮 Ok, don’t worry, you don’t have to take it that far (although you totally can) but spend an afternoon letting that dal cook for 3-4 hours to really infuse those flavors! Most of the time is down time you can spend doing something else while the dal cooks slowly.
This recipe is based on Dishoom’s black dal. It’s not entirely vegan but it’s easily veganized by substituting vegan butter and coconut cream for dairy butter/cream. Serve with a non-dairy yogurt (like coconut yogurt) and naan!
7. Naan
Speaking of naan, you can make your own while that dal is simmering! I love the look of this whole wheat naan recipe.
8. Mole
Mexico City restaurant Pujol serves a “new” mole alongside an “old” mole that is over 1,000 days old. 🤯 Chef Enrique Olvera treats his “old” mole madras as more of a starter than a traditional mole where he feeds a new batch of mole into it to continuously develop its flavors. How cool, right? You can make your own moles with Chef Olvera’s recipes, which take about an hour and a half to make. And no, you don’t have to feed your old mole hundreds of times before eating it! Although keeping a mole starter would definitely be a tasty hobby and easy enough to pair with your daily ritual of feeding your sourdough starter.
For a really fun date night tasting experience, serve both moles side by side! Make the batch of mole viejo (old mole) a couple of days before you plan on eating it so that you can feed it a new batch of mole to further develop its flavors! And the day you plan to serve the moles, whip up a batch of the mole nuevo (new mole) to serve alongside your old mole.
Or if you want to keep it simple, make the new mole and serve it as part of a dish like enchiladas, tacos, or a bowl with veggies and/or tempeh/seitan.
9. Sprout Your Own Broccoli Sprouts
If you follow me on Instagram, you might’ve picked up on my obsession with broccoli sprouts. I add them to everything I can - toasts, sandwiches, bowls, etc. - because they’re packed with fiber, vitamins, and sulphoraphane, which is believed to have many disease-fighting properties. I probably spend too much of our grocery budget on sprouts alone.
Instead of buying broccoli sprouts, buy some seeds and sprout your own! You just need a jar and it doesn’t require a ton of space, so it’s totally do-able on your single countertop between your stove and fridge that passes as a “kitchen” in Brooklyn.
10. Babka
Ok, I know that banana bread is all the rage of quarantine and everyone’s baking it (and if you haven’t, you totally should!). But making banana bread is also easy and quick and chances are you’ve done it at some point in your life. With all that extra time on your hands right now, banana bread is out. It’s time to bake a new type of loaf that is ridiculously time-consuming but totally worth it: babka. 😍 You know, the super chocolatey swirled loaf you might remember from that Seinfeld episode.
I’ll admit I haven’t tried my hand at babka yet, so I should probably take my own advice and give it a shot, no? I’m intrigued by this recipe, this recipe, or this one if you’re feeling extra.
11. Crepes
There’s definitely technique involved in making a delicate *perfectly thin* crepe that doesn’t fall apart when flipped. And I certainly haven’t mastered that technique in my last 5 years of owning a crepe pan - but I also haven’t been trying. With restaurant closures, I’m left dreaming of crepes filled with chocolate hazelnut butters, bananas, strawberries, etc., or even savory options like spinach and mushroom - the list goes on!
If you’re dreaming of crepes like me, now’s our chance to turn those dreams into reality and practice perfecting our crepe making skills! This recipe, this recipe, and this recipe are just three of the many vegan crepe recipes to attempt.
12. Bonus: Sourdough
If you love fresh bread and are willing to take on a long term food project, try your hand at sourdough! Sourdough doesn’t require any traditional yeast to rise (ideal right now!) as it uses a wildly fermented starter to rise. You can either make a starter yourself or simply just buy/obtain a mature one from somewhere (your local bakeries might be giving some out or you can buy one online). I recommend buying one - there’s plenty to learn about making sourdough without needing to worry whether your sourdough starter is mature or working properly.
With your starter in hand, start baking some loaves and testing out some recipes! There’s quite a bit of technique involved, but like many things in life, making sourdough is a learnable skill. Don’t be discouraged if your first loaf comes out somewhat flat or your crumb lacks those perfect air pockets - your loaves will progressively get better as you practice making them and hone in on your technique!
Here’s a guide to get started. Bonus: you can use sourdough starter discard to make a variety of other things like pancakes, waffles, babka, scones, cinnamon rolls, pizza dough, crackers, etc.!
I hope this inspires you to cook something brand new, even if it’s not one of the dishes I suggested! After all, this list is far from exhaustive and it’s just meant to inspire some ideas - so run wild! I’d love to hear how your new cooking project goes - drop a comment below or tag me on Instagram (@teostinykitchen)!