One of the biggest things we can do for our health, outside of exercising, is feeding ourselves well. To that end, all of us need to learn to cook. It’s like brushing your teeth. Nobody asks you if you like it or are good at it. We just accept it has to get done. I am not talking complicated recipes or ‘fancy’ stuff, just basic, good tasting, fool-proof food.

So how do you start? I spent months looking for the best way to learn cooking skills. My criteria were that it had to be accessible on my time, reasonably priced (I am looking at you well known cooking store in the mall with your $60 for an hour classes that teach one dish), cover the basic skills and give me a bunch of go-to recipes that would form a foundation for a healthy diet.
I found the Rouxbe cooking school. Click the link to go directly to their website. Rouxbe is an online cooking school that goes beyond recipes (although it has hundreds of amazing, well tested ones), it teaches you how to cook. For a subscription fee, you can access all their lessons. Where was this when I was a new bride??

Their detailed video lessons get across all the important facts about a skill. Even things I thought I knew how to do, I learned to do better, safer and more efficiently. When you have those kinds of skills, making food becomes fun and fast.

I began as a regular subscribing student, took some classes and was so impressed, I enrolled in the  Plant Based Professional Certification. Now, six months and hundreds of dishes later, I have graduated. What I learned will change the way I cook forever. Education is worth investment. In the end, it will save you money when you cook at home and, if you cook food that encourages health, that dividend is priceless. Go to the site. Take advantage of the free trial and see what you think.

One of my favorite things I learned was how to make my own bouillon base.

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Having paid $5 an 8 oz.  jar for one with oil and sugar, this one recipe has saved me at least $50 in the last few months and hundreds of calories. I use it in most of my dishes as a more flavorful way to salt something. Usually, I double or triple this recipe.  A doubling yields about 1 ¼ quarts. This is a recipe from the Rouxbe cooking school to which I have only added more sundried tomatoes than the original because I like the umami effect they create.

Here is the recipe:

2 celery stalks

1 small celery root

1 small fennel bulb

2 leeks

2-4 shallots

2-4 carrots

¼ bunch cilantro

⅛ bunch flat-leafed parsley

6 sun dried tomatoes

1 cup sea salt

Note: If you have a small food processor (less than 8 or 10 cup capacity), you may need to make this in 2 batches. Each ingredient, if large, should be cut into chunks of 1-2 inch size.

To make the paste, start with the celery root and carrots. Pulse them several times until they start to break down. Then add the fennel, leeks, celery, shallots and garlic; pulse again. Add the sun-dried tomatoes and pulse to blend everything together. Next, add the salt and pulse a few times. Then add the fresh herbs and pulse again. Once everything is well blended and mixed together, you should have a moist, paste-like consistency as you see here.
Place a bit of the paste into a jar and refrigerate so you can use it throughout the week. Place the remaining paste into a container (I use a Mason Jar as the mix doesn’t freeze so the jar won’t break) and store in the freezer. I like to add a date on the jar so I can keep track. The salt keeps it from freezing solid, so whenever you need a bit, you can just scoop it out. Alternatively, the paste can be canned.
To prepare the bouillon, measure 1 tablespoon per 1 cup of hot water. Taste and adjust to your liking. This bouillon can be used in soups, sauces, stews, risotto or grains. Basically, anywhere you want to add a bit more flavor. Just remember that it is quite salty, so keep that in mind when you are seasoning the rest of the dish.