Picture by Rey Lopez for The Washington Post
A common way to start building flavor in a recipe is with slicing and browning onions. But that takes time - at least 10 minutes, and sometimes longer - when you have precious little of it to get dinner on the table.
Cookbook author Ali Rosen knew there had to be another way to achieve the umami that cooked onions add without spending as much time in the kitchen. "If you put anchovy paste into your tomato sauce instead of caramelized onions, you’re going to get a similar depth of flavor,” she said. That’s the type of clever shortcut you can find throughout her latest cookbook, "15 Minute Meals” (Mango Publishing, 2023).
The idea was born out of the coronavirus pandemic. "I was cooking three meals a day for my whole family, and I just was so tired,” Rosen said over the phone from her apartment in New York City. Even if you’re able to keep your meal prep to 30 minutes, as a number of cookbooks and a popular television show of yore promote, that time still adds up. So as a joke, Rosen started hosting Instagram Lives with her son, Guy, to prepare lunch in a shorter time frame - and the rest is history.
"There wasn’t a book that tackled how to really use shortcuts in a way that got dinner on the table start to finish in 15 minutes,” Rosen said, so she took up the task herself. "The truth of the matter is that sometimes a 15-minute recipe is the only thing stopping us from eating ice cream for dinner again,” she wrote in the book’s opening chapter. (I can certainly relate.)
Much of her advice for saving time in the kitchen starts with grocery shopping.
"Ground meat and frozen vegetables are two of my go-to things, because they’re both still high-quality, but just presented to you in a way that makes them faster,” Rosen said. Other quick-cooking proteins she enjoys are thinner cuts of fish and shrimp. With frozen vegetables, not only are they picked and flash-frozen at the peak of their freshness - meaning they can be better-tasting than the head of broccoli that’s been at the back of the grocery store shelf for a few days and, often, in your fridge for a couple more - they are also fully prepped, saving you from having to do any knife work. "I think that we sort of live and die by these things that we grew up with, and the idea that the vegetables that you got out of the freezer section were a lower-quality vegetable is something we were all raised with. But it’s not true anymore.” The same can be said for canned and jarred produce and tinned seafood.
There are also a slew of flavor-packed ingredients where the manufacturers have put in the time for you. Some of Rosen’s favorites are miso, soy sauce and harissa. Though these may once have been considered specialty products, times have changed. (For her first cookbook that published in 2018, there was a conversation with her publisher about whether she could even include sriracha in recipes, which seems silly in hindsight.) Even if you don’t have access to a grocery store that carries these items, you can order them online to be delivered to your front door. "We live in this era where ingredients are accessible to us in a way that they have never been before.”
Which brings us to fried rice, a meal that truly can be made in 15 minutes, and for Rosen is "really one of my go-tos.” In her book, she shares a version featuring shrimp, garlic powder, ginger and sriracha. As you are spending such a short time in the kitchen, her recipes are designed to use almost all of it by putting the typical idea of mise en place to the side. Instead, she instructs you to grate fresh ginger and chop scallions while the shrimp are cooking for this meal.
As with fried rice in general, "it’s very swappable,” she said. Throw in whatever vegetable you want in place of the peas. Any cooked grain can be used instead of white rice. No shrimp? Ground meat would work just fine. "I think the flavor of the ginger and the sriracha really pulls everything together, whatever you’re using, so don’t be afraid to let it be your fridge trash pile.”
Does Rosen think you should take these shortcuts all the time? No. If you have the time to caramelize onions or make a pot roast, then by all means, go for it. But if you don’t, that’s okay, too.
"We sort of punish ourselves into believing that we’re supposed to be the best version of ourselves every single day rather than take the shortcuts that at this point are really good options,” she said. "So give yourself the permission to take those options.”
Garlicky Shrimp Fried Rice
Total time: 15 minutes
Serves 4 (makes about 6 1/2 cups)
Dinner in 15 minutes sounds like a dream, but this shrimp fried rice flavored with loads of garlic powder turns that into a reality. To help keep this recipe within that time frame, grate the ginger, chop the spring onions or scallions, and juice the lemons while your skillet heats up and the shrimp are cooking. Day-old rice is always best for fried rice, so this is a great way to use up any leftover grains from a previous meal.
Storage note: Refrigerate for up to 3 days.
INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound small or medium (41/60-count) shrimp, peeled, deveined and tails removed
1 tablespoon garlic powder, divided
Fine salt
8 spring onions or scallions, chopped
1 cup frozen peas
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
2 lemons, juiced, divided
4 cups cooked white rice, preferably day-old
2 teaspoons sriracha
DIRECTIONS
In a large skillet over medium-high heat, heat the oil until shimmering. Pat the shrimp dry. Add the shrimp and 1 1/2 teaspoons of garlic powder to the skillet; season lightly with salt and cook, stirring once halfway through, until the shrimp are almost fully opaque, 3 to 4 minutes.
Add the spring onions or scallions, peas, ginger, half the lemon juice, and the remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons of garlic powder and cook until the shrimp is fully opaque, 1 minute.
Add the rice, sriracha and remaining lemon juice and cook, stirring, until the rice is hot, about 1 minute. Taste, and season with additional salt as desired. Serve hot.
Substitutions:
For peas, use corn, cut green beans or other frozen vegetables.
Instead of white rice, use brown rice, farro or barley.
Instead of sriracha, use chili-garlic sauce.
Nutritional Facts per serving (1 1/2 heaping cups) | Calories: 370; Fat: 5 g; Saturated Fat: 1 g; Carbohydrates: 57 g; Sodium: 946 mg; Cholesterol:143 mg; Protein: 23 g; Fiber: 3 g; Sugar: 4 g
This analysis is an estimate based on available ingredients and this preparation. It should not substitute for a dietitian’s or nutritionist’s advice.
Adapted from "15 Minute Meals” by Ali Rosen (Mango Publishing, 2023).
