Big dreams, small spaces
How to cook great food in a tiny, unforgiving kitchen.
It’s no secret. I have a tiny kitchen.
But, I’ve gotten pretty used to cooking in a restricted space after many years in NYC! And if you’re only cooking for one person, you don’t really need a huge space anyway. It can definitely be a struggle sometimes—when I was first adapting to this kitchen, I kept forgetting how close the oven area was to my counter, and I tapped my arm against my hot sheet pan more times than I care to admit. But eventually, with practice and with a few methods I’ve detailed below, you can really get used to your small space, where there is a place for everything and everything has its place (including your arms and legs).
Maybe you don’t have a small kitchen, and all this is just kind of useless for you. In that case, skip to the end, where I’ve compiled some one-pan recipes that are good for any sized space! I’m a big fan of limiting clean-up and speeding up the process by creating recipes that only require one pot or pan.
Some tips for cooking in a small space:
Utilize allll your cupboard space. Shove everything you can in there when you’re not using it!
Similarly, put as much in your fridge as you can. It saves counter space, and prevents bugs!
Create a space outside your kitchen for storage. You can store your bigger items like skillets, big blenders, Tupperware, mixing bowls, bulk spices, etc. In my old apartment, I used my makeshift “closet.” (yeah, I also had no closets. We love New York.) In my current apartment, I use a standing pantry. When I need something from there, it’s just a few steps away, but when I don’t, it’s like those giant kitchen items don’t even exist!
Store equipment in your oven. Sheet pans can live in there, obviously, but you can also leave your most-used pans and your heavy pots in the oven for easy retrieval. Just make sure to always check what’s in there before pre-heating!
Get smaller versions of big equipment. Get a mini food processor instead of a normal sized one, or an immersion blender; get some smaller mixing bowls; get a smaller colander; get mini spatulas (sooo cute!!) for stir fries or mixing ingredients. Your equipment will take up way less storage and counter space. And, when you’re cooking for one, you’re more likely to use an immersion blender than an enormous food processor anyway.
Section off your kitchen space. What I mean by that is, keep all your spices in one place, all your pots and pans in another, and all your cooking utensils together. Seems obvious, but it really helps with convenience when you’re in the midst of cooking, so you don’t have to scrounge around for your small-sized spatula right next to a hot burner.
Use your freezer to its fullest. Not only will it preserve things like coffee, meats, and tofu longer (which is key for one person), but storing flour in the freezer prevents those scary little bugs from getting in, and frees up cupboard space for other things.
Embrace the one-pan recipes. You can achieve a lot more in a single pot or pan than you might expect! It’s an opportunity to get really creative! I’ve compiled a bunch of examples below.
Clean as you go. Sam Sifton recently in one of his newsletters said there are two kinds of home cooks: Chaos Muppets (cook everything, then clean up at the end), and Order Muppets (the clean-as-you-go types). I very much used to be the former. But then I realized that once I finished eating, the last thing I wanted to do was wash a pile of dishes and collect potato peelings. So I’m trying to get myself to migrate towards the Order Muppets camp. As you’re chopping, you can get a plastic bag to collect all the extras (onion wrappings, peels, stickers) and then toss it all in the trash when you’re done! You can also take simmering opportunities to clean utensils or your cutting board.
Don’t move too much when you’re cooking. I know this sounds silly, but I’ve really mastered the stand-and-pivot style of cooking which is perfect for a small space. Try and put most things (spices, cooking utensils, cutting boards) within arms reach. If you move too much, you WILL forget your sheet pan is sitting on your stove and you WILL burn yourself! It is a fact!!
Hopefully these tips are helpful, or at least get you thinking differently about your own kitchen space! We spend a lot of time in there (or, at least, I do) so we might as well make it as nice and as easy to navigate as possible.
Below are some one-pan or one-pot recipes that I like to make. No extra bowls, no blenders, no unnecessary cleaning. They’re great for weeknight meals, easy clean-up, and space-saving! (One note… I don’t usually count a pot of pasta as its own piece of equipment in these recipes! That pot requires really minimal clean-up, and you can stick it on the back burner and just let it do its thing, so to me, it doesn’t really count.)
As always, these recipes also live in the “Recipe Archive” tab at the top of my page. Let me know if you make any of them!!
Tofu noodle stir-fry
Time: 30 mins | Difficulty: 1/5 | Recommendation: Quick weeknight dinner
Noodle stir-fries are one of the first things I taught myself to make. It’s one of the most forgiving dishes, and it’s a great way to experiment with different flavors and ingredients while also cleaning out your fridge. I boil the noodles separately, then add them to the pan at the end, to get all the flavors to meld together! You can really add anything you want, and you can sub out chicken, or shrimp, or beef strips for tofu here—this is a basic template of one that I make often, and you can riff off of it! Also, the method I describe for tofu is a really great way to cook tofu in general, and get it nice and crispy on the outside. Tip: press down on the noodles when they’re in the hot pan—they’ll release a lot of their water, making some bits kind of crispy. It adds a really nice texture!
Ingredients:
2 thick slices of a tofu block, pressed
1 carrot, sliced into matchsticks
Maitake mushrooms, sliced
Half a red bell pepper, sliced into 1 inch sticks (check out what to do with the other half here!)
Half a white onion, sliced
Scallions
1 packet of curly noodles
Soy sauce
Sesame oil
Rice vinegar
Olive oil
Method:
Set a pot of water to boil. When it’s ready, add in the noodles. Drain when done. (Do all the other stuff while the noodles are boiling!
Heat some olive oil in a pan. When it’s hot (hover your hand above the pan to tell), place the tofu slabs on the pan. Add salt and pepper to the tops.
Flip the tofu when the pan-side is golden brown, about 5 minutes later. Salt and pepper the top while the other side cooks. Set aside when both sides are crispy and golden. On your cutting board, chop the slices into six little squares each.
Add more olive oil to the pan, then add in your onions, carrots, and peppers. Sauté over high heat. When they’ve gotten a nice char, add in the maitakes.
Put the tofu back in the pan. Add salt (only a tiny bit, you’ll get some from the soy sauce too), pepper, ginger powder, chili flakes.
When everything is cooked well, add in the drained noodles. Stir it all around on the high heat.
Sprinkle in a good amount of soy sauce, some sesame oil, and a touch of rice vinegar. (If you want some nuttiness, add in some peanut butter now! Or you could get some sweetness by adding in oyster sauce or tamarind sauce!) Stir it all around well, pressing down on the noodles so the moisture escapes.
Plop it all in a bowl and add scallions on top!
Scrambled eggs with peanut cucumbers
Time: 20 mins | Difficulty: 1/5 | Recommendation: Breakfast
When I first moved to the city, my roommate had a rice cooker, and my Saturday routine was to wake up, make coffee, and set some rice to cook. I’d have enough for a few meals throughout the week, and would usually make something with the fresh rice in the morning. (Honestly, I haven’t thought about that routine in a while—I feel like I should bring it back??) Anyway, this is a really delicious recipe for scrambled eggs with some warm, peanut-butter-cucumbers that’s all topped over some rice. The peanut sauce from the cucumbers sinks into the rice and it gets all warm and gooey, and paired with the eggs and basil…it’s a chef’s kiss breakfast dish. Add some yogurt on the side for freshness. I consider this a one-pan dish because you could make it even if you had leftover rice, or you can skip the rice entirely and just double the amount of eggs! I’m just a big fan of carbs…
Ingredients:
Half an onion, chopped
1 cucumber, chopped into little 1/4 inch chunks
Peanut butter
Soy sauce
1 egg
Rice
Cumin seeds
Ginger, chopped
Cardamom pods
Yogurt
Chopped basil (optional)
Method:
Prep the rice (if you’re not using leftovers).
To a pan, add butter, the cumin seeds, the cardamom, and the ginger. Coat the spices in the butter. Then add the onions.
When the onions are softening, add in the cucumber chunks and stir them around.
Sprinkle on some soy sauce and stir around. Then add a couple dollops of peanut butter right into the pan and stir it all, until it turns into a kind of smooth glaze. (Peanut butter has a lot of oil in it, so this makes sense when you think about it!!)
Add pepper to taste, and if you want it sweeter, add a touch of sugar. Add the cucumber situation to the rice.
Crack an egg directly into the same pan (embrace any residue or leftover cumin seeds stuck in there) and scramble it around. I’m not a fan of fluffy eggs, so this method is a really easy way to save washing-up and also get pretty well-done scrambled eggs. Add salt and pepper.
Top the rice and cucumbers with the eggs, then add the basil on top. Put a dollop of yogurt on the side. And enjoy!
Other one-pan recipes on the site:
Mushroom carbonara
Okay, this does use one extra bowl to mix the egg and parmesan. But you can wash that and re-use it right away as your eating bowl!
Meat sauce
Just add and add and add, all in one pot!
French Onion Soup
Really, most of my soup recipes are one-pot recipes, as most soups in general are. So go nuts!
New recipes on my site
Below is a collection of some of the new recipes I’ve added to my site! You can get the full recipe by clicking on the title, or check them all out in the Recipe Archive tab.
Vegetarian Scallops in leek cream sauce
Time: 30 mins | Difficulty: 2/5 | Recommendation: Weeknight dinner
I’m not a fan of fish or seafood, so when I find a seafood recipe that I can make vegetarian, I jump at the opportunity. My mom used to make this recipe all the time with normal scallops, and I would just sneak tastes of the sauce because it was SO GOOD. I fell in love with leeks at a young age because of this sauce. These “scallops” are actually king oyster mushroom slices—they have that soft, slightly rubbery texture you get from scallops, and also soak up tons of butter and sauce. They’re a great substitute, but they’re also perfect as their own ingredient! (By the way, this is a one-pan recipe too!!)
Yorkshire Puddings
Time: 1 hr | Difficulty: 3/5 | Recommendation: Sunday dinner or brunch
Yorkshire puds are so delicious! They puff up beautifully in a super hot oven, so that you get these fluffy pastries with little openings in the middle that can be stuffed with potatoes, mushrooms, gravy, leeks, sausage, eggs…and so much more. They’re great if you want a Sunday dinner project, or for a slow weekend brunch situation. And, you can either make a bunch for a crowd with all the fillings spread around, or you can make just a few for yourself, and have a big feast for one! The recipe below makes two puddings, which, depending on how many sides you make, is probably perfect for one person. Or, scale up the batter by two, and you might even have some for leftovers—you can just warm them up in the microwave the next day, and they retain all their fluffiness!
Spinach and carrot fritters with a tamarind cream cheese dip
Time: 1 hr | Difficulty: 2/5 | Recommendation: Weekday lunch or dinner
I got this batch of carrots from the market and they’ve been the most endless batch of carrots I’ve ever had. Finally I used them up in this recipe that I adapted from an NYT Cooking recipe for carrot latkes! These are light, crispy, and spicy, made with chickpea flour and a lot of turmeric. Don’t be tempted to flatten these too much in the pan, otherwise they’ll crumble. On the side, I made a tamarind cream cheese dip. I know, that might sound weird, but I promise the tangy cream cheese and the sweet tamarind go great together! I don’t know, I thought like carrots…carrot cake…cream cheese frosting…it made sense to me at least! The recipe below makes about 8-10 fritters.
Mushroom tart
Time: 1 hr | Difficulty: 2/5 | Recommendation: Weeknight meal
This. Tart. Has. EVERYTHING. Puff pastry, cheese, mustard, onions, crispy mushrooms, soft mushrooms, earthy mushrooms, so many mushrooms!! It’s really easy, but does use both a pan and your oven, so be aware of that. I used frozen puff pastry, because it’s delicious and perfect and easy. I recommend using as many mushrooms as you can, and HIGHLY recommend using the very perfect maitake mushroom. I used three different kinds here, and they each brought different flavors and textures to each bite. Also, I wash my mushrooms, because I trust no one and they come from dirt. In the world of real cooking, you’re supposed to just brush them off, or apparently they don’t get crispy, but if you cook them on high enough heat, use enough butter, and press them down enough, they WILL get crispy!! (Sorry, I don’t want to eat a bug!!)