I hate it when recipes say “under 30 minutes” to prepare but it ends up taking an hour. This happened to me last night. Again.

I like to try new recipes, and that’s why I mantain this site. To make well-loved family favourite meals plant-based, and to inspire myself and others to try new dishes. But it’s not being made easy by the many cooking books and online recipes out there.

Most of my favourite recipes are on this site already. And I come back to them on a weekly basis. But there are a few that aren’t on here yet. Relatively recent dishes that have became a family favourite.

The reason they’re not on the site just yet is because I want to make sure I know and understand the recipe, and that I write it in a way that is (hopefully) accessible to anyone new to the dish. This takes time.

Last night’s experience was the complete opposite of my idea of accessibility.

Total cooking time

First things first, all the recipes on More Than Broccoli include the total time you’ll be spending in the kitchen. That includes preparation, cooking and any oven time if applicable. Sure, when a dish is in the oven you’re likely to be doing other things, but you’re still waiting for the food to be cooked so it’s included. And you’ll likely be cleaning up the kitchen anyway during this time so you’re not out of the woods yet.

Last night’s recipe’s time estimations did not include any preparation time. So, yes, the recipe could perhaps have been done in 30 minutes if you had all vegetables cut and ready to go. But who has that? It’s not realistic.

Sure, I get my timings off sometimes in my recipes. I remember my mum told me she spent way longer cutting a butternut squash for the pumpkin mash than the recipe says, mainly due to her inexperience with this vegetable. But at least she knew she had to cut it as part of the preparation rather than being caught out when getting started. And she got better and faster at it..

Respect carrots (and onions)

Another thing I noticed in at least three recipes I’ve been testing recently is how carrots are treated. Spoiler alert: they do not cook in 3 minutes. And, no, you can’t just saute them for 3 minutes and hope they will magically get tender later on. Unless you put them in the oven, it’s just not going to happen. Carrots need more time. I wish recipes would stop saying to saute onions and only then add carrot for a few minutes. It doesn’t work. Similarly, sauteing onions for just 3 minutes doesn’t work either.

Tell me which spices to use

And, finally, the general “add seasoning” and “season well”. Now I also tend say to “season” a dish, but I always mention which spices to use.

I know recipes usually mean to season with salt and pepper, but it doesn’t have to be, does it? I’ve started adding chili flakes or smoked paprika to my general seasoning. But that doesn’t work for every dish.

Tell me which spices to use. Don’t be lazy.

All of this is just to say that I do really value the way I write my recipes. And I hope you do too.